top of page
Jenna Van Mourik

The Hidden Prince by Tessa Afshar (Book Review)


Mystery, intrigue, tragedy, and redemption — The Hidden Prince is another sweeping adventure in the Old Testament world of Daniel from Tessa Afshar!


The beloved daughter of Jewish captives in Babylon, Keren is sold into Daniel’s household to help her family survive. She becomes Daniel’s most trusted scribe, while taking lessons and swordsmanship training alongside Daniel’s sons and their best friend, Jared.
But after a tragic accident changes the course of her life, Keren finds herself in a foreign country, charged with a mysterious task: teaching a shepherd boy how to become a lord. When she overhears whispers that hint at his true identity, she realizes she must protect him from the schemes of a bloodthirsty king.
Jared cannot forgive Keren. Still, he finds himself traveling over mountains to fetch her back to the safety of home. When he discovers the secret identity of Keren’s pupil, Jared knows he must help protect him. Love battles bitterness as they flee from the king’s agents, trying to save the boy who could one day deliver their people from captivity.

Keren and Jared are captives—to each other, to their situations, and to their hearts—but Tessa Afshar's beautiful writing takes them on a transformative journey that yet again surprised me in more ways than one. As always, the characters are more than well-rounded. The plot is everything I could ever want it to be, from the biggest twists and turns, and all the way down to the tiniest details in the narrative.


You would think that by now I would have come to expect the kinds of plot twists, high-stakes exchanges, and life-changing redemptive tales Afshar pens, but even when I think I know what to expect, I am still caught off guard by the beauty of it all. That is what makes Tessa Afshar's writing and The Hidden Prince so special!


When I start to feel like things can't get worse for the characters in the story, they do, and when I begin to worry that there's no possible space for a happy ending, there is. That's the power of God, isn't it? Even though the story of Keren and Jared is fictional, the promises of God through His son and our savior Jesus Christ are as real as ever, and poignantly and powerfully portrayed in this novel. From the moment I opened the book and began to read, I lost myself in the story, and by the end, I found even more reminders to hold on to the hope of God's promises, stand firm in the belief of His faithfulness, and trust that He always has a plan.


Get your copy of The Hidden Prince, available NOW at this link.


"I turned in a slow circle and looked around me, absorbing not so much the undeniable beauty of the place but its impossibility. A garden in an arid land. Green hills on a rooftop. Water flowing up instead of down. Flowers blooming where nothing but beams and bricks should lay. This was God's promise. No arid land could stay his hand. A garden awaited, even for a captive like me." — Tessa Afshar, The Hidden Prince

*I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher. All opinions are my own.


 


P.S. - If you're interested in joining my online book club Biblical Fiction Buffs, now is the perfect time! Our quarterly Instagram discussion group is going to be meeting for a live discussion on The Hidden Prince at the end of the month. Hope you'll join us!

0 comments

Recent Posts

See All

Comments


bottom of page