Love Amid the Ashes

Title: Love Amid the Ashes
Author: Mesu Andrews
Publisher: Revell
Pages: 411
ISBN: 978-0-8007-3407-7

Synopsis: When her beloved grandfather Isaac dies, Dinah must follow his final command: travel to Job's household to marry his son. After Job's world comes crashing down, Dinah finds herself drawn to this great man brought low. What will she risk to fight for his survival?

This book took me be surprise, Love Amid the Ashes is a story about Dinah, the only daughter of Jacob. We don't know much about her life, other then a horrific time in her life that was presented in the book of Genesis, when she was taken to be married without her families knowledge, then her brothers charging the palace where she slept with her husband and murdering all the men as they sleep, then taking her back to her families tent. After that, we don't hear about Dinah again.

Many books later we come to the book of Job. Job suffered greatly. Lost everything that was dear to him, but never lost his faith in God and was later restored and blessed more then he ever was before he was afflicted. Job, is a powerful story to me and that is what drew me to this book, plus the idea that these two Biblical characters livid during the same time. That was not something I wouldn't have thought of. So, I went on the hunt, looking up and researching to see if this was possible....and it is. Score one for Mesu Andrews on sending me to research! Love that!

Back to the story. Dinah is now thirty-five years old and her grandfather Isaac has died. His final command was that she should be married to Job's oldest son. Dinah is broken. The only knowledge she has of men is dark and painful. She hasn't seen love from her family since her brothers slaughtered a town. Her name is her curse and she hides from everyone who enters the camp. People only know her as a murderer.

Job comes to the camp with his Great Grandfather Esau to help bury Issac. Job is a faithful and honorable man and can see that Dinah is not what the rumors make her out to be. He takes her under his wing and brings her back to his land to marry his son, only to watch his life fall around him the night he returns.

Hope and faith are the strong points of this story. For Mesu Andrews debut book, it was a success. A lot of work went into the research of this book and it shows. It's an interesting twist to the two stories we usually look at separately.  
Too read! 4 1/2 out of 5.