At the onset, I was not too thrilled to begin A Reluctant Queen due to the overwhelming market there is for the fictional retelling of Esther in recent years. Insofar as plot goes, it is the basic storyline you will read from the Bible, with much more embellishment to turn a short biblical telling into a novel. It should be noted, as the author points out herself, that she has taken certain liberties with the originally story and changed key details, starting with making the King Xerxes who is the husband of Esther in the biblical version, and placing him as the brother of the King who Esther instead marries. This was disappointing from the outset. The other main characters appear to remain in their proper roles, however, though again liberties are taken. The 2 men who tried to kill the king was done in a way that again, moves away from the truthful biblical account.
All of that being said, once I was able to set aside this as being a retelling of the story of Esther and view it more as a loosely based historical piece of fiction, I was able to read it with a more relaxed opinion. The detail given to the culture is superb, and opened my eyes to the time in which Esther did live. It was slow to get moving, and I struggled to really get involved and enjoy the book until midway through. However, I did appreciate the way the author weaved the story of Esther and some of the details in and gave them a different light. I also appreciated seeing the struggle Esther dealt with in knowing all along she was a Jew, while her husband did not.
In the end, it was a fairly enjoyable read, but if you prefer books that base themselves on biblical stories to be more accurate, I’m afraid you will be disappointed.
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