Delilah


I've truly been enjoying the Dangerous Beauty series by Angela Hunt (previous titles included Esther: Royal Beauty and Bathsheba: Reluctant Beauty). The third and final book in Hunt's Dangerous Beauty series is Delilah: Treacherous Beauty. These books are all historical recreations, and Angela does her best to stay true to the biblical account while fleshing out the story enough to write a novel based on it. I really love biblical historical fiction, and this series did not disappoint. I have appreciated her ability to not be so harsh on the women of these stories, as some people are, but to show them as human, not evil. Delilah: Treacherous Beauty has, like the previous two books, an absolutely stunning cover. The story is told alternating from two viewpoints: Delilah's and Samson's. The back cover reads:

"Life is not easy in Philistia, especially not for a woman and child alone. When beautiful, wounded Delilah finds herself begging for food to survive, she resolves that she will find a way to defeat all the men who have taken advantage of her. She will overcome the roadblocks life has set before her, and she will find riches and victory for herself.

When she meets a legendary man called Samson, she senses that in him lies the means for her victory. By winning, seducing, and betraying the hero of the Hebrews, she will attain a position of national prominence. After all, she is beautiful, she is charming, and she is smart. No man, not even a supernaturally gifted strongman, can best her in a war of wits."

Although I've enjoyed the entire series, unfortunately Delilah was my least favorite in the series. Esther and Bathsheba were both on my "favorite books of all time" list, but I just had trouble mustering up much sympathy for Delilah, even though Angela tried to portray her as sympathetically as possible in light of the Bible story she had to work with. Even with this effort, though, I had a lot of trouble feeling sorry for her. As such, I just really couldn't connect with her character on a deep enough level to make this book excellent for me. However, don't get me wrong - I did enjoy the book itself. It was fast-paced and well-written, and it kept me turning the pages. However, I kept wanting to shake Delilah and make her act right! We all know how this story ends, but I kept hoping somehow it would end differently, even though I knew it wouldn't. I felt sorry for Samson and the ending was extremely sad. All in all, this was a good finish to the Dangerous Beauty series and I do recommend the entire series. Definitely check it out if you enjoy biblical fiction, like I do.

I received a copy of this book from Bethany House in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

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