As a long time fan of the kings and queens stories in the Bible, I was very excited to read this book. Add on the fact that Isaiah is one of my favorite prophets and that I adore the references to Hephzivah ("my delight is in her", which is also my Hebrew name), I was hooked on this book from the start. Isaiah's daughter Ishma (Desolation) is renamed Hephzivah and eventually marries King Hezekiah, King of Judah. There is much drama in the book as human sacrifice is tackled. Hezekiah is actually the second born of King Ahaz. The only reason he becomes king is because his father sacrifices Bocheru (Ahaz's firstborn son and Hezekiah's brother) to a pagan idol. Hephzivah has her own family issues, as well. She is not daughter to Isaiah by blood. Rather, she is an orphaned refugee whose parents were killed in a war when she was barely five years old. The story gets even more suspenseful when an Assyrian army invades Jerusalem and the royal Judean family struggles with infertility. I could go on and on about this book. I encourage readers to find out for themselves how great of a read this is. Prophecies from the book of Isaiah will come to life as readers understand how they could have had real meaning in the physical time period of which Isaiah lived in. Don't just study the Bible. Live the Bible and understand what the characters back then had to go through.
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