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Eighteen-year-old Anna bears the marks of a childhood tragedy that left her motherless, scarred, and lame. Hidden within the household of her father, Joseph of Arimathea, a wealthy councilman of the Sanhedrin, her days are measured in herb gardens and healing tinctures, in the steady work of hands trained to help others, and in the quiet safety of a world made small.
Then Andrew of Bethsaida arrives at her father’s gate with urgent business for Joseph and talk of a teacher who calls ordinary people to extraordinary purpose. A fisherman turned disciple, Andrew follows the rabbi Jesus with a conviction that unsettles every long-held expectation—including Anna’s own.
When Andrew’s kindness cracks open the door to a larger world, Anna faces an impossible remain in the safety of her father’s estate or risk everything for the possibility of healing, love, and a life she never dared imagine.
Set against the dusty roads and fishing villages of first-century Judea, where miracles unfold and mercy walks among the broken, Anna of Arimathea opens The Arimathea Chronicles—a richly imagined tale of faith, first love, and redemption in the footsteps of the Messiah.
As I continue to challenge myself to read outside my preferred genres, I picked up another biblical fiction novel to test the waters.
This book was 50/50 for me. While the story is sweet and the author writes beautiful descriptions, the story is buried under pages of description (at one point she takes an entire page to describe one person). I understand the need to create the setting, especially in historical novels, but the story got bogged down in the details. This leaned more heavily toward literary fiction than historical fiction, so the writing didn’t fully match my expectations in that way. Anna’s life did intrigue me, though, and I found myself wanting to know what happened to her.
There was also a theological issue that jumped out at me–the book implies that Jesus is okay with lying for the sake of protecting one’s self and family. I can’t see in Scripture where that’s supported. Maybe that’s not what the author meant, but that’s how I interpreted that scene, which isn’t something that aligns with the Bible.
Overall, I liked reading Anna’s story, but it got lost in the description. I’d also hesitate to recommend this to non-Christians, as the lying episode could lead them to the wrong biblical conclusion. 2.5 stars for me.
Rated PG.
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