I love reading biblical fiction and this author is talented in telling a story.

They do a very good job of capturing the life of a king with the love for God, but also the draw to women to obtain more peace, power and lands.

Her skill weaves a tale of the confusing facts of polygamy, and its downfalls, even when you think it is sort of ok. I loved Solomon, and yet, I didn’t like him at all. He was the hero that you wanted to do the right thing, but felt like he kept going back to his desire for power, but had a good heart in it all.

If you want to understand more about this unique king that married, what seems like half the world’s princesses, pick this book up. It is fascinating with a lot of stories in it.

This book changed my perspective on the Bible book, Song of Solomon. For some reason I guess I always pictured the same woman throughout the entire book. The author did her homework and has historical significance built into the story line. I appreciated how much scripture was used on the actual pages. Very intriguing and well written.

If you enjoy reading Biblical fiction, Jill Eileen Smith offers a number of wonderful books in this category. The Heart of a King did not disappoint! The book focused on Solomon, one of the most intriguing men in the Bible, in my opinion. He was gifted with great wisdom, which he used to build the temple, bring peace and prosperity to the nation of Israel, and write Proverbs, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, and some of the Psalms. However, Solomon also had his weaknesses, and one of them was women. He was married to hundreds of women, some of them foreign women who worshiped other gods, and this was his downfall.

The Heart of King focused on some of the women in Solomon’s life, including his first wife, Naamah, Abishag (who was David’s final wife), Siti (the daughter of Pharoah), and the Queen of Sheba. The point of view shifted to each of these women for part of the book, and sometimes to Solomon himself. My favorite part was the part about the Queen of Sheba. While this is a fictional account, I always wondered about the interaction between these two monarchs, because the Queen of Sheba seemed to be one who would be the closest to matching Solomon’s intellect.

It also really struck me that despite how wealthy and wise Solomon was, and despite his many brides, in the end, he found it all to be meaningless. (Read Ecclesiastes in the Bible for more about that.) As we strive today, over a thousand years later, for wealth, knowledge, and power, this is a valid lesson that we can still take to heart today. Without God, it is all meaningless.

If you enjoy Biblical fiction, and find Solomon to be as interesting as I do, this is the book for you!

This book is about King Solomon and his wives. King Solomon was given the gift of wisdom by God. He used his wisdom to rule wisely, and teach others. The book focuses on 4 of his wives even though he had many. He had hundreds of wives and hundreds of concubines. His favorite wife was the Queen of Sheba. However, he had to leave her go back to her own country to rule. Solomon continued to marry for political reasons even though God had told him not to in his laws. He was also not supposed to wed foreign women, because they worshipped other gods. He married them anyway. He believed that his wisdom would allow him to break these rules, because he would not worship any other gods. However, that was his downfall in the end. This book is an excellent fictionalized version of the story of King Solomon. I love how history was brought to life.

The Heart of a King
By Jill Eileen Smith
Looking back to the old testament, this book draws inspiration from King Solomon and his many wife’s. Solomon’s wisdom was great but as we are all human his fall was the wife’s he accepted and chose.
I enjoyed this book. Of course, this is a fictional tale but it is a fictional retelling of a non-fictitious character. It is often hard to imagine biblical events being real but they were and stories like this open your imagination to the culture and time of these people we read of. Biblical fiction brings to life the humanity of the people God used so long ago and allows one to imagine the struggles that were faced in concurrence with the lives we live in the present.
I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion, which I’ve shared here.

The Heart of a King
The Loves of Solomon
by Jill Eileen Smith
Revell
Christian
Pub Date 30 Apr 2019




I am reviewing a copy of The Heart of a King through Revell and Netgalley:


If you enjoy novels that whisk you away to another time and another place you will love The Heart of a King a novel that will take you back to the time of King Solomon!



In The Heart of A King you will be transported to Ancient Israel where you meet Solomon as well as four of the women he loved: Naamah the desert princess. Abishag the Shepherdess, Siti the daughter of a Pharaoh and Nicaula the queen of Sheba.



King Solomon was wealthy and wise beyond measure. He had everything he wanted, including a lot of women from a lot of different lands!


I give The Heart of a King five out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

Was Solomon wise in marrying all those women? He thought that was the way to keep peace for his country. Starting with the later years of King David’s life and continuing through most of Solomon’s life, The Heart of a King tells Solomon’s story. Jill Eileen Smith tells the story from Solomon’s point of view – her interpretation of his heart. The story includes 4 named wives – Naamah, Rehoboam’s mother; Abishag, the Shunamite woman who was married to King David; Siti, the name the author gave to the wife who was the daughter of a pharaoh; and Nicaula the Queen of Sheba. Did these wives draw Solomon away from Adonai or did he draw them to the true God?

It has been a while since I read any Biblical fiction. Reading The Heart is a King reminded me of one of the things I enjoy about the genre. As I read Biblical fiction I find myself opening my Bible to “fact check” the author or discussing topics covered in the book with either my daughter or my husband, both of whom have more knowledge of extra-Biblical texts than I do. While not everything Jill Eileen Smith wrote in the book is taken directly from scripture, I found nothing that disagreed with scripture and not anything that was not possible based on what I learned about the history of the time. I appreciate authors who strive to remain true to a time period or historical records when they write about a time not our own.

I believe readers will be drawn to Adonai and challenged to view their lives through the lens of Scripture, just as Siti challenged Solomon.

I would not hesitate to place this book in my k-12 Christian school library, although I may limit it to high school only. I highly recommend The Heart of a King to anyone who enjoys Biblical fiction.

I want to thank Jill Eileen Smith and Revell for the complimentary copy of the book. I enjoyed being a member of her Launch Team.

I picked up this book because I’ve been studying about King Solomon in the Bible. Seeing his story from another perspective was interesting as all Biblical fiction is grounded in some truth. I was relieved to see multiple sections of the book included near word-for-word what I’ve read in the Bible. I can’t promise every single thing in The Heart of a King is directly from the Bible, but I know large portions are portrayed accurately.

I found myself increasingly frustrated with Solomon but that is not the fault of the author. I feel she did an exceptional job portraying how Solomon might have felt during those years. You have to consider the laws of Solomon’s time. And his pride. In The Heart of a King, Solomon believes his unbelievable wisdom will keep him from making a bad decision. Just thinking that constitutes a bad decision.

One line repeats through the book: A king’s might is shown by the size of his harem. This, in itself, is where my problem rests. Solomon should have trusted God. Solomon had already been reassured that the land was his so long as he did not stray from God. He should have trusted that even if he refused marriage and did not have a mighty harem, he would have remained king. Again, this was Solomon’s doing, not the whim of the author.

On to the writing. Beautiful descriptions abounded throughout the novel, detailing everything from the land, to the palaces, and even to the clothes of the different wives. The Heart of a King is told from several viewpoints including Solomon and each of the four main wives. My only issue here is, once Solomon married another, we no longer heard the viewpoint of a previous wife.

Although Solomon’s story is one I already know, I was still anxious to see how everything played out in the book. I highly recommend The Heart of a King to all readers but especially fans of Biblical fiction.

I requested a copy of this book from Revell Reads and was provided a copy via NetGalley. I was not required to leave a review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

He had not expected wisdom to need growth or testing for it to flourish. Surprises had come to him as he studied the creatures that crawled along the path and watched the great variety of birds nestled in the trees. He understood them - their structure, the way they were able to take flight, how they breathed whether in water or on land. Every day seemed to provide a new adventure in understanding. He had not realized the weight of wisdom, nor the responsibility that came with such a gift. He had not seen that the pleasure of God rested heavily upon mere men. For love sought understanding. He just did not reason through the cost of both.

The tensions of Solomon's rise to King, to the being the wisest man of all the world, and what may seem contradictory, the husband of many wives. There seems no wisdom in having so many wives.
But as you read, Solomon was also known as a man of peace and having so many wives, he was able to establish peace for the Jewish people by marrying so many young women of different kingdoms.

Even though Solomon had hundreds of wives, the narration focuses on 4. His first wife Naamah. A wife he had taken before he was king. There is a love story between Naamah and Solomon. Their love story may have been the beginning of The Songs of Solomon which never identifies the man and woman that captures their beloved. How each heart is made captive by love and the emotions that love gives. Naamah knows that Solomon may take a few wives but I am sure she succumbed to her feelings of love for Solomon when it became clear that there would be 100's.

The 2nd wife of Solomon was Abishhag which was the name only wife of King David before he died. Her major role to David was of a nurse, however, she was to be young, beautiful and a virgin. In being so, she was also desirable to David's other sons who wished to be the next King. In taking Abishhag as their wife after David's death, they would be given the kingdom. Such a power play, with women being the pawn of men's greed. However, Solomon was the chosen king by God and Abishhag was given to Solomon. There again a love story different from Naamah develops and a different side of Solomon appears.

The 3rd wife was an Egyptian princess whose father captured the Jewish settlement that Solomon desperately wanted. For peace and the settlement he married Siti. She is a strong willed young woman who desired love and not a peace treaty for her father the Pharaoh. Desiring something different, she married Solomon. Their relationship was a banter between faiths. Her questions the God of her husband and remaining true to her worship Idol. Much background is given in this culture of worship and the power play that ensued. It also was a love story as Solomon desired for his wife to know God and his ways but never forcing her to comply.

The last woman is the Queen of Sheba that came from far away hearing the about the wisdom of Solomon. A queen without an heir who also desired love but at what cost. This woman captivated Solomon as he grieved for his mother Bathsheba and she had opened his heart as she searched for Wisdom. Their story is tragic as they both comply to culture.

The book really tackles the contradictions of Solomon's life and the gift of wisdom that was given to him. That power, beauty, money and even love has its limitations as we tackle the greatest question. Why am I here? What was I made for? Knowing the answer to those questions is what gives you hope for today and beyond.

A Special Thank you to Revell and Netgalley for the ARC and the opportunity to post an honest review.

Having recently enjoyed Jill Eileen Smith's nonfiction book When Life Doesn't Match Your Dreams, I was excited to have the chance to review her new release on the loves of King Solomon. This book blends four novellas into one story, choosing to focus on four of the many, many women married to this most wise king.

I was truly impressed with how the author blended Scripture, research, and imagination to flesh out King Solomon. For example, he had to have known the history of his parents, David and Bathsheba, and this story explores how that that cautionary tale may have played into his own pursuit of many wives. It also reflected on how David was not allowed to build the Temple because he was a man of war, while Solomon was called to a reign of peace and that may also have influenced the treaty marriages he undertook.

The first wife portrayed is Naamah, whom the Bible lists as the mother of Solomon's heir Rehoboam. Though Smith does not directly forecast to events that took place after Solomon's death, it was easy to extrapolate how Rehoboam's mindset might have been shaped by Naamah and her experiences in Solomon's court. I realize that's speculation, but it was incredibly well done.

My favorite wife as written here was probably Abishag, the young woman first brought to the palace to tend to King David in his old age. The other two women who are given their own stories here are an Egyptian princess and the queen of Sheba.

I would recommend this story to readers of Biblical fiction, though given that marriage and the marriage relationship have such focus, I wouldn't recommend it for young readers. My only complaint about the story was that I wished we'd heard more from each wife throughout the entire length of the book, but I understand that's not how novellas work, even ones somewhat overlapping and woven together like these. This was my first fiction read by this author and I'd definitely be interested in reading through her previous releases at some point.

I received my copy of the book from the publisher. All thoughts in this review are my own.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. This book is mostly focused on King Solomon and his relationship with God. I do like how the book is parted out by the first half featuring Solomon's first two wives, Naamah and Abishag and the second half with Siti and Nicaula. This allowed me to get to know the women better without being introduced to all of them at the same time.

Of the four women, I thought I had a favorite but it is hard to choose. This is because each woman is different from one another. They each had a purpose and a reason for being in Solomon's life. I do truly believe that at one point Solomon really did love each woman; even, though, he was materialist. HIs reason for marrying each woman was not just for love but for power.

There is a quote that I really loved that happened early on in the book. It is when Naamah is worrying about how she will be enough for Solomon as his wife. Bathsheba tells Naamah "Only God can give us all that we need, Only He can feed the hungriest places in our soul."

A beautifully written story of King Solomon and his wives. This is a fictional book but the way Jill Eileen Smith writes real accounts of the Bible into the story helps the reader understand more about King Solomon and his life. The book shows how his relationship with his wives started. I loved the particular part of him meeting Siti. She worshiped a different God and his questions were of great wisdom giving Siti much to ponder on about her God and Solomon’s God.
The author shows us in her book how compromising can lead to sin and sin can have a snowball effect.
The author does a fabulous job staying with the truth of the Bible but weaves a tale around it to give us a better understanding of what could have been going through Solomons mind and his reaction to things that happened around him. You will be so pulled in that your sure to turn back to your bible just to read about Solomon. I felt like praising God and closer to him just by reading this book.
Was given a complimentary copy by Revel. All opinions are my own .

So I'm a closet history fan especially fictionalized history which is believable. Who hasn't been entranced by the wisest king there ever was in Christendom? Who hasn't heard the judgement where the two women bring a baby to King Solomon claiming to be the mother and his judgement.? In this novel Ms. Smith introduces us the person who was King Solomon with all his vanities and his frailties.
For me it was pretty jarring in the beginning when all he seemed to care about was ascending to his father's throne and becoming a co-regent with the King. While there are mitigating circumstances behind the need he almost seemed selfish and petulant. His first wife he marries and yet keeps at a distance even as she gives him his first two children. He definitely is sensual being attracted to beautiful women as is evidenced by his feelings for his father's wife. Then comes his conversation with God when he asks for wisdom.
I was equally enthralled and repulsed as he uses his wisdom to find the gray in the laws he's sworn to obey so that he can indulge in his desires. I found the story fascinating and yet in many parts was sorry to be reading it because it fundamentally changed the way I had viewed King Solomon.
The author brings alive the times and the characters with her very compelling narrative that is difficult to put aside leaving me with a conflict on how to rate this book.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The more I read biblical fiction, the more I love it. Jill Eileen Smith has managed not only to perfectly blend scripture into her story, but give what I think is a great portrayal of the thoughts and Solomon's wives, as well as Solomon himself. Here is a man who loved the Lord, and yet he made mistakes. While he may have thought they were for good reason, they were still mistakes. Jill Eileen Smith has the ability not only to draw you into the character's minds, but understand the reasoning behind why they do things.

I didn't know much about these four women before reading this (unfortunately I have not read the full novels about them by Smith), so I found myself learning so much. Yes, I understand that it if fiction, however I think there is some truth in how they were portrayed. The thing that surprised me the most was how my feelings of Bathsheba changed after reading this. She was presented in a whole new light, one that I really didn't think of. Yes, I need to read about her in my bible again, and while I do I am going to remember the words that I read here. And then try to piece it all together and learn more about her. I think that's the goal of biblical fiction - to make you want to dive into your bible and learn as much as you can. Jill Eileen Smith makes these characters come to life, and they get into your mind and stay there awhile. Yes we see their love for the Lord, but we also see their failures. We see how they pick themselves up, and try again.

The other neat thing to see in reading this was the references to Song of Solomon. He really was poetic, and seeing that side of him presented here was really neat. The men of today certainly don't talk like this, nor do most of them in contemporary romance novels to be honest, so it was very sweet to read. Don't misunderstand - I know that it was also Solomon's downfall. But let's be real - if you were one of these ladies you can see how easily they could be swayed by Solomon. We read mostly in the bible about his time ruling, and to see this side of him was just so interesting to me.

This novel was a home run for me. It brought the bible to life, and made my longing to dive in deeper that much greater. I look forward to reading more of Smith's novels, and reading them with my bible nearby so I can reference as I'm reading. I can certainly see after reading this why so many people love her books!

I received a complimentary copy of this book. I was not required to write a favorable review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Heart of a King is a collection of four novellas from Jill Nelson Smith’s The Loves of King Solomon series. It tells the stories of Naamah, Siti, Nicaula and Abishag. I loved this book. The details of the book made me feel as though I was right there taken back in time of the Kingdom of Israel in the presence of these admirable women and King Solomon.
I give The Heart of a King five plus stars and highly recommend it for readers who enjoy Biblical Fiction. It most definitely not a book to be missed this summer.
Great read!
I received this book from the publisher. This review is 100% my own honest opinion.

The Heart of a King by Jill Eileen Smith is an intriguing imagining of the life of King Solomon and “the women he loved.”

Although I cannot say I agree with all of the author’s creative licenses, I believe she did a masterful job of weaving a fascinating story of “what might have been” in the life of the wisest man who ever lived.

I enjoyed being able to see, not only through the viewpoints of the different wives, but also through Solomon’s eyes as well.

I appreciated the uniqueness of each woman’s story, and how they intertwined, not only with King Solomon, but also with each other throughout their lives.

I have not yet read the individual Loves of King Solomon books, but I thought this book read well by itself, although I may have received a more “rounded” view of the women had I read them beforehand.

This book was fascinating and unique, and I would recommend it to those who enjoy wonderful Biblical fiction—the story is captivating, and certainly inspires the reader to dive even deeper into the real world of the Bible, and find out more about the truth in this powerful story.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher for FREE, and a positive review was not required.

My feelings about this book are a bit all over the place! With four of Solomon’s wives featured as characters, I suspected I might struggle with the story on some level, but one of the things I love about fiction is that it gives me the opportunity to put myself in someone else’s shoes and understand their motives, even if I wouldn’t have made the same choices.

The biggest way this book did that for me was in showing how Solomon could convince himself that he was heeding God’s wisdom even as he continued following many of the world’s practices—like building a harem. A King’s power was often at least partly demonstrated by the size of his harem, and offering and accepting foreign women as wives was a common means of making political alliances and securing peace. In this story, Solomon acknowledged God’s warning not to take multiple wives but justified his harem as a political necessity and placated his conscience by ensuring that he didn’t allow his wives to turn him from worshipping God.

I also began to understand that the gift of wisdom can be a double-edged sword. It can blend with human wisdom so imperceptibly that we can be deceived into believing we are still fully heeding God’s wisdom when in fact we’re relying on our own, as happened with Solomon. My only complaint here is that I felt as though this theme didn’t become clear until towards the end.

Where I struggled with this story was with the wives, as I suspected, but not for the reasons I anticipated. Firstly, I felt as though there was no closure to their stories. Each wife was featured in turn in the lead-up to her marriage to Solomon but then faded out of the story, and seemingly his life, as the next wife came along. I know there are novellas corresponding to these characters that give a fuller account of their stories (The Desert Princess, The Shepherdess, Daughter of the Nile, and The Queen of Sheba), so maybe I need to read those to get better closure, but I found their stories dissatisfying in the context of The Heart of a King.

My other difficulty was the fact that Solomon spoke love poetry (essentially, passages from Song of Songs) to each of these women when he wooed them, and yet he didn’t seem to love any of them with the depth his words implied. At times it even felt as though he knew he was doing lip service rather than giving expression to his heart. I’m not sure I can quite put into words how that made me feel about Song of Songs—perhaps disillusioned?—but it wasn’t a feeling I welcomed.

No, it hasn’t escaped my notice that the probable author of the world’s most famous love poetry was also married to 600+ women—hardly the idealistic ‘one true love’ scenario—but I would have much preferred to have felt that he genuinely believed the words and his love each time he spoke them, even if he did speak them to more than one woman throughout his life.

I’m a huge fan of biblical fiction and have enjoyed many of Jill Eileen Smith’s books in the past, but this one definitely left me with mixed feelings.

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher. This has not influenced the content of my review, which is my honest and unbiased opinion.

I have always been intrigued by King Solomon’s story and have always questioned myself how can a man so loved and gifted by God and life itself could have erred so deeply in his ways. So when I read the title of this book by Jill Eileen Smith, I knew I had to read it. She has some ebooks of each of the most important women is Solomon’s life, but I hadn’t read them. This is a compilation and improved story of this women. I like that the book is written from Solomon and the women’s point of view.
So this is the story of Solomon and the four women he most loved. The Bible doesn’t give much details about them, so this is a work of fiction. But it seemed to me that it is very well researched and it totally transports you to ancient Israel and the traditions of the jewish people and the other cultures that interacted with the jewish.
The woman were: Namaah, the desert princess, Abishag, the shepherdess, Siti, the daughter of the Egyptian Pharaoh, and Nicaula, the Queen of Sheeba. These are four women, but we know Solomon had a very ample harem, although these ladies are the most important.
This is not a Hallmark movie with its happily ever after. This is a true story, and a sad one at that. But there is so much to learn behind Solomon’s atittude. From the start you can see he’s obsessed with being designed his father’s –King David- Co-Regent. It’s understandable to be afraid of what would happen if one of his jealous brothers would get to the throne, but still he was too focused on gaining power. It was evident he cared for his women, but he was too much distracted with his personal issues to be a good husband and think of them instead of him.
He was a true King that worried and cared for his country and people and apparently “wanted” to honor God. But he always found excuses for doing just what God had advised him not to, maybe trying to please others and to gain other Kings graces. At the end, he didn’t have the strength and sincerity to listen to God’s Word in his heart and follow Him, even if that meant some kind of earthly loss. He was probably given one of the biggest gifts on eart, the godly wisdom, but he seemed to use it wisely in everything except his personal life. I think this is a great lesson of what doing God’s will sometimes entails. It entails doing different than what your desires might dictate. But in the end, doing God's will is what will make you happy and full inside. Having all those riches and women strayed Solomon away from God, instead of honoring Him by doing what he knew would please Him. He focused on the gift, but lost the vision of the Creator of his gift. I think this can help us be grateful with what God has given us, and try to always acknowledge that it is His gift, not our merit, and due to His Mercy. And also, to never stop giving thanks to Him, in good times, as well as the bad. Because it is in those bad times where we learn the most and to focus on what’s truly important: Loving God and others.
I liked the book, in spite that I’m usually attracted to books that I know that end well and have a happy ending. I still think God loved Solomon so much, that He forgave his sins because he really repented. But there is so much to learn. And from the women’s perspective too. I especially liked Nicaula’s story. The Queen of Sheba has always been a mystery to me and it was so interesting to know about her, even if fictional. I think this is the woman that impacted Solomon the most.
In spite of Solomon being a womanizer, this is a clean novel, nothing graphic there.
I totally recommend this book, especially if you love historicals and are a Christian. But it is a great book for non christians as well. Solomon is a very well known character in world wide history. A legendary character, but a real one. We’ll only get to know his true story in Heaven.
The storyline, the dialogues, scenery and the writing style grabbed my attention from the beggining.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the Publisher and the author. This is my own and honest opinion.

This is a very interesting book. I was instantly drawn into this fictional world of King Solomon and his family. I was fascinated by his life and the struggles he endured due to his great wisdom and many wives. This book kept me intrigued throughout the entire thing.

Jill Eileen Smith is a master at Biblical Fiction, and she always stays true to the Bible while adding fictional background and lives to her characters. This book was no different. Comparing this book to the Bible, all the Biblical accounts were there, and none of the fictionalized additions conflicted with it. It is a great way to get a deeper understanding of what King Solomon and his wives COULD have experienced and endured.

The only problem I endured was when reading Queen Sheba’s story. I felt like I was just thrown into the middle of her story and didn’t get enough background to fully understand her life. Jill Eileen Smith has explained that this is due to her previously released books written about each of King Solomon’s wives, and she didn’t want to repeat what was there. I didn’t have this issue with any of the other wives, just Queen Sheba.

Recommendation: I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Biblical Fiction and/or anyone who would like to get a deeper look at King Solomon and the wives who helped shape him.

*Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of the book mentioned above in the hope that I would review it on my blog. A positive review was not required. All opinions are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.*

An interesting perspective on the life of King Solomon and a selection of his many wives. I really enjoyed reading about this time period and the way the author has researched about how people lived during this time. I look forward to reading deeper into the stories that Jill Eileen Smith has written about this selection of wives.