Showing results by author "Angela Hunt" in All Categories

When Xerxes, king of Persia, issues a call for beautiful young women, Hadassah, a Jewish orphan living in Susa, is forcibly taken to the palace of the pagan ruler. After months of preparation, the girl known to the Persians as Esther wins the king's heart and a queen's crown. But because her situation is uncertain, she keeps her ethnic identity a secret until she learns that an evil and ambitious man has won the king's permission to exterminate all Jews - young and old, powerful, and helpless.

After sending his army to besiege another king's capital, King David forces himself on Bathsheba, a loyal soldier's wife. When her resulting pregnancy forces the king to murder her husband and add her to his harem, Bathsheba struggles to protect her son while dealing with the effects of a dark prophecy and deadly curse on the king's household. Combining historical facts with detailed fiction, Angela Hunt paints a realistic portrait of the beautiful woman who struggled to survive the dire results of divine judgment.

Gathering four stories from four best-selling author friends, Invitation is the first collection in the ongoing Harbingers series. In "The Call" by Bill Myers, four strangers are drawn together to help a student at the mysterious Institute for Advanced Psychic Studies. His gifts are supposedly being honed to assist world leaders...but there are some very disturbing strings attached.

When her father and sister are killed, a distant relative invites Salome Alexandra and her mother to live with his family in Jerusalem. Quickly betrothed to a pagan prince half her age, Salome questions God's plan. But when she suddenly finds herself being crowned queen of Judea, she learns that a woman committed to God can change the world.

In an era when women are sequestered and silenced, Miryam of Magdala lives a contended life until her son's careless gesture evokes a hostile action that shatters her serenity. With no hope of justice, Miryam commits an unthinkable act... and descends into depths of darkness that threaten her life and her sanity. Even after Yeshua the Messiah dramatically restores her life, Miryam can neither forget nor forgive unresolved injustices.

Aya, daughter of Zebulun of Tarsus, does not want a traditional life. After years of being overshadowed by her brilliant brother Sha’ul, she wants a chance to use her own gifts beyond being a wife and mother. When her father insists that she marry a Torah student, she reluctantly agrees.

Two women occupy a place in Herod's court: the king's only sister, Salome, a resentful woman who has been told she is from an inferior race, and her lowly handmaid, Zara, who sees the hurt in those around her. Both women struggle to reach their goals and survive in Herod the Greats tumultuous court, where no one is trustworthy and no one is safe.

Five decades before the birth of Christ, Chava, daughter of the royal tutor, grows up with Urbi, a princess in Alexandria's royal palace. When Urbi becomes Queen Cleopatra, Chava vows to be a faithful friend no matter what - but after she and Cleopatra have an argument, she finds herself imprisoned and sold into slavery. Torn from her family, her community, and her elevated place in Alexandrian society, Chava finds herself cast off and alone in Rome.

Widowed Euodia, known to her neighbors as "the Lydian woman," seeks to make a fresh start by moving to the foreign city of Philippi. She finds new purpose after meeting Paulos, apostle to the Gentiles, who opens her eyes to helping those in need, particularly women and those who have been enslaved.

When Pheodora's husband is unexpectedly thrown into debtors' prison, she is shocked to learn that a loan from her generous sister would jeopardize her brother-in-law's religious aspirations. Forced to pin her hopes on two she-goats whose spotless white offspring could be sold for an upcoming Yom Kippur sacrifice, Pheodora must struggle to keep the animals - and her family - alive.

As famine overtakes the land, Simeon leads his brothers into Egypt to buy grain. He doesn't recognize the vengeful ruler he must bow before: Joseph, his long-lost brother, the very brother Simeon sold into slavery years ago. Now, it is the brash Simeon's turn to endure imprisonment. Only Mandisa, the handmaid who interprets the ruler's language, is his saving grace. The beautiful widow and her young son see another side of Simeon, the tenderness beneath the tough exterior. As much as he would like to, he will never be free to love them until he unshackles the chains around his own heart.

A train roars over the rails, carrying passengers on a trip that will change their lives. Among the many people aboard the 97 Silver Meteor are Andie Crystal, a lonely young woman hiding from her youth as a reality TV star; Matthew Scofield, a widower trying to manage his responsibilities to his two young children; and Janette Turlington, a middle-aged mother running from a situation that has destroyed the peace in her home and marriage.

Disciple Matthew, a former tax collector, is invited to work with Peter, James, and John in Jerusalem. He dreams of preaching and performing miracles like his fellow apostles, but he finds his dreams postponed because of a request from Yeshua's mother. Well aware of the passing years, Mary asks Matthew to help her record the stories of Yeshua while the eyewitnesses are still alive. Reluctantly, he agrees, though the longer he and Mary work together, the more difficult their task becomes.

In Nero's Rome, Calandra helps her father, a renowned sculptor, complete the most significant commission of his illustrious career. But then a catastrophic fire nearly destroys the imperial city, leaving Calandra reliant on a group of Christians—unusual individuals unlike any she has encountered before. Intrigued by their worship of the Son of an invisible God, Calandra grapples with her mistrust, only to find herself indebted to these believers as they help her rebuild her shattered world.

Thomas and Tasmin, twin siblings hired to oversee a wedding feast in Cana, worry when the host runs out of wine...until a guest tells Tasmin to have the servants fill the pitchers by the gate with water from the cistern. Reluctantly, she obeys and is amazed when rainwater turns into the finest wine ever tasted in Cana. When Thomas impulsively decides to follow the teacher from Nazareth, he and Tasmin argue - since the twins have been together since the womb, Tasmin can't accept losing her brother to some magician-prophet.

Seventeen-year-old Emma suddenly finds her sordid life miraculously transformed by God's redeeming grace. She soon marries a godly young man, who eventually becomes a nationally recognized preacher with a television audience of 50 million. But after 24 years as an exemplary pastor's wife, one call changes everything.

When an advice columnist is given a note written just before a fatal airliner crash, her search for the intended recipient carries her on a journey of faith, hope, and forgiveness.

Roman Tribune Clavius is assigned by Pilate to keep the radical followers of the recently executed Yeshua from stealing the body and inciting revolution. When the body goes missing despite his precautions, Clavius must hunt it down. His investigation leads him from the halls of Herod Antipas to the Garden of Gethsemane and brings him in touch with believer and doubter alike. But as the body still remains missing, Clavius commits to a quest for the truth - and answers that will not only shake his life but echo throughout all of history.

Orphaned and severely deformed, from her earliest moments Sarah Sims has been kept hidden away in a secret CIA facility - until an unexpected discovery gives her an opportunity to make a life for herself at last. Now Sarah has an ally, a long-lost aunt who has discovered her true identity. Aided by this brave psychologist, twenty-year-old Sarah must find the courage to confront the forces that have confined her for so long. And the strength to be reborn into a world she has never known.

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.