The Hadassah Covenant: A Queen's Legacy

What was "the rest of the story" of the biblical Queen Esther? Could her impact still reverberate through generations to the present? In Tenney's ancient Persia (now Iraq and Iran), the king is brutally murdered, and Esther (aka Hadassah) wonders what her role might be in continuing to further God's plan for her people. It appears it might require aiding her uncle Mordecai in preparing Leah, a lovely young Jewess, for her "audition" night with the new king—letting history repeat itself. In a parallel contemporary story, the Israeli prime minister's wife, Hadassah (a descendent of Leah), must delve into the past to resolve a tragic standoff with terrorists who threaten the lives of contemporary Jews living anonymously in the Middle East. This sequel lacks the freshness of Tenney and Olsen's original collaboration, Hadassah: One Night with the King . While it's intriguing to imagine what might have happened to the original Esther, too many contrivances stretch the reader's belief (e.g., a toddler with the same name and unusual eyes of Hadassah is conveniently orphaned just as Hadassah discovers she might not be able to have children). Yet the theatrical release this fall of One Night with the King should stimulate interest in this book and its predecessor. (Nov.)