The Hidden Flame by Davis Bunn and Janette Oke

The Hidden Flame takes you back in time to the early church. You can feel the heat of the day and the cobblestones under your feet as you walk through the streets of Jerusalem with Abagail. She is a quiet, unassuming, gentle lady who has two suitors vying for her hand in marriage. The history of the early church comes alive. You feel Abagail’s joy and pain as she experiences celebration and hardships during the growth of the early church and the beginning of persecution of the followers of The Way. I love the way Bunn & Oke show the traditions and daily lives of the Jews using both fictional and Biblical characters.
This narrative explores the lives of the early believers in ways I’d never thought of. Who were the families of Ananias and Sapphira? Were they angry at God and Peter for the death of the couple? What about Stephen’s family? Were they proud of his sacrifice or confused by what God had asked of him? As the authors explore these questions in this fictional story, they present many truths and make the characters come alive.
The Hidden Flame is the second in the Acts of Faith series. I haven’t read the first book The Centurion’s Wife but do plan to pick it up soon. However, it is not necessary to read the first in the series to be able to follow the story in this book. It was a book that was hard for me to put down. A great book to sit by a fire and read on a rainy day. I’ll be looking forward to reading more in this series! *Thank you to Bethany House for providing this book for me to review. All opinions expressed are mine