Counted with the stars: Book Review

Counted with the stars: From Egypt book 1

By Connilyn Cossette

Genre: Biblical Fiction

Synopsis

Sold into slavery by her father and forsaken by the man she was supposed to marry, young Egyptian Kiya must serve a mistress who takes pleasure in her humiliation. When terrifying plagues strike Egypt, Kiya is in the middle of it all.

To save her older brother and escape the bonds of slavery, Kiya flees with the Hebrews during the Great Exodus. She finds herself utterly dependent on a fearsome God she’s only just beginning to learn about, and in love with a man who despises her people. With everything she’s ever known swept away, will Kiya turn back toward Egypt or surrender her life and her future to Yahweh?

My thoughts

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. It was very well written. The beautiful descriptions sucked me in. Cossette masterfully brought us a character of a young, wealthy Egyptian girl whose father very reluctantly sells her into slavery to pay off huge debts. She meets and begins to identify with other Hebrew slaves who work in the same household and in other households. Her heart begins to pull in different directions. The way Cossette draws us along her journey of discovery, unraveling the doubts and the inner-turmoil and the division is superb. Even after witnessing God’s power through the ten plagues against the Egyptian people, after witnessing His all-encompassing strength surpassing that of the other gods she’s grown up believing in, even after she falls in love with another Hebrew, she still has division in her heart as to whether she should trust this one God who is so destructive. It takes various acts of compassion on God’s part for her to come to trust and love this God that the Hebrews follow. I admired that about the story – that she wasn’t just a quick convert, that she didn’t just randomly abandon her childhood roots, her very culture, which surrounded her with idols and idol worship. This, to me, is much more realistic. Sometimes becoming a Believer is not simple.

I’d never considered the story of the 10 plagues and the Exodus from the viewpoint of an Egyptian. Her storytelling execution impressed me. I highly recommend this story to anyone interested in biblical fiction.

Your turn: Have you ever read any other books or seen any movies about the plagues against Egypt and the Exodus? What do you think? Let me know what you think!