"Sarai" was a very moving and revealing insight to how she felt during long years of barrenness and subsequent cruel, adverse comments. Both she and Abraham feel like real people with all the emotions of modern people, plus their intense love, faith and obedience that have made them stand out as"heroes of faith". But neither Sarai nor Abraham come across as too good to be true: their faults and failings are real too.

Keeping close to the Bible story but with an added chunk of imagination and a dollop of the ‘highly likely’, the author has produced a very believable version of Sarai and Abram’s longing for a child, Sarai’s struggle to believe God’s promise to her husband and all that befalls them when they obey God’s command to leave their wealthy home in Ur and seek the promised land. As with Jill Smith’s previous books, you come to know, in a new way, the many characters; their father Terah, Lot and his wife, Hagar, Eliezer and others. You enter into their emotions, you feel for them as they react to each other and their surroundings, and of course we know the end of their story. We know that Sarah as God renames her, bear’s a son in her old age, impossible except for God. No wonder she had given up hope and offered her servant to father Abram’s child. You sense the trauma of this in the Bible story, here the whole tale is told in more detail and for me, bringing greater understanding

Jill Eileen Smith's Sarai gives 'the rest of the story'--Abram and Sarai's journey toward faith. Don't hesitate to open this rich biblical drama for new insight and a new perspective on the patriarch and his family. A well-written story filled with human emotion.

I've read Jill Eileen Smith's writing with great interest since before she was published, and I've enjoyed watching this talented woman be discovered as a powerful novelist. Jill has a special insight into her characters and a great love for biblical stories. I highly recommend her latest novel, Sarai. You will not be disappointed.

In Sarai, Jill Eileen Smith takes the reader back to ancient times and the nomadic life of Sarai and Abram. This is an absorbing visit to the past, filled with wonderful details and fascinating characters, including Abram's nephew Lot and his wife. Smith reveals timeless doubts and struggles, along with the triumphs of some and the ill-fated but fascinating paths of others. Remarkable research is folded into a story that builds to an unforgettable ending. Smith truly brought the era to life!

Jill Eileen Smith's research shines in this gem of a novel detailing the lives of Abram and Sarai. Fans of biblical fiction will be delighted by Smith's retelling of two of the most beloved personalities from the book of Genesis.

What a marvelous retelling of an old and sacred story! Though I knew it well, I could not put Sarai down. Smith takes us into the minds of the characters as they struggle with their flaws, fears, and disappointments, armed only with an often fragile faith. Sarai is an inspiring offer of hope for all.

Following the successful Wives of King David series, Smith opens her new Wives of the Patriarchs series with this midrashic expansion of the story of Abraham and his wife, Sarah. In the biblical account, Sarah gives birth in her old age to Isaac, as God has promised her husband, Abraham, whose descendants will be as numerous as stars. In this account, the beautiful Sarai, as she is first called, deeply loves her husband and follows him when his Lord calls, even as she waits for decades for the promised child and endures a dangerous passage to Egypt that produces a threat to her marriage in the form of her maid Hagar. Smith is at her best in handling the triangulated relationship between Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar; the subplot involving Abraham?s nephew Lot and his family is less emotionally compelling. The pace occasionally drags, but most of the book is about faithful waiting. Smith breathes new imaginative life into a well-known sacred story.