Review: Song of Songs

Song of Songs: A Novel of the Queen of Sheba

by Marc Graham

Lift the veil of legend for the untold story of Makeda, the Queen of Sheba, and Bathsheba, wife and mother of Israel’s first kings.

When Makeda, the slave-born daughter of the chieftain of Saba, comes of age, she wins her freedom and inherits her father’s titles along with a crumbling earthwork dam that threatens her people’s survival. When she learns of a great stone temple being built in a land far to the north, Makeda leads a caravan to the capital of Yisrael to learn how to build a permanent dam and secure her people’s prosperity.

On her arrival, Makeda discovers that her half-sister Bilkis (also known as Bathsheba) who was thought to have died in a long-ago flash flood, not only survived, but has become Queen of Yisrael. Not content with her own wealth, Bilkis intends to claim the riches of Saba for herself by forcing Makeda to marry her son. But Bilkis’s designs are threatened by the growing attraction between Makeda and Yetzer abi-Huram, master builder of Urusalim’s famed temple. Will Bilkis’s plan succeed or will Makeda and Yetzer outsmart her and find happiness far from her plots and intrigue?

My Thoughts:

From the opening scene of this book, the reader is drawn into the tumultuous and tragic world of the Queen of Sheba. There is a lot of action and the story progresses very quickly.  There are multiple perspectives in this story, which helped the reader really get a sense of what was happening.  The multiple narrator format also helped show the far reaching impact of the events.

I was a little thrown by the blurb on the back of this book.  I didn’t realize this would be a coming of age story starting with the characters at a young age.  So that would be my problem with this book.  By itself, it was a really great story, with great flow and easy dialogue.  But going into the book, I was expecting something completely different.  While we did get to the story I expected from the summary, it wasn’t until much later.  If more of the beginning of the book was included into the synopsis, I might not have felt like I was waiting for the book to start, which is how I felt for the majority of the beginning.

I want to warn my readers of some triggers.  As another reviewer mentioned, this has a lot of tragedy and some pretty disturbing scenes.  I didn’t have any problems with it, as I am a big Game of Thrones fan, but this might be hard for some readers.  I definitely had a hard time with the scenes involving children and babies, but this gut wrenching style is necessary to properly tell this story.  You have to be true to the time in historical fiction, otherwise, it feels disingenuous.

All in all, I would definitelye recommend this book to anyone who likes historical fiction because it was a really good representation of the genre.

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About the Author

Marc Graham studied mechanical engineering at Rice University in Texas, but has been writing since his first attempt at science fiction penned when he was ten. From there, he graduated to knock-off political thrillers, all safely locked away to protect the public, before settling on historical fiction. His first novel, Of Ashes and Dust, was published in March 2017.

He has won numerous writing contests including, the National Writers Assocation Manuscript Contest (Of Ashes and Dust), the Paul Gillette Memorial Writing Contest – Historical (Of Ashes and Dust, Song of Songs), and the Colorado Gold Writing Contest – Mainstream (Prince of the West, coming from Blank Slate Press in Fall 2019).

He lives in Colorado on the front range of the Rocky Mountains, and in addition to writing, he is an actor, narrator, speaker, story coach, shamanic practitioner, and whisky afficianado (Macallan 18, one ice cube). When not on stage or studio, in a pub, or bound to his computer, he can be found hiking with his wife and their Greater Swiss Mountain Dog.

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Blog Tour Schedule

Tuesday, April 16
Review & Interview at Passages to the Past

Wednesday, April 17
Review at Pursuing Stacie
Feature at The Caffeinated Bibliophile

Thursday, April 18
Review at Bookfever
Excerpt at Maiden of the Pages

Friday, April 19
Feature at What Is That Book About
Guest Post & Excerpt at To Read, Or Not to Read

Saturday, April 20
Excerpt at Spellbound by History

Monday, April 22
Review at Historical Fiction with Spirit

Tuesday, April 23
Review at 100 Pages a Day

Wednesday, April 24
Review at A Chick Who Reads

Thursday, April 25
Feature at Let Them Read Books
Guest Post at Myths, Legends, Books & Coffee Pots

Friday, April 26
Review at Red Headed Book Lady

Tuesday, April 30
Review & Excerpt at Clarissa Reads it All

Wednesday, May 1
Review at Library of Clean Reads

Friday, May 3
Review at Historical Fiction Reviews

Monday, May 6
Review at Just One More Chapter

Tuesday, May 7
Feature at CelticLady’s Reviews

Thursday, May 9
Excerpt at Kimber Li

Friday, May 10
Review at History from a Woman’s Perspective

Monday, May 13
Review at Curling up by the Fire

Tuesday, May 14
Review at Amy’s Booket List

Wednesday, May 15
Feature at Donna’s Book Blog

Friday, May 17
Review at Coffee and Ink
Interview at Myths, Legends, Books & Coffee Pots

Giveaway

During the Blog Tour, we will be giving away two paperback copies of Song of Songs! To enter, please use the Gleam form below.

Giveaway Rules

– Giveaway ends at 11:59 pm EST on May 17th. You must be 18 or older to enter.
– Giveaway is open to the US & Canada only.
– Only one entry per household.
– All giveaway entrants agree to be honest and not cheat the systems; any suspicion of fraud is decided upon by blog/site owner and the sponsor, and entrants may be disqualified at our discretion.
– The winner has 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen.

Song of Songs