Pearl in the Sand by Tessa Afshar

A fascinating account of Rahab's life!  It starts out when Rahab is 15 years old and her father tells her the family needs her to become a prostitute to bring in money to feed her family. There were two kinds of prostitutes in Canaan, the temple prostitutes and the others who fended for themselves.  Rahab has turned her back on the gods of Canaan after seeing child sacrifices and other despicable things done that were supposed to provide wealth and blessings to the people, but which did nothing.  She makes the choice to not become a temple prostitute and instead make her own way in the world. She eventually is able to buy the inn on the wall of Jericho, where she becomes an innkeeper, which in Canaan was synonymous with prostitute.

As the Israelites are conquering the different people and getting closer to Jericho, rumors start flying because the Canaanites have heard about the miracles surrounding these people and the amazing defeats of their neighbors by these nomads.  Rahab hears about their God from one of her clients and can't stop thinking about Him. She decides to trust in Him as the one true God. She quits being a prostitute and a couple months later she saves the two spies from Israel and her life is never the same. The book continues with her and her family learning about the Hebrew laws and culture as they try to fit in with the Israelite people under the guidance of Salmone, a leader of the tribe of Judah.  He is very suspicious of her and her family at first, but as he gets to know Rahab, he starts to see her for the God-fearing woman she is. Their love story is amazing and we obviously know the outcome since she is named in the lineage of Jesus, but the journey is well worth it.

This was a great book!  Characters are well-developed, flawed but likeable.  Sometimes it's hard to look at Biblical characters as real people and not put them on a pedestal, but the author does a good job of showing that they dealt with problems and sins and had insecurities just like the rest of us. Some of the emotional obstacles Rahab deals with in feeling loved reminded me of another great book, Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. Very well-written and showing great insight into what Rahab might have thought and felt, I would highly recommend this book to everyone!