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jessiesworldofbooks 's review for:

To Dwell Among Cedars by Connilyn Cossette
5.0
adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-paced
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
 โ€œ๐‘ป๐’‰๐’†๐’“๐’† ๐’Š๐’” ๐’๐’ ๐’”๐’๐’๐’ˆ ๐’Ž๐’๐’“๐’† ๐’ƒ๐’†๐’‚๐’–๐’•๐’Š๐’‡๐’–๐’ ๐’•๐’‰๐’‚๐’ ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐’๐’๐’† ๐’•๐’‰๐’† ๐‘ช๐’“๐’†๐’‚๐’•๐’๐’“ ๐’Š๐’” ๐’„๐’๐’Ž๐’‘๐’๐’”๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ ๐’˜๐’Š๐’•๐’‰ ๐’†๐’—๐’†๐’“๐’š ๐’”๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ๐’๐’† ๐’๐’๐’•๐’† ๐’๐’‡ ๐’š๐’๐’–๐’“ ๐’๐’Š๐’‡๐’†, ๐’๐’๐’† ๐’‰๐’†โ€™๐’” ๐’ƒ๐’†๐’†๐’ ๐’˜๐’†๐’‚๐’—๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ ๐’•๐’๐’ˆ๐’†๐’•๐’‰๐’†๐’“ ๐’†๐’—๐’†๐’ ๐’ƒ๐’†๐’‡๐’๐’“๐’† ๐’š๐’๐’–๐’“ ๐’‡๐’Š๐’“๐’”๐’• ๐’ƒ๐’“๐’†๐’‚๐’•๐’‰.โ€ 

โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜…โ˜… 
๐‘ป๐’ ๐‘ซ๐’˜๐’†๐’๐’ ๐‘จ๐’Ž๐’๐’๐’ˆ ๐‘ช๐’†๐’…๐’‚๐’“๐’” may be one of my all time favourites of this year! Connilyn Cossette did such a wonderful job writing this beautiful story and Iโ€™m already looking forward to picking up more books by her. 
This book follows the story of Arisa (also known as Eliora), a young Philistine woman longing for a place to belong, and Ronen, a young Levite man struggling to reconcile grief and faith. When the Ark causes their stories to unexpectedly intertwine, the God Whoโ€™s Presence dwells in it changes their lives and hearts in ways they never couldโ€™ve imagined, and causes them to question everything they thought they knew. 
 I was very impressed by the masterful way Cossette brought Ancient Israel to life. It was clear that she had done extensive research regarding the history, people, and culture of the time. She also used vivid imagery and beautiful writing to really bring the setting and people to life. I love books written like this as they not only have a great story, but transport me to a fascinating time in history, (plus I learn a lot which is a huge bonus!). 
The characters were written very well, and I thought the character growth was really beautiful. Also, Eliora was so sweet and I found her story and struggles to be quite compelling. I thought it was clever of Cossette to have a Philistine main character so that she could witnesses the power of the God of Israel after her people steal the Ark. 
The Ark itself played a large part throughout the story. From the Philistines taking it captive to the divided tribes and their plot to steal itโ€”it added much to the story and was masterfully used as a device to depict Godโ€™s power and mercy (by the way, the Faith content was the best part of the whole book!). 
There was also so many quotable lines! Can we just take a moment to appreciate the one at the beginning of this review? ๐Ÿ˜ 
Overall, I would recommend ๐‘ป๐’ ๐‘ซ๐’˜๐’†๐’๐’ ๐‘จ๐’Ž๐’๐’๐’ˆ ๐‘ช๐’†๐’…๐’‚๐’“๐’” to those who love faith filled stories, beautiful writing, compelling characters, and Biblical fiction. 
๐‘บ๐’†๐’“๐’Š๐’†๐’”: Book 1 | The Covenant House (duology) 
๐‘ฎ๐’†๐’๐’“๐’†: Biblical Fiction 
๐‘น๐’๐’Ž๐’‚๐’๐’•๐’Š๐’„ ๐‘ช๐’๐’๐’•๐’†๐’๐’•: Level 3 - Kissing 
๐‘บ๐’˜๐’†๐’‚๐’“๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ: None 
๐‘ฝ๐’Š๐’๐’๐’†๐’๐’„๐’†: Light to Moderate