Book Recommendation - Like Flames in the Night


When it comes to Biblical historical fiction, Connilyn Cossette is one of my go-to authors. Fortunately, I discovered her pretty early-on in her writing career and have really enjoyed being along for the ride ever since. Her upcoming release, Like Flames in the Night, is the last in her Cities of Refuge series, and is my absolute favorite of hers so far. This book follows Tirzah, the youngest daughter of Moriyah and Derek (fans of this series will be intimately familiar with them) and Liyam, whose parents will also be a blast from the past for fans of Ms. Cossette. One of the things I loved most about this book was Tirzah's character. As a woman who'd grown up amidst the best spies in the land, she found a way to use her feminity to help  obtain information in a way that no man could. Her ingenuity, strength and willingness to serve were fantastic and not at all unrealistic as I've seen some Biblical novels try to do with women.



I also loved how the title came about, using the Bible's theme of light piercing the darkness and the need for community (you'll just have to read it see how those things relate). As part of her launch team, I was invited to participate in an author Q&A. Here's how that went:

Who was your favorite character (or the one you most resonate with) and why?
In regards to the entire series, I would have to say Moriyah because I got to know her as a young girl and was able to follow her journey all the way through becoming a great-grandmother. She has been the foundation of all of the stories within the cities of refuge and she will just always be one of my very favorites. Don’t tell the others. For Like Flames in the Night, I’d have to say Liyam because he was just a blast to write, such fun to put through the wringer, and I just loved how his character arc developed!

Did anything surprise you in this story as you were writing?
I have to say that the length of the story was what most surprised me. There were no plans for it to be longer than the others but just due to the nature of the plot and also because I wanted to make sure that all the loose ends from the entire series were tied up in a satisfying way it ended up having a few chapters more. However, I hope that readers will be so absorbed in Tirzah and Liyam that they won’t even notice! (For the record, I didn't notice!)

What are you hoping readers will glean from this story?
Tirzah’s story is one of standing up courageously for her people, her family, and her God. My hope is that readers will be inspired to shine their lights boldly for Jesus and to not be afraid of anything—be it human or spirit—because Yahweh is our champion and when we are out of strength and frightened and feeling alone the Word says that He will fight for us! Nothing can stand against our great big God. Also, I want readers to be reminded through Liyam's Journey how truly powerful grace is.

Any fun bits of trivia you want to share with readers?

I guess I would have to say that the first thing is that I never planned on writing this book at all. The original Cities of Refuge was a three-book series but when I got to the end of Until the Mountains Fall I felt like there was more story to be told within the time period and with this family. So I proposed the idea to Bethany House and thankfully they went for it! Also, the book discusses an altar that’s at the top of Mount Ebal in Israel and that altar has actually been found on top of that mountain. It’s most likely a later rebuild of the original altar and from what I read it looks like beneath the altar there are possible remnants of the altar that Joshua built when he and the entire congregation of Israel re-confirmed the covenant before he died. So that’s pretty cool! Someday I would really love to walk up that mountain and see that altar for myself.

Has your relationship with God changed at all through writing these stories? If so, could you share an example?

I would say that my faith is so much more real now. All the study of history and culture and archaeology that I have done has given me such confirmation that His hand has worked through history in such an intimate way, tying all the billions of threads together from Genesis to Revelation. The fact that he has led me on such a personal path of discovery just reminds me how much he wants me to love him with my heart, my soul, AND my mind. And the Cities of Refuge series, in particular, has illuminated his grace so clearly in my own life, especially looking backward and seeing how he led me lovingly to himself, even when I was so rebellious and self-centered that I could not look past my own nose, and called me to write stories that glorify his Name.

 Why Cities of Refuge? Why not another story?
The easy answer is that because I was just fascinated. Once I started to do some reading about the cities of refuge, which I really didn’t know much about, I saw the beautiful way that they foreshadowed Jesus our Messiah who is the perfect balance of grace and justice for his people and I just wanted to delve into those characteristics of God so I thought that the cities of refuge was a perfect vehicle to do so! Besides, I’d just fallen in love with Moryiah in Wings of the Wind and felt she needed a story too. Who knew what would come of it all when I was struggling over whether to brand that poor girl’s face!

What inspired the idea for this story?
When I was in Israel a couple of years ago we went to a place called the Ayalon Institute. It was actually a kibbutz (like a co-op farm) that contained an entire underground bullet factory hidden from the British and the Arabs before the 1948 war. They secretly crawled down ladders beneath a commercial laundry room because it was noisy and could cover up the sound of the bullet making machines and many of the people who lived and worked on the kibbutz had no idea what was going on under their feet! Over a number of years, this group of young people managed to make thousands and thousands of bullets and ship them out through covert means, like in milk trucks. Without their sacrifice and ingenuity, the nation of Israel might have been lost when the Arabs attacked en masse. I was enthralled by the stories of miracles that happened during this time and how these young people, men AND women stood up for their people so courageously. I was inspired by this short visit to the underground bunker to write about brave men and women who put their lives on the line for the nation of Israel, both in ancient times and in modern ones. So as you will see as you read, there are a number of places where I talk about covert operations and secret weapons-making and those were directly inspired by that tour of the Ayalon Institute. Malakhi and Eitan would have loved everything about it. Look it up, it’s fascinating! 

How does it feel saying goodbye to characters you’ve been with for so long?
It is really so bittersweet because I feel like these people are part of my family and I know them inside and out. So it kind of feels like I’m abandoning them in some way. But they’re always there waiting for me and maybe someday I’ll have a chance to come back and revisit them. And then again I’m also really excited to find new characters and discover their journeys and now that I’m writing this new series I’m having a great time creating a whole new set of people, discovering what makes them tick, and finding all sorts of disastrous and dangerous situations to put them into peril and complicated situations to mess with their heads. I’m kinda evil like that ;) 

What do you have coming up next? Tell us a little bit about it and when we can expect it.
I will be coming out with a new series this winter which is called the Covenant House series. We are skipping forward a few hundred years to First Samuel in a time when Israel was in a fierce struggle against the Philistines, a foreign people that had arrived on the shores of Israel from the island of Crete hundreds of years before. This is a duology, based on the lives of a Philistine sister and brother who are adopted into an Israelite family and begins with the theft of the Ark of the Covenant. The first book is called To Dwell Among Cedars and will be releasing December 1 of this year.


I know that I, for one, am super excited to read To Dwell Among Cedards later this year!

Like Flames in the Night is available March 3, 2020 at your favorite book retailer. Check out my full 5-star review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2816131086?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1

You can learn more about the author on her website: https://www.connilyncossette.com/ or her facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ConnilynCossette/

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Book Recommendation - The Curse of Misty Wayfair

Book Recommendation - A Secret to Die For

Book Recommendation - A Perfect Weakness