This book begins with John Wycliffe and quickly had me hooked because of this. The setting is in the mid 1300’s and we find ourselves in the dark ages. The Word of God is only in Greek or Latin and Wycliffe dares to give it an English voice. How exciting! Unfortunately, the plot quickly disintegrates from there and turns into a convoluted love affair, thankfully not involving Wycliffe.

The writing style and descriptions were done well, but the plot wasn’t that intriguing. The problem I had was that I was just hoping there would be more history on Bible translation, on the wars going on, on the kings making havoc, or on the church’s darkness than the love interests of the illuminator or the crazy sayings of a female hermit. Oh well. This is what happens when part of your reading challenge is to read a book from an author you have never read before.

An illuminator was the person who drew pictures in Bibles. I spent some time looking at these exquisite pieces of art and was amazed at the craftsmanship. I also found that there is a new Bible out called the Illuminated Bible – specifically for those who journal and write a lot in their Bibles. If you are interested in knowing more about this Bible click here.

I recommend this book to those who like romantic historical fiction. If you like Ken Follet, you will like this book. There wasn’t much history in it unfortunately.