I LOVED this book!!! Was my Lenten read last year! I have always been curious about Mary Magdalen and this book does her tremendous justice!I highly recommend it!

George takes a leap with this project and almost certainly opened herself up for criticism from both the believers and the non believers. As you might expect with any project such as this there is lots of room for an agenda by the author. I however found none or at least minimal. I found the book to be a delightful view of the time of Christ through the eyes of a woman. There is of course a huge amount of artistic license taken since we have such minimal information about Mary. If you can read the book objectively and not try to overlay it with your own "doctrine" I think you will find it well written and very enjoyable. It does cover much ground that most people already know from the story of Jesus, but for me it was a wonderful, personal view of the lifestyle that might have been experienced by a Jewish woman who lived in the time of Christ. As a bonus we got to see the story of Jesus and his apostles through her eyes. I would highly recommend it.

Since I loved George's other books, I made the false assumption that this one would be as interesting and well written. No such luck. The dialogue was stilted and boring. None of the characters were likeable. I would not have followed anyone of them based on the what George has written. As egalitarian as Jesus supposedly was, this character of the Magalene would have never existed in that time and place. Projecting modern values left this book practically void of history.Of course, this "story" is based for the most part on faith rather than historical fact unlike George's other books and apparently George's faith interpretation is uniquely her own. She might as well have called it Mary Magdalene the Superhero. Totally unbelieveable and void of feeling. Don't bother.

The author takes he words of Jesus, some of the historic facts of scripture and totally misapplies them in this novel. She completely misses the cultural context of the first century, but rather imports what she has read into a very western, rather twenty-first century mindset. She completely ignores the honor-shame implications of the first century, totally misappropriates the role of a woman in those days into what she might imagine it being, and does very little to advance the plot of her novel beyond her living room. We never are brought to an understanding of Jesus within the world in which he lived nor an appreciation of the eastern, non-linear, mindset. She does use some easily known facts regarding the 1st c. Judaism, but never explores or applies these to her novel.I was terribly disappointed in the verbosity, the lack of realism, and the cultural inadequacy of this novel. I would never recommend it.

M.George sweeps you back in time as only she can. This book was wonderful, thoughtful and thought provoking. Mary Magdaline comes to life and is transformed from a ordinary (albeit 'demon possessed') Jewish girl to a woman converted by her internal experinces and the words and actions of Jesus. For any one interested in what life may have been like at the time of Christ, this is a must read!

I made it 3/4 of the way through this book before I realized I would rather be mopping floors or doing laundry rather than continue reading it. I kept feeling obligated to slog through it after spending the money to buy it. I finally threw it away and felt immediately better! Dry, dry, dry, too bad, I am actually a fan and enjoyed all George's other books.