The Girl and the Guardian

Esther and Mordecai in a Biblical fiction fantasy

He’s cautious. She’s reckless. When an evil conspiracy rises, they’ll need to rely on each other’s strengths to survive. Persia, 480 B.C. Mordecai struggles to balance hiding his Hebrew heritage with the responsibility of raising his beautiful cousin, Esther. So even though it’s his job to find her a suitable husband, the meek government official is reluctant to let the headstrong young woman leave the protection of his household. But his caution creates heartbreak when the gorgeous girl is kidnapped and dragged off to the royal harem. Fearful she’ll be killed if her Jewish identity is discovered, the cagey bureaucrat begins pulling strings behind the scenes in an attempt to reclaim his lost charge. But after Esther becomes queen, Mordecai discovers he needs her influence over the king to thwart a sinister plan for genocide. Can the embattled Israelite save his ward… and their people? The Girl and the Guardian is the gritty first book in The Oliver Anderson Trilogy of Biblical fiction. If you like imperfect heroes, shrewd humor, and fast-paced thrills, then you’ll love Joshua David Jones’s dark fantasy.