Book Title: The Gilboa Iris
Author: Zahava Englard
ASIN: B00FFHNJQ0
Publisher: Gefen Publishing (2012)
I read The Gilboa Iris by fellow Times of Israel blogger, Zahava Englard a few months back and thoroughly enjoyed it. Now, in the new style of things, there is a video trailer for the book. With plenty of cool shots of Israeli scenes. You can find my review after the video.
This review is directed at (probably) men who would normally be choosing an action thriller for the beach.
The first thing to note is the glorious descriptions of Israel and the firm foundation of the roots of the battle for survival that Israel and it’s people face all the time. Zahava nails this completely.
This book crosses boundaries. It’s not a drifting romantic story though for the first few chapters you might think it was headed that way.
It’s not a technical action thriller in the style of a Brad Thor or a Vince Flynn but it certainly delves into the mysterious world of Israel’s external security service, The Mossad.
The action is very well described and, from my point of view as someone more likely to read an action book, Zahava certainly satisfied this side.
On the romance side there was a huge and enjoyable difference between this book and the pure action genre; Zahava’s female characters are not one dimensional cut outs to move the action along to the next scene.
To sum up: I thoroughly enjoyed this trip into a genre (romance/adventure) that I wouldn’t normally take because it spoke to me in many ways: action, Israel and the author’s pride for where she obviously lives.
