This is re-written to be a smoother read and boy was it a page turner! I must admit to not ever seeing the movie. *gasp* I know, how can that be! But I wanted to read the book and it was engaging and kept my attention. This author, the great-great granddaughter of original author, has done splendidly with re-writing it. The characters are endearing and you find your heart tugging and rooting for Judah. I cannot imagine what time was like back then but you feel immersed into it while reading and feel as if these are friends and family. I highly recommend this version!

I was given the book by bookfun.org. These are my own opinions.

The author attempted to put her great, great grandfather's novel in more modern language and make it more interesting for today's readers. I have never read the original to know what it was like, but I have read the movie and it seems to stick to it pretty well.

Since I never read the first book, I shall treat this as a new book I have never read, instead of an updated version of the book.

The book is set in the time of Jesus and centers around a young Israelite prince wrongly accused of attempted murder and betrayed by his best friend. It follows his imprisonment and life afterwards with his path crossing the path of Jesus several times. It was indeed an interesting and easy read, and was a book I didn't want to put down, but had to several times. The author brought the book to life in such a way that it was easy to picture the scenes in my mind.

My one complaint is the author skipped over the resurrection and Judah coming to believe in Christ, though they were referenced later in the book. I liked the whole plot, setting, and characters. One part of the book that stood out was the famed chariot race. The author did a tremendous job of describing that in (I think) more pages than the original book spent on the race.

The book contains some photos from the movie, along with a mini biography about the original author.

This book was given to me in exchange for my honest review.

Although I have always heard of Ben-Hur, the movie, I had never actually seen the movie or read the book. When the opportunity arose to read the new novel, I jumped on it. Wow! What an incredible tale! I am so glad Carol Wallace, the great-great-granddaughter of Lew Wallace, the original author of Ben-Hur picked up her pen to update the old classic!

This is the story of Judah Ben-Hur, a Jewish prince, who not only goes from riches to rags to riches, etc, but also encounters Christ in a different way. And through his journey we get a vivid glimpse of Roman and Hebrew life at the time of Christ.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and highly recommend it! For those who are in my bookclub, we probably will be reading and discussing this one soon! My only problem with the novel was it was hard to put down and I lost some sleep as I stayed up too late reading it. I received this book from bookfun.org in return for my honest opinion.

Ben-Hur by author Carol Wallace is an exceptionally well written rewrite of the tale originally written by her great-great grandfather, Lew Wallace. In this book the author has made the story easier to follow for today's readers. It is still the same great Christian saga but concentrates a bit more on the female characters of Judah's mother, sister, and wife.

This is the story of Judah Ben-Hur. He is a wealthy, young Jewish manager. His best friend is Messala, a Roman. These two men were raised vastly different right down to Who or what they worship. The story begins with a fast pace as the men are racing and one gets hurt. There is non-stop action, romance, inspiration, violence, murder, intrigue, betrayal, redemption, and the wonderful message of Jesus Christ. This is about true love.

Author Carol did a fabulous job with her modern take on rewriting this book yet keeping it authentic to its original self. The book is well written, organized and thought. Her characters have depth and are so defined that readers will feel they know them. The action is so well described that it made the book hard to put down. I cringed in parts and teared up. My heart broke in parts and also rejoiced.

There is a sea battle that is hard to believe but I am sure things like that actually happened. The races at the Colosseum were brutal. I enjoyed reading about the markets and scenery. I also liked that parts of the Bible were included. The author has some surprises and twists but those were also in the original book.

I definitely would recommend this book to anyone. It is well written and has so many elements to it. I gladly rate it 5 out of 5 stars. It would make a great group study. I wanted to discuss it as I was reading it. I was given the book by Book Fun (The Book Club Network) and this is my honest review.

I've known about a 2016 movie adaptation of "Ben-Hur" for some time, and have felt pretty excited to see how it will be. Thus, I was eager to read this novel and find out how (if the movie directors decide to stick to the book) what it would be like. Now, I've never read the original novel, and I've only seen the 1959 film with Charlton Heston once, but if the 2016 movie is anything like this newest book version of "Ben-Hur", it's going to be good!

At first, at receiving this book, I was a bit daunted at the amount of pages it contained (425 total)- perhaps because I hadn't looked beforehand and had been expecting a thin little movie adaptation. Turns out, that's not exactly the case- it's not even a movie adaptation- but I don't think it could have been done so well any other way.

While the book is slightly longer than some books, it didn't loose my interest for a moment. The climatic chariot race scene, which, in certain circumstances, could have turned out long, drawn-out, and even perhaps a little boring, was anything but- it was crafted in such a way that my eyes flew across the page in anticipation. And while some may not like the fact that the story switches between multiple character's points of views (more than five), it was that fact that intrigued me and made it so much more interesting. This is, I think, what made and didn't break the chariot scene I previously mentioned. A lot, I think, rode on that scene, and it was done beautifully.

The characters themselves, even the not-so-nice ones, were done beautifully, as well. I fell in love with all (or, mostly all) of them from the beginning. I had compassion for Judah, and though he isn't by any means a saint, that makes him more of a believable character. The other characters in the book were wonderful as well, making me wonder why some had never been in the 1959 movie version (and hoping they would be in this next one!).

One other plus for this movie is how they did portrayed Christ- He wasn't in it much, but I liked the way the incorporated Him into the story. I'm not really fond of Biblical-time-period books or movies that try to have Jesus in their story, but this one is an exception.

In anticipation for the movie, I also enjoyed looking through the full-color photos from the upcoming film that were at the center of the book.

One of the only downfalls with this book was the ending. It was good, but not quite what I was expecting.

Still, after reading such a great novel, I look forward to seeing the movie---only, I must confess, though I'm not normally a big book purist, I am for this one!

Note: I got this book free from Tyndale in exchange for doing a review. All opinions are my own.