BOOK REVIEW- WINGS OF THE WIND by Connilyn Cossette

Alanah, a Canaanite, is no stranger to fighting and survival. When her family is killed in battle with the Hebrews, she disguises herself and sneaks onto the battlefield to avenge her family. The one thing she never counted on was surviving. 
Tobiah, a Hebrew warrior, is shocked to find an unconscious, wounded woman among the Canaanite casualties. Compelled to bring her to a Hebrew healer back at their camp, he is soon confronted with a truth he can't ignore: the only way to protect this enemy is to marry her.

Unused to being weak and vulnerable, Alanah submits to the marriage--for now. As she comes to know and respect Tobiah and his people, however, she begins to second-guess her plans of escape. But when her past has painfully unanticipated consequences, the tentative peace she's found with Tobiah, the Hebrews, and Yahweh is shaken to the core. Can Alanah's fierce heart and strength withstand the ensuing threats to her life and all she's come to love?  AMAZON 5 STARS


What a great book, I almost don't know where to start.  I enjoyed the dramatic start to the book. The main characters first meeting was as interesting as the book blurb promised.  In fact the whole book was even better than I had hoped. Bravo!
 Alanah was an outstanding character in this book.  Her father had raised her as a warrior alongside her brothers and she had learned to work hard and to be strong.  Good thing.  She was going to need that strength and more.  Tobiah was also someone that I enjoyed so much as he rescued Alanah and as he dealt with her from there on.  He was a huge fierce warrior but he also had such gentleness and caring towards others as well.  He was a man of honor and fiercely loyal to Yahweh and his teachings.  It also showed more than once, Tobiah's reverence for obeying Yahweh and not to be found in rebellion.  He knew what rebellion brought first hand.  And that obedience ended up saving his life more than once as we read the story. 

It was so good to watch the slow transformation in Alanah as she began to see how different the Hebrews were when it came to valuing life and how they followed such goodness and protection towards the women in their families.  This was so different that what she was used to and had seen before in other cultures. One thing that was surprising was that she had been around other gods but she had come to the understanding of how vile the worship was of them was. She basically felt that they took everything and gave back nothing.

I found it interesting that she had a thirty day period in which to decide if she would go or stay as Tobiah's wife.  And some of the things she had to do to conform to being in the camp of what she considered the camp of her enemies, were sometimes eyebrow raising.  Not harmful but surprising.  
It's not all about Alanah and her struggle to adjust to the Hebrew camp, although some of her battles were emotional, mental, and spiritual.  But there are also real physical battles that have to be fought by the  Hebrew men to take the land.  

I can't even begin to go into all of the other secondary people in the story, they added so much to the story.  Not in an overwhelming way either.  
I liked how the Epilogue (which I always look forward to) gave another look into the "why" of this title.  Nice touch.


I received a copy of this book via Bethany House and this is my honest opinion of it