Hope Refined

A rooftop. A stolen glance. A choice that will shake a kingdom.

Drawn into Israel's past, Merlin serves as adviser to King David in Jerusalem, hoping to find the model of kingship he will one day need for Arthur. The palace shines with gold, duty, and ceremony. And David seems to embody everything a great ruler should be.

But when the king stops singing, Merlin knows something in Jerusalem has gone terribly wrong.

From the shadows of the palace roof, Merlin witnesses the beginning of a tragic story that he cannot stop and dare not ignore. From feasts where wine is wielded as a weapon to a haunted forest where even the trees rise up to fight, Merlin watches hidden sin twist a kingdom and shatter the man he most admired.

When his world is broken beyond mending, he must decide whether bitterness will define him or whether the God who refines can still be trusted.

Walking the razor's edge between friendship and obedience, Merlin must wrestle with the hardest questions a counsellor can face and carry those answers into the future.

What he learns will echo far beyond Jerusalem and into the legend he has yet to live.

Blending the grit of biblical history with the wonder of Arthurian legend, Hope Refined reveals a secret chapter of Merlin's long life when he learned that even the greatest earthly kings fall and that genuine hope lies in a very different kingdom.

A note to the readers: The second half of David's life is among the most sorrow-filled in all of Scripture. This story does not avoid it. But it is precisely in those dark chapters that the theme of this novel-refined hope-is most fully tested and most powerfully found. Come prepared for both the weight and the wonder, but keep the tissues handy.