Esther Friesner

Chased after by the prince and his soldiers for a crime she did not commit, Nefertiti finds temporary refuge in the wild hills along the Nile's west bank before returning to the royal court to plead her case to the Pharaoh.

Sphinx's Queen

jess

[review written 2013]

actually i liked this book a lot better than sphinx’s princess. there was more suspense in it, and the plot moved quickly enough for me to keep interested and this time i actually cared about the romance subplot between nefertiti and amenophis. 

it was good, but it wasn’t great. one thing i both loved and hated was the face heel turn (i am using tv tropes to describe things again) by thutmose and later, queen tiye. on one hand, i was rooting constantly for them to realize that their paranoia was completely unwarranted, but i was dismayed at how quick it seemed to be. 

which was why i used the term face heel turn. (or heel face turn?) but no! i liked it and i liked how everything wrapped up neatly in the end and most of all how it was a happy ending. 

i’m definitely going to reread her series about helen of troy now (well, i read the first book, so reread that.) i liked nefertiti in this book, i liked nava, and most oddly of all, i liked thutmose, even though he irritated me through most of the book. by the end, i felt sorry for him. 

this book is an 8/10 and once again, for people who like history or strong women rulers. (because even if nefertiti isn’t a ruler when the books take place, she is unarguably strong. in regards to femininity and strength, friesner does not do the thing where nefertiti switches between masculine ideals of strength and feminine ideals of beauty. she is feminine and she is strong because she is clever and smart and ready to fight for herself, and she will not let anyone control her, and i loved that.)

Sphinx's Queen

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