The Pharaoh's Daughter Book Review

A Treasures of the Nile Novel

Book One

SUMMARY:  Anippe has grown up in the shadows of Egypt's good god Pharaoh, aware that Anubis, god of the afterlife, may take her or her siblings at any moment.  She watched him snatch her mother and infant brother during childbirth, a moment that awakened in her a terrible dread of ever bearing a child.  Now she is to become the bride of Sebak, the kind but quick-tempered captain of Pharaoh Tut's army.  In order to provide Sebak the heir he deserves and yet protect herself from the underworld gods, Anippe must launch a series of deceptions, even involving the Hebrew midwives - women ordered by Tut to drown the sons of their own people in the Nile.

     When she finds a baby floating in a basket on the great river, Anippe believes Egypt's gods have answered her pleas, entrenching her more deeply in deception and placing her and her son, Mehy, whom handmaiden Miriam calls Moses, in mortal danger.

     As bloodshed and savage politics shift the balance of power in Egypt, the gods reveal their fickle natures and Anippe wonders if her son, a boy of Hebrew blood, could one day become king.  Or does the god of her Hebrew servants, the one they call El Shaddai, have a different plan for them all?

REVIEW:  Having read most of the books written by Mesu Andrews, I was intrigued when I saw the posts for this one.  When I first started reading it, it was difficult keeping all the characters straight due to name changes (essential to the story) and understanding some of the cultural terms without a glossary.  But, as I kept on, the story grabbed me. The twists and turns of human manipulation, along with backstabbing and murder, were important to show the depravity of man when he follows other gods.  Often I wondered how Anippe, since she was the main character, would turn away from the Egyptian gods she's always known and come to know El Shaddai as the one true God.  Mesu did not disappoint me here.  She came up with a way I was not expecting but fully admired and was thrilled to read.  The main idea that I took from this book was no matter where you are, no matter how many times you create a new identity, and no matter how far you go, the God of the Bible sees you where you are, knows your name and loves you just the same.
     While this story may be a little harder than some to read, it is well worth the time if you just stick with it.  This is a great novel.  I look forward to the next book in this series and any others from this fabulous author.

This book was provided by Blogging for Books and Waterbrook Multnomah for review without compensation.

Mesu Andrews' deep understanding of and love for God's Word brings the biblical world alive for her readers.  Her first novel, Love Amid the Ashes, won the 2012 ECPA Book of the Year for a Debut Author.  Her three subsequent novels, Love's Sacred Song, Love in a Broken Vessel, and In the Shadow of Jezebel, all released to great reader enthusiasm.  Mesu lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, Roy.