Tagged: song of the nile

Song of the Nile by Stephanie Dray

Song of the Nile by Stephanie Dray(Cover picture courtesy of Stephanie Dray’s website.)

Sorceress. Seductress. Schemer. Cleopatra’s daughter is the one woman with the power to destroy an empire…

Having survived her perilous childhood as a royal captive of Rome, Selene pledged her loyalty to Augustus and swore she would become his very own Cleopatra. Now the young queen faces an uncertain destiny in a foreign land.

The magic of Isis flowing through her veins is what makes her indispensable to the emperor. Against a backdrop of imperial politics and religious persecution, Cleopatra’s daughter beguiles her way to the very precipice of power. She has never forgotten her birthright, but will the price of her mother’s throne be more than she’s willing to pay?

Oftentimes the second book in a trilogy suffers from what I call Book 2 Syndrome.  It means that the book is essentially a set up for the more exciting final book and ends on a huge cliffhanger to sucker readers into buying another book.  This is definitely not the case with Stephanie Dray’s debut trilogy.

Cleopatra Selene is an even better character in this book not only because of her age but because of her life experience.  Stephanie Dray manages to find a perfect balance between Selene’s ambitious side and her religious side, the side that is totally devoted to Isis.  At the same time (for what will become obvious reasons) Selene has a hard time trusting and forgiving people.  She’s not a perfect woman and never pretends to be but her inner strength is undeniable.  Truly, Selene is spared nothing by Stephanie Dray and goes through so much suffering throughout the novel.  Yet with the suffering there is also healing.

Much like Lily of the Nile, this book was a one-sitting read.  I literally could not put it down, going so far as to read it while having supper, which is not something I’d normally do no matter how interesting a book is.  The plot is fast-paced but there’s so much character development not only for Selene but for Chryssa, Juba, Octavian and Helios as well.  It’s really a fascinating read from a lot of perspectives.

Song of the Nile is not a miraculous example of historical accuracy in fiction.  Yet I loved how Stephanie Dray admitted this in her ‘Dear Reader’ note and gave actual justifications for any changes.  There is also a huge gap in the record of Cleopatra Selene’s life so she did have a little more leeway with her characters than most historical fiction writers do.  Despite these changes where possible the novel is historically accurate right down to the details of everyone’s clothing.

If you haven’t started the trilogy yet I can’t recommend it enough.  It’s well-written so that you feel like you’re actually there with these historical figures.  It’s fast-paced but doesn’t sacrifice character development in the process.  And it’s historically accurate where possible.  What more can you ask for in historical fiction?

I give this book 5/5 stars.

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Look What Just Arrived! (#14)

Carrie Pictures 2013 072Yesterday I spent Christmas with my family and consequently got a lot of books as presents.  (We’re a pretty bookish family—my father got more books than I did!)  The only book I didn’t get for Christmas was The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson.  That was recommended to me a while back and I picked it up as I did my last-minute Christmas shopping on the 23rd.

Anyway, here are my new books:

  • Onyx by Jennifer L. Armentrout
  • Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore
  • The Devil’s Concubine by Jill Braden
  • The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson
  • Ingenue by Jillian Larkin
  • Earth Bound by Aprilynne Pike
  • Song of the Nile by Stephanie Dray

Frankly, I’m really excited to read all of these.  So excited, in fact, that last night I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning to finish Bitterblue.  The review is to follow shortly.

The Devil’s Concubine is a book I reviewed for Wayzgoose press and I asked for it for Christmas because I had only an ebook copy.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m happier with ebooks now than before when I didn’t have a Kindle, but I still prefer paperbacks.  Ingenue is the second book in the Flappers books by Jillian Larkin and I’m really interested to see where the stories of the girls go.  The same goes for Onyx by Jennifer L. Armentrout because of the cliffhanger at the end of Obsidian, the first book.

Song of the Nile is yet another second book and this time it encompasses a period of time that’s very rarely written about: after Cleopatra Selene married King Juba.  I’m interested to see how Stephanie Dray fills in the gaps in the historical record and I’m hoping that she does as good a job as she did in Lily of the Nile.

The only book that I really know nothing about was Earth Bound, a gift from a friend.  It’s not the sort of thing I would normally pick up on my own time because there’s going to be a love triangle (it’s mentioned right in the blurb), but I’ll try my best to read it with an open mind.

If you celebrate Christmas, did you get any books as presents?  Which ones?  Do you see anything you like here?