Nefertiti - Michelle Moran

Nefertiti is destined to be a great ruler; she is the daughter of the Queen's brother Ay and it is her fate to become Queen of Egypt. Not only is Nefertiti beautiful but she is also intelligent, independent, strong-willed and power-hungry. It is Queen Tiye's hope that her niece will be able to exert some control over her son and Nefertiti's intended husband Amenhotep IV. Amenhotep is impulsive, reckless and unstable with disastrous and heretical ideas-- it is Amenhotep's goal to take Egypt from a polytheism to a monotheism religion, with Aten the Sun god at the centre. He also desires to make Pharaoh the voice of Aten and remove the Priests from their power therefore starting the age old battle of church versus state.

The story tells the story of Nefertiti's rise and subsequent fall from power as she is unable to control her husband Akhenaten's (formerly known as Amenhotep) vision of a new Egypt. Pharaoh decides to build his empire Amarna in the middle of the desert and he removes the Priests from their positions of power, greatly angering the people of Egypt. Throughout Akhenaten's reforms, Nefertiti is waging her own battles within her family, mainly with Kiya, Akhenaten's other wife. Kiya has produced an heir for Pharaoh whereas Nefertiti only gave him daughters.

The entire story is narrated by Nefertiti's younger sister Mutnodjmet. Mutnodjmet is the total opposite of her sister and although she is forced to live with Nefertiti at court as her chief lady, Mutnodjmet wants nothing more than a quite life in the country with an herb garden, as far away from court life and her sister as possible.

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Nefertiti was an amazing story! I was captivated from page 1 and it was virtually impossible for me to put down this book. It was a page turner and it was a quick paced and extremely well written and researched with great care. It was everything that historical fiction should be as it was full of intrigue, romance and history.

I was super excited to read this book as I have been fascinated with Ancient Egypt for as long as I can remember, I even took a few ancient history classes in school in an attempt to learn more about this period. There is just something about the culture and the way of life that I find to be spellbinding. The fact that Michelle Moran was able to create such a vibrating and captivating set of characters living in a time period where there is not an extensive amount of accurate information was amazing. Moran's writing style is exquisite—she gives enough detail for you to picture the temples and the way of life in Ancient Egypt without overdoing it therefore your imagination is still a vital part of enjoying the story. She is also able to create characters that literally jump off the page. I also enjoyed the fact that there was a love story within the novel but it wasn’t an in-your-face love story, but something that subtly happens within the story. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who would like to learn more about Ancient Egypt and the notorious ancient pharaoh Akhenaton and his pharaoh wife Nefertiti.