Review: Nefertiti by Michelle Moran

Nefertiti by Michelle Moran
☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Book Source: My own copy

Setting: It’s 1351 BCE Thebes, Egypt. The crown prince Tuthmosis dies from injuries what was to be thought from a chariot accident, but some are skeptical that the crown prince’s death wasn’t an accident at all. Now the second eldest son, Amunohotep is crowned Prince of Egypt and is soon to become Pharaoh of Lower Egypt while his father rules Upper Egypt.

Synopsis: Nefertiti, the eldest daughter of Vizier Ay, is stunningly beautiful with a strong personality to go along with it. She is destined to marry the unpredictable Pharaoh Amunohotep in order to sway him back to Amun, the most important God in Egypt, and distract him from his interests in the sun disk Aten.

At 15 years old, Nefertiti marries Amunohotep who instantly becomes transfixed by her captivating spell. Now Nefertiti is Amunohotep’s Chief Wife and Queen of Lower Egypt, however, this isn’t enough for Nefertiti. She becomes so obsessed with Kiya, Amunohotep’s second wife, that she forgets the reasons why she was placed on the throne to begin with. Instead of convincing Amunohotep that Amun is all powerful, Nefertiti goes along with Amunohotep’s outrageous ideas of destroying and robbing all the temples of Amun out of fear of losing Amunohotep to Kiya.

By desecrating the temples of Amun, Amunohotep loses the love and respect of the people and now everything rests on Nefertiti’s shoulders in order to prevent the people from rebelling. The only person courageous enough to stand up to Nefertiti and tell her the truth is her younger sister Mutnojmet who has always remained loyal to her and the crown. However, Nefertiti refuses to see the error of both Amunohotep’s and her own ways. So the one loyal person to Nefertiti refuses to stand by and watch her sister singly corrupt Egypt. It doesn’t take long for Egypt to crumble under Amunohotep and Nefertiti’s reign and now they are both afraid of a rebellion that will result in either losing their crown or even worse their death.

Review: I absolutely loved this book! This was my first encounter with Michelle Moran and I am so pleased that I picked this book up off the rack at Barnes & Noble. From start to finish I was lost in the world of the Egyptians. Michelle did an amazing job describing every minute detail that I felt like I was their witnessing it.

This story was told in the point of view of Nefertiti’s younger sister Mutnodjmet, which was perfection! The characters were so well developed that you couldn’t help but to fall in love with Mutnodjmet and her body servant Ipu and absolutely despise the weak and shallow Amunohotep, who later changes his name to Akenhaten for Aten. Nefertiti is in a category of her own. Throughout the entire book I kept going back and forth from loving and feeling sorry for her to thinking she’s selfish and deserved what she got.

I recommend this book to everyone both historical lovers and not. I guarantee you will be griping your seat throughout the entire ride. I can’t wait to read the next book The Heretic Queen.