Review: Daughter of Egypt by Marie Benedict

Daughter of Egypt by Marie Benedict
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC and ALC of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

I'm quickly becoming a big fan of Benedict's books about historical female figures in history. This is told in alternating points of view between Lady Evelyn Herbert and the mysterious Egyptian female pharaoh Hatshepsut. Eve's has grown up surrounded by Egyptian artifacts and stories of her father's adventures on digs in Egypt with his colleague Howard. As Eve is coming of age and entering London society, she is desperate to join them on a dig herself and possibly convince them to search for Hatshepsut. As we join Eve and her family in the desert on their digs and learn about the political climate of Egypt at the time in the 1920s, we also travel back in time to ancient Egypt. Hatshepsut herself tells us of her life, her family, and how she game to power over time.

I really enjoyed this. I have long time been a fan of Egyptian history and was lucky enough to visit the King Tut exhibit when it came to Pittsburgh at the Carnegie Museum many years ago. The culture is fascinating. It was nice to see a female ruler like Hatshepsut make her own rules and lead her country into prosperity and then years later someone comes along and is determined to find out what happened to her and why she was erased from history. Make sure you read the author's note about the research put into the book. We still don't really know what happened to Hatshepsut and why she was struck from Egyptian history, but we do know that both of these women did exist. I always appreciate a well researched book, and I love when an author notes what they changed about historical facts to make their novel work and what is actual fact versus what is complete fiction. I found both women's stories compelling and I want to learn more about both of them.

The audio narration was excellent. I think it was smart to have different narrators for each POV, it was nice to have a different voice for Evelyn and Hatshepsut so you knew which woman and time period you were in while listening. If possible I like to read along with the audio, but I can't always read along which is the beauty of audiobooks. Having two different voices makes the transition in a multi-POV book very easy when you are only listening. Both narrators did a wonderful job bringing the story to life with appropriate emotion and pace for the story.

View all my reviews