I was contacted by Curiosity Quills Press to join the Kiya: Hope of the Pharaoh Blog Tour. I received the book for review and I loved it!
When Naomi’s sisters are snatched up to be taken to be wives of the erratic Pharaoh, Akhenaten, she knows they won’t survive the palace, so she offers herself in their place. The fearsome Commander Horemheb sees her courage, and knows she is exactly what he is looking for…
The Great Queen Nefertiti despises Naomi instantly, and strips her of her Hebrew lineage, including her name, which is changed to Kiya. Kiya allies herself with Horemheb, who pushes her to greatness and encourages her to make the Pharaoh fall in love with her. When Akhenaten declares Kiya will be the mother of his heir, Nefertiti, furious with jealousy, schemes to destroy Kiya.
Kiya must play the deadly game carefully. She is in a silent battle of wills, and a struggle for who will one day inherit the crown. If she does bear an heir, she knows she will need to fight to protect him, as well as herself, from Nefertiti who is out for blood.
This has been such a difficult review for me to write. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and I've even asked for permission to review the second book in the series. I just cannot think of how to write this review. Usually I do a run-down of the setting, characters, and plot and explain what happened and what I did and did not enjoy. I can't really do this with this book. There are so many characters that deserve to be recognized, so many events that I want to tell you about.
The synopsis does a good job of describing the basis of the book to the reader but it cannot tell you how brave and smart Kiya is, how despicable Nefertiti is, how mysterious Horemheb is. And I cannot adequately put this into words either.
I loved Kiya. She was brave and defiant as she made a place for herself in the palace. She was smart but was almost naive as she learned to play the dangerous game played by all throughout the palace. She is forced to consider who is trustworthy, how to make the pharaoh love her, and what it means to learn to live with this strange man she finds herself married to.
The pharaoh is such an odd character and I actually found myself feeling sorry for him. He is touched with madness and at times flies off the handle and hurts those he loves the most but he truly wants someone who he can be honest with and that will truly love him as a man.
Horemheb is truly the Pharaoh's right hand man and will do anything to protect the the pharaoh and his crown. But Horemheb is also a military man who is willing to kill his king but he also treats Kiya with true friendship at times. I spent parts of this book wondering what Horemheb's intentions were for doing something and trying to figure him out.
Nefertiti is such an amazingly-awful character! Jealous not because of love of the pharaoh, but because of rank and power she will do anything to keep her ranking as first wife. She has urged pharaoh to marry his own daughters so if they carry the Pharaoh's son they will be able to take control of the throne. Her ultimate goal is to take the throne from the pharaoh for her own purpose. I had guessed her ultimate evil long before it was finally revealed but I still found myself in outrage.
There are so many other characters worthy of description but for brevity I'll leave my description there.
I read this book in one sitting because I wanted to know what was going to happen next and I was cheering on my characters. This review doesn't do justice to the book but I truly do not know how to tell you how amazing this book is.
This book was definitely amazing and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys intrigue, suspense, drama, or historical fiction. I would suggest it to someone who enjoys strong heroines and to anyone who thinks religious fiction is interesting. This book has all these elements but is not strictly religious fiction or strictly suspense.
Born and raised in Australia, Katie’s early years of day dreaming in the “bush”, and having her father tell her wild bedtime stories, inspired her passion for writing.
After graduating High School, she became a foreign exchange student where she met a young man who several years later she married. Now she lives in Arizona with her husband, daughter and their dog.
She has a diploma in travel and tourism which helps inspire her writing. She is currently at school studying English and Creative Writing.
Katie loves to out sing her friends and family, play sports and be a good wife and mother. She now works as a Clerk with a lien company in Arizona to help support her family and her schooling. She loves to write, and takes the few spare moments in her day to work on her novels.
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