Review: Song of the Nile by Stephanie Dray

Title: Song of the Nile
Author: Stephanie Dray
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Berkley
Publish Date: October 4, 2011
Source: Owned.

Why You're Reading This Book:

• You're a historical fiction fan.
• You like magical realism.

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "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?"

My Two Cents:

"Song of the Nile" is the second book in Stephanie Dray's trilogy about Cleopatra's daughter, Cleopatra Selene. You will definitely want to read the first book in the series, Lily of the Nile, before you tackle this book in order to fully understand what's going on in this book. Cleopatra Selene isn't someone that we know a lot about but Dray fills in the blanks with a really fantastic tale about a fantastic character.

In this book, Cleopatra Selene is married off to Juba to rule the kingdom of Mauritania and she is not happy about it. She wants to be able to go back to Egypt and rule. She will lock heads with Augustus, the Roman Emperor (and terrible human being) in order to try to maneuver to get her way. I appreciated her strength, ambition, and tenacity. I love strong characters and that is exactly what you get with Cleopatra Selene! Her life is not a happy one but you want so badly for things to change for her. She's definitely a character that you're pulling for throughout the book. I am very anxious to see how her story ends.

As with the first book, there continued to be a little bit of magical realism in this book that I really loved. Cleopatra Selene is a worshiper of Isis and there are a lot of magical things that happened to her because of that fact. Magical realism is so much fun!

The historical detail is great in this book. I haven't read a whole lot of fiction set in ancient times and I do believe that this is the very first book that I've ever read that is set in Mauritania! There was so much good detail in here that I had no problem imagining what Cleopatra Selene's life must have been like.

Overall, this is a great story!

Other Books in This Series:

Lily of the Nile