The Heretic Queen is Michelle Moran’s follow-up novel to Nefertiti. Fifteen years after Nefertiti leaves off, Nefertari, daughter to Mutnodjmet, has a hard legacy to live down: she’s the neice of Nefertiti and Akhenaten, and her reputation is tarnished by association. Thirteen-year-old Nerfertari nevertheless becomes the wife of Ramesses the Great, sometimes at odd with his other wife, Iset.
I thought the story was good; very good, in fact. But I felt that something was missing; the tension in this novel is sadly not as great as that which is in Nefertiti. There’s no real conflict here. Also, I had a bit of a problem with timeline issues: Nefertiti was actually set eighty years before The Heretic Queen, not fifteen or twenty.
Still, I was fascinated by Nefertari’s story—she and Ramesses had a very long, happy life together (and Ramesses lived into his nineties, almost unheard-of back then). I’d love to see sequel novel featuring the two of them. The Heretic Queen is a quick, easy read, and I was entertained overall by the story.
Also reviewed by: Becky's Book Reviews
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--Anna
Diary of an Eccentric