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The cover art lied to me. The beautiful portrait on the front suggested to me that someone took a look at the real life bust of the queen revered for her beauty and finally decided to write a story about black Egyptian royalty. If we're not talking about the Helenistic dynasty (the line of Cleopatras and Ptolenmys) I don't want to hear about them being white. And even then, because of Alexander the Great's conquest of Egypt, Cleopatra came from a long line of inbred Greeks and Macedonians. Yet, Moran has characters who are inexplicably blue eyed, red-headed before there is any influence from the countries that would become Europe.

All the same, for a first novel it wasn't bad. It follows Mutnodjmet the sister to Nefertiti. Our narrator-protagonist comes from a family that has long sense given daughters to kings of Egypt for marriage. She is kind and honest individual who has a talent for gardening and an intellect for medical herbs. Easy to feel for we watch as her sister's selfishness take her further and further away from the things she wants- a peaceful life and a family of her own. At times it was very suspenseful especially when the court politics explode in standoffs against the paranoid and ruthless Pharoah Akhenaten. But the story misses opportunities for gripping battles and some characters that could have been actual threats fizzle away without much mention. Also, I never felt I really got to understand why Nefertiti was great enough to deserve to be the titular character; it would have been nice to see how she redeems herself. However, from the start, she is clearly cunning, bright, and there are many surprising moments of how she slowly steals the affection of the king away from his first wife and eventually becomes co-reagent. It does paint the palace life very well, but I wish I would have seen more of what the village life in Egypt was like. You do not get much sense of the people's unrest with the current rule, you just keep hearing about it.

Overall, the payoff is tremendous, and the major character wrap up nicely. I would recommend it. It sticks fairly close to Historical accuracy... if you can imagine all the character with color. LOL.