The Pharaoh's Daughter by Mesu Andrews

I received this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. 

The Pharaoh's Daughter by Mesu Andrews

A Treasure of the Nile Novel 

ISBN: 9781601425997

Trade Paperback

Synopsis:

“Fear is the most fertile ground for faith.”
 “You will be called Anippe, daughter of the Nile. Do you like it?” Without waiting for a reply, she pulls me into her squishy, round tummy for a hug. 
I’m trying not to cry. Pharaoh’s daughters don’t cry.
When we make our way down the tiled hall, I try to stop at ummi Kiya’s chamber. I know her spirit has flown yet I long for one more moment. Amenia pushes me past so I keep walking and don’t look back. 
Like the waters of the Nile, I will flow. 

Anippe has grown up in the shadows of Egypt’s good god Pharaoh, aware that Anubis, god of the afterlife, may take her or her siblings at any moment. She watched him snatch her mother and infant brother during childbirth, a moment which awakens in her a terrible dread of ever bearing a child. Now she is to be become the bride of Sebak, a kind but quick-tempered Captain of Pharaoh Tut’s army. In order to provide Sebak the heir he deserves and yet protect herself from the underworld gods, Anippe must launch a series of deceptions, even involving the Hebrew midwives—women ordered by Tut to drown the sons of their own people in the Nile. 
    

When she finds a baby floating in a basket on the great river, Anippe believes Egypt’s gods have answered her pleas, entrenching her more deeply in deception and placing her and her son Mehy, whom handmaiden Miriam calls Moses, in mortal danger.
  

As bloodshed and savage politics shift the balance of power in Egypt, the gods reveal their fickle natures and Anippe wonders if her son, a boy of Hebrew blood, could one day become king. Or does the god of her Hebrew servants, the one they call El Shaddai, have a different plan—for them all?

Review:

This is the first book I have read by Mesu and I am glad I was picked to be able to read it before it was published. This book comes out on March 17th. I felt for Anippe from the very first page. She was a very strong woman and had to go through more in life than most women. I can't imagine all the pair and terror she endured in her life. This was more than just her story it was also the story of Moses. We have all read his story int he Bible but Mesu has a way of writing the story to make it feel more "real" to me. I liked the Bible verses at the beginning of the chapters and then how the chapters tell a story. Mesu did a great job of describing the scenes in each chapter and I could really see where she was talking about and even felt as if I could feel and smell the surroundings. She really has a way of turning the words into pictures. It was a long journey following Anippe from a scared child who thought the Egyptian gods would make her die if she had a child to being a woman trusting in El Saddai to deliver a healthy baby and keep her safe. The friendship bonds she forms along the way are so touching. I will be reading more books by this author.