Not as good as her other two books. But still a terrific story.

This book is deeply emotional. Selene loses her mother, her home, her entire culture. She is taken in by her father's former wife and faces a culture which leaves women with very few rights. The way women were used for marriages and suddenly divorced or forced to leave their children was a horrifying piece of Roman culture I never knew. There is also the plight of slavery in the story. Selene's eyes are like the reader's eyes as we are surrounded by injustice and abuse. Readers can see this ancient society come to life in Moran's writing skill. Moran is great at making strong women in history come to life. The book starts with children who are quickly forced to grow up and work for their future by becoming important to the current Ceaser. I thought it was a page turner. The characters are diverse, and the backdrop for the characters is rich. There are many different points of view to connect with and see society through. I think the book has many positive characters instead of people against the protagonist (like Moran's other books). The last chapters has tons of plot and emotional lines develop. It builds up great and ends wonderfully. Reading the afterward also holds many surprises, many not so happy.

"...once we die, what we leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven ino the lives of others." - Pericles quoted by Augustus.

Moran seems to get better and better with each book. I look foward to what she next brings to the literature table!

In terms of the recommendation to those who love historical fiction and ancient Egypt, as a voracious reader and someone so interested in history that I've made a career out of it, I've got to say that my response was more of a mixed bag to this book.

There were good and bad things to say about this book. I didn't like the blatant name-dropping, especially as it served little to no purpose and seemed to be added in purely for the "Ooooh, look, there's Ovid! And this is Vercingetorix's daughter!!!" factor. It just seemed unnecessary to drop names when the main characters and plot ought to be able to carry a novel. There were also some implausible moments, such as Octavian taking the children with him out and about in Alexandria, or Octavia befriending them instantly (having the children by another woman of the husband who abandoned you dropped into your care? You'd at least think it'd take a while to bond). Also the twins seem to fit into their new lives and companions in Rome rather quickly, which surprised me given the traumatising experiences they'd been through. It just takes away from a sense that these are real people reacting as real people would. Well-drawn characters react to events around them in a way that makes sense given their personality and experiences, and it shows refinement from an author if they can create characters who seem to react and grow almost naturally.

There's a lot of exposition throughout the book. It's all too obvious that it's exposition for the benefit of the reader, and unfortunately it hasn't been done subtly. The information conveyed consists of all the most iconic trivia about the Romans that has filtered into the public consciousness, and the way it's presented is rather clunky and simplistic in a "oh and by the way did you know..." kind of way, such as Octavian saying "And remember, a third of Rome's population is enslaved". It's not woven into the plot very often, it tends to take the form of one character verbally explaining things to another character. The plot twists can be seen a mile off, and by page 80 I had guessed who the Red Eagle would be and who Kleopatra Selene would end up with (I'm avoiding saying who so as not to give spoilers, but it's become a real trend in historical fiction recently). The inclusion of the fictional Red Eagle plot surprised me because it's such a well worn storyline in so many books before, the classic "masked fighter of injustice in the big city" trope, and I wondered if Moran felt like she had to include it out of fear that readers would think the unembellished true story was too "boring" or "dull".

In addition, the scope of the story felt very insular and small scale, and not just because Kleopatra Selene is the first person narrator. The sense of epic scale is missing from this book, which feels strange given that the events and characters were so important historically. Many scenes are blinkered and narrow in scope, and I felt that there were some missed opportunities to convey a grander scale of events - for example, Octavian's first triumph is covered in only two pages and most of that consists of Kleopatra Selene's internal thoughts with a few titbits of description thrown in, and I was a bit disappointed that it didn't really evoke the magnitude of the occasion. I was pleasantly surprised by the author's note at the back of the book, and really appreciated Moran having a frank discussion about some of the changes she made to the history. However, I was also disappointed that there were so very many inaccuracies which are not mentioned in the author's note. Poor Octavian takes a beating on the historical accuracy front - his description and many of his actions in the novel are in fact made up - and I thought he was too vilified.

On the positive side, the story built up well to the climax, creating tension and probably the most emotion in the entire novel with a certain tragic incident, and then releasing that tension with the double revelation of the Red Eagle's identity and the identity of Kleopatra Selene's intended husband. Though the writing was rather simplistic, it seemed more forgivable if I approached this as a children's book. I actually think it was a good marketing decision to rate this book as for Young Adults/Adults (her previous two novels were defined only for the Adults group) - I think Moran needs to go further and market it completely at the early teens age group. Viewing it from that perspective, the story comes off as an enjoyable teenaged adventure romp. It's not earth-shattering literature, but it seems really well suited to an enthusiastic young historian, or those times when you just want to kick back and read something fun and unchallenging.

4 out of 10

I really enjoyed the book being set in Rome, but I found the plot lines not as gripping as in Nefertiti or The Heretic Queen. It was drawn-out, and I actually found the quick summary at the end of the book about what happened to the characters after the story ended was far more interesting than the story itself. The main characters showed little sign of having been affected by the traumatic events they endured and were not fully-fledged. Selene was quite annoying, actually.

I loved this book. I am a big fan of historical fiction and found that I couldn't put this book down, especially with such strong women characters. I now want to read more about this time period and look forward to this author's other books.

For full review visit: Mom-Musings

Alright, I will admit it...I do not care much for ancient history. Ummm...there, I said it. With that knowledge, I was a bit apprehensive about Cleopatra's Daughter as I wondered - Will I like this story? Will the story be dry and boring?

Let me tell you here and now, Cleopatra's Daughter is simply amazing! This is one of the best books I have read this year. I highly recommend this book to adults and Young Adults alike. If I was still homeschooling my girls, Cleopatra's Daughter would be placed on their list for a history reader. Alas,since they are not homeschooled, Cleopatra's Daughter has been placed on my 14 year old’s to-read stack.

The story of Selene, Cleopatra's Daughter, was utterly gripping! I found myself glued to the pages in fascination, interest, intrigue and also with a bit of discomfort.

Michelle Moran did a fabulous job weaving historical fact seamlessly throughout the story. The language flowed from the pages with richness and depth as I read and learned about the Roman way of life as well as their cruelty. I spoke of discomfort, well, this feeling would come into play when we would read about the ways slaves and those of lower class, women and children would be treated.

Very gripping, indeed.