Everything I Read This Month: March 2023

I’ve got to be honest with you here, I read Alex Michaelides’ The Maidens in the very beginning of March and it feels like a year ago. It’s been a busy month. Busy month aside, though, I just…didn’t love it.

For me, this novel read and impacted me a lot like with The Secret History by Donna Tartt (not to be confused with another novel with the same title below, which I loved). It had the same dark academia vibes and literary drama, but a lot of it just felt…pretentious. Like with The Secret History, I was engrossed in The Maidens because I felt like I had read so much that I needed to know what happened, but it had less to do with actual interest than sunk cost analysis.

The Maidens by Alex Michaelides is available from Amazon and Bookshop.org.

I picked up Stephanie Thornton’s The Tiger Queens (and most of the other novels I read this month) on a friend’s recommendation. Within pages, I was hooked.

I know very little about the Mongolian Empire, and my knowledge of Genghis Khan is rudimentary at best. Stephanie Thornton does a great job creating realistic protagonists, through whom she introduces the history and landscape necessary to orient the reader.

Broken up into sections covering different generations of women in Genghis Khan’s family, The Tiger Queens manages to cover broad swatches of history without feeling like an overwhelming — or over-simplified — narrative. Really, truly fascinating.

The Tiger Queens by Stephanie Thornton is available from Amazon and Bookshop.org.

It is testament to The Tiger Queens that I immediately turned to The Secret History: A Novel of Empress Theodora by Stephanie Thornton next. In this novel, Thornton shares Empress Theordora’s unlikely rise from poverty to Byzantine Empress.

Thornton crafts a realistic and lifelike narrative of life in the 6th century AD, sharing details both big and small to take the reader along with Theodora’s rise. Theodora defies all odds in becoming Empress alongside Justinian, and Thornton gives her protagonist the political credit where credit is due. All in all, a fascinating (and quick!) read.

The Secret History: A Novel of Empress Theodora by Stephanie Thornton is available from Amazon and Bookshop.org.

Book one of three in Michelle Moran’s Egyptian Royals Collection, Nefertiti tells the story of the eponymous Pharaoh of Egypt through the eyes of her younger sister, Mutnodjmet.

The novel follows the sisters from their move to Thebes through Nefertiti’s marriage to the unstable young pharaoh, Amunhotep, and her ultimate downfall. With nuanced politics and age-old power struggles between would-be ruling families.

Watching Nefertiti’s story unfold is all the more fascinating through the lens of her younger, contemplative sister (who, outside of the scope of this novel, goes on to become Queen of Egypt as well).

Nefertiti by Michelle Moran is available from Amazon and Bookshop.org.

Following Nefertiti, The Heretic Queen is the second novel in Michelle Moran’s Egyptian Royals Collection. This novel picks up with a new generation of Egyptian royals, including Nefertari, Nefertiti’s niece and daughter of Mutnodjmet.

Nefertari finds that she is tainted due to her aunt’s reviled legacy. In order to make a place for herself in the royal court, Nefertari has to establish herself as an individual, not merely a relic of Nefertiti’s dark reign.

The Heretic Queen by Michelle Moran is available from Amazon and Bookshop.org.

Book four of the Bridgerton book series, Romancing Mister Bridgerton tells Penelope and Colin’s love story. This novel is set some ten-or-so years after book three (or the Netflix show), so the reader gets an interesting glimpse into the Bridgertons’ various futures throughout the book.

In this novel, Lady Whistledown’s identity is at the center of controversy. Like with the Netflix series, this novel sees the Ton actively seeking out the identity of the renowned gossip writer, and the drama is held central to Penelope and Colin’s budding relationship.

Romancing Mister Bridgerton is available from Amazon and Bookshop.org.