Neferura is a historical fiction story about the Neferura of ancient Egyptian history. One could even call it speculative fiction since very little knowledge or evidence currently exists about Neferura’s life.

The book begins as Neferura is coming into womanhood, with her half brother returning to the Palace and her mother Hatsheput trying to establish her legacy as the longest reigning female pharoh. With her vengeful brother’s return, all of what Neferura believed to be true regarding her life, religion, and family is challenged.

Neferura is a story of courtly intrigue, friendship, religion (lightly), patriarchy and abuse, and the experiences of women - along with the historical underestimation of women.

I loved this book. It starts slow as Evans builds Neferura’s character, world, and establishes identities and relationships. At roughly 40% into the story though it picks up and Neferura’s life truly begins to change - leading to steady medium pacing as readers navigate the court of Hatsheput and Thutmose III. I also appreciated that Evans included several pages at the end going over the actual history (what little is known) and characters, and explains who was inspired but what real characters from history and those that were entirely fictional.

For fans of:
⚱️Ancient Egyptian History and Mythology
📜 Court Intrigue
💪🏽 Strong FMCs
🏠 Found Family
🪞 Character self discovery and growth
🫶🏻 Powerful friendships and loyalty
❤️‍🔥 Nontraditional HEAs

Do yourself a favor and preorder Neferura! The book releases February 13th!

Thank you to @netgalley @sourcebookslandmarks and @malaynaevans for the ARC.

Neferura takes Egyptian history and turns it into a story that is easy to read and appreciate. The text is definitely aimed at a younger audience than myself, which it definitely assists in making the story palatable but it does appear to be written for a much younger audience than the YA audience it is aimed at.

The beginning of the story is quite slow, but it does pick up towards the second half of the book, which I did enjoy more. Some events feel a bit "too easy" in terms of pushing the plot along and getting our heroes to where they need to be. I love seeing female friendship in these stories, so the relationships between these characters were very heart-warming.

Overall, I enjoyed the story and appreciated the writing.

To start this would be a great YA historical drama, either for highschoolers or someone just getting into historical fiction. The writing isn't bad, but it's not great either. The pacing is off, there is so much melodrama, and the plot is a bit weak. However, it is a great example of feminism in a historical setting.

This ended up being one of those books that I wanted to like more than I did. It is easy enough to understand without a background in ancient Egyptian history, but having that knowledge before reading helps make some character actions more realistic and helps you understand certain cultural references. The prose is also easy to read. My main issue with the book is the way that the plot is presented. Certain actions or twists felt more predictable than I would have liked from this sort of story. The second half of the book moves faster than the first half, and I found that I enjoyed the second half more than the first as a result. As for Neferura herself, I appreciated the development she saw as the plot progressed. Even though this book isn’t for me, I did enjoy the historical elements and scholarly theories presented at the end of the book. The histories and theories are something that I could reasonably find myself looking into on my own time, so I am glad that this book was able to serve as an introduction of sorts to this specific part of Egyptian history.

I received an ARC through NetGalley from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This was a wonderful reimagining of the life of Neferura during the reign of her famous mother, Hatshepsut. 👑

Historically, not much is known about this woman. Other than common knowledge that she is the daughter of two pharaohs and held a powerful position at court, it’s not know when she was born, if she married and when she died. I really enjoyed Evans’ take on what could have happened with a twist, as well as address the idea that there was animosity between Hatshepsut and Thutmose III. ⚔️

In this take, Neferura needs to take on her brother as she learns about a plan to sink her mother’s reign. As she slowly starts to trust others and a mysterious wise woman with connections everywhere, Neferura soon finds that she needs to sneak around in order to save herself and her mother. 👀

I found Neferura’s character to be a sheltered, but loyal daughter to her mother. While she’s a quick learner in the art of spying, her judgement at times is rash and not well thought out in my opinion. I found Hatshepsut to be the kind of queen and pharoh that she needed to be: cold and calculating, but with a vulnerable side that she very rarely nor seen can’t to show. Thutmose is despicable, but his experiences do shed light on how he came to hate his stepmother and half sister, though this mixed with his egotism and spoiled nature is a cocktail for disaster. The wise woman, I found, to be my favorite of the bunch with her duplicitous nature. She did what she thought was needed for her group and nation, and wasn’t afraid to throw the royals and nobles under the bus. 🦂

While the plot was engaging and well thought out with its extensive research, I did find that it felt rushed here and there. Now this might’ve been done to progress the story and show the tension of the characters, but some events could have lasted a bit longer to really make them stick. 🌴

Regardless of my thoughts on the overall packing, I did have a good time reading this and found myself immersed in Ancient Egyptian history. Definitely would recommend it for those interested in Ancient Egyptian history, women of the time, and of course a glimpse of what Hatshepsut looked like as a ruler. 👸🏽

Big thank you goes out to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for accepting my request in exchange for an honest review, and to the author, Malayna Evans, for writing a wonderful historical fiction on a mysterious woman! 🔍

Publication day: February 13!

Overall: 4.25/5 ⭐️

On StoryGraph I gave this 3.5 stars.

Overall:
This book had really solid pacing that kept me turning the page pretty quickly throughout. Last year I read "The Woman Who Would Be King" -- a non-fiction book covering Neferura's mother, Hatshepsut. So I had a pretty solid understanding of the whole "god's wife" thing and how Hatshepsut came into power, which I think helped as I read this particular book. I enjoyed the depictions of friendship, and the plot was exciting enough, but I'm not rating it higher because some of the plot points seemed out-of-place and I wasn't a super huge fan of some elements of the ending.

Characters:
Neferura was just a bit too naive/oblivious a couple of times and it felt a bit out-of-character. She has been raised at court and talks about being good with court politics, but then several times makes enormous mistakes due to her own naivety.

The friendships between her and Iset and the priestesses were lovely to see.

I felt like Thutmose came off a bit too mustache-twirly. He was just suddenly there and this sudden incredibly violent and psychotic villain.

Plot:
The ending just felt a little bit too tidy. It was nice to see a super happy ending to some degree, but I just don't believe that these particular people probably had this happy of an ending. Which I suppose is the fun of fiction at times. But this being historical fiction with a lot of elements based in reality, I guess I would have like a little bit more of a realistic ending.

Yes! Finally a historical fantasy about Egypt. I loved this book. I couldn’t stop reading. This was such a fun story with mystery and romance!

Neferura by Malayna Evans is a historical fiction novel that tells the story of the daughter of the famous Egyptian pharaoh Hatshepsut, who faces danger and betrayal from her half-brother Thutmose. The novel is based on extensive research and historical accuracy, and it portrays the culture and politics of ancient Egypt in a vivid and engaging way. Evans is an Egyptologist and her passion and knowledge are evident. The novel also celebrates the power and friendship of women, as Neferura forms alliances with a mysterious tattooed wise woman and other female characters who help her navigate the complex court intrigues.

However, the novel also suffers from some flaws that may disappoint some readers. The pacing of the novel is uneven, with a slow and dragging first half that does not capture the reader’s attention or curiosity. After starting and reading the first third, it took me two months to pick it up again to finish. The writing style is almost too juvenile to capture the teen and adult audience (which many YA books are able to do quite successfully) and it fails to convey the depth and emotion of the characters and the plot. The characterization of Neferura, and others, is weak and inconsistent, and they often act in ways that are not consistent. The novel also lacks a satisfying climax and resolution, and it leaves many questions unanswered.

Overall, it is a novel that has a lot of potential. It may appeal to readers who are interested in ancient Egypt and female empowerment, but it may also frustrate readers who are looking for a more mature and compelling historical fiction.

Neferaru is a story centered on a fascinating subject: the daughter of the female pharaoh Hatshepsut.
.
The writing is solid. I was easily carried along from one sentence to the next. The budding romance between Neferaru and Kamut was fun to read, and the secret society of scorpion wisewomen was interesting to explore.

It took some thinking to understand why I couldn’t get into this story. This is what I landed on:

A story should consist of an inevitable and compelling progression of events - and that’s what Neferaru lacks. Things happen randomly with predictable consequences and without escalation of stakes. It does not feel like the story progresses.

I also found the protagonist impossibly naive, which makes it difficult to root for her and follow her on her journey. I kept wanting her to feel more real, but she felt flat.

I’d recommend this book for someone who loves stories of Ancient Egypt. I think it will get those readers their fix, even though it wasn’t for me.

As usual for me, I think my rating is lower than it may have been if I’d sat and read this intentionally and not just as my bedtime book this month. Kindle reads tend to rank lower for me than hard copy books, and I think it’s partly just my environment when reading them. This was an engaging story though, with many fascinating characters, in a setting I’m not very familiar with, which made it even more interesting. At times heartbreaking and full of twists and turns, I think many will thoroughly enjoy Neferura’s story.

Taking on a figure that's relative unknown to the masses--Neferura, the only child and daughter of the great Pharoah Hatshepsut--this novel was a triumph. It turned this figure, of which there is not quite much known about thanks to Thutmose, and creates a world that feels lived in. It's handled with great care and research, while still focusing on what matters the most: the characters.

For despite the worldbuilding being so so so good, the character work is the best part of this novel. It handles the plot with a deft hand and the politics are easy to understand. It balances accessible prose but doesn't dumb it down at all, making this perfect for just about anyone who finds the summary interesting.

Neferura is the story take place in Ancient Egypt under Pharaoh Hatshepsut's rule. Princess and also Priestess of Kemet make our MC tangled between political intrigues, family issues and journey to found her trueself.

I always love ancient Egypt setting and the author did her researchers and gave us a story that captivates perfectly condition and languages on those era. The story is well written and the plot is intriguing and fascinating. But the pace is slower than my usually fave. The characters also have alot potential but need more flesh out at here.

Thank you to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark Publishing for providing a copy of this ebook. I have voluntarily read and reviewed it. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This just wasn’t a good fit for me, but I think it was well-written and I know a lot of people will enjoy it!

Honestly, I was not as engaged as I thought I would be. I love Hatshepsut - so the fate of her daughter quite naturally intrigued me, even if from an historical fiction perspective. I am even open to "alternate" conclusions as to the fate of an equally enigmatic historical figure; however, this just didn't do it for me.

I would most likely suggest that the intended audience is teens / young adults as it certainly was not up to the standard I would expect from a work of historical fiction aimed at an adult audience, especially an audience seeking out something out of the box (and for which they themselves have some knowledge about).

Kudos for taking on Neferura though, and for the line taken to explain her sudden and mysterious disappearance from history, but as I said from the outset - I was not overly engaged.

Thank you NetGalley and Malayna Evans for providing an ARC of Neferura.

I am new to this genre of book and was not disappointed. the book started a bit slow and felt YA, but that changed by part 2 and I was hooked!

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for providing me with this ARC in return of an honest review.

Neferura is a historical fiction novel by Malayna Evans, an Egyptologist, whose love for Egyptian history and mythology can be clearly felt through her writing. Neferura was a somewhat unimportant figure in history and not much is known about her besides her being the daughter of two pharaohs and the sister of a third pharaoh, which gave Evans the room she needed to write a feminist reimagining about this character. While deities are an ever-present part of daily life for Neferura, there are no fantasy elements in this story. There are scenes where someone practices medicine and it is described as magic, but I believe this is simply due to not knowing enough about certain scientific methods and practices at the time combined with religious beliefs.

Writing
I enjoyed Evans writing style very much. It kept me interested in the story and made me even lose some sleep because I didn’t want to put my phone down.
I think it’s easy to tell that Evans paid close attention to the language she used by trying to balance respect for Egyptian history and accessibility for a modern readership. While I appreciated that, I do wish she had leaned even more into keeping the language factually and historically correct. I chose to read this story specifically for the Egyptian part after all.
But overall, the writing was beautiful and fitting.

Worldbuilding
Every time it comes to worldbuilding, I end up wishing there was more. We see Egyptian clothing, food and everyday items be featured but I found the atmospheric elements to be slightly lacking. I wish there were more descriptions about the weather and the scents. Like looking up into the sky when the sun is beating down onto the character and feeling the unrelenting heat on their dark skin. The world felt real but from a distance when I wanted immersion.

Plot
The plot was not ground-breaking but very solid. The pacing is more on the slower side, which I did not mind one bit. The story is told from Neferura’s POV for 98 % of the time and it is told in a timely chronological order. I think due to the aforementioned distance that exists between story and reader some of the more emotionally charged scenes felt less impactful. Other than that, it felt very logical and easy to follow.

Characters
I liked Neferura as the main character. The others were fleshed out enough, but I cared less about them. I enjoyed that Neferura is intelligent but still naïve due to her upbringing her personality of wanting to see the best in people. She’s a rather relatable strong female protagonist, which I find less and less of in fictional stories nowadays since a lot of strong female characters are either “sassy small girl who is strong but needs to be protected by big dark and sexy MMC” or “emotionless sexy murderer”. It is always a pleasure to read about complex female characters, where the discussion of if they are good or bad people is actually interesting to have, and this story has more than one such character!

Relationships
I know that incest was normalised among certain cultures, eras, and royalty but I would’ve rather not read about how a sister thinks of her brother as handsome or attractive but that is more of a personal ick. To be clear, the incestuous relationship is not romantic in any way and is depicted as problematic in the story too. Not due to it being incestuous but still.
I did like the male love interest but romance played a smaller role in the story, so it was more of a nice thing in the background rather than a couple I shipped.

I really enjoyed reading this and would recommend this to people interested in Egyptian historical fiction.

I was so happy to receive this ARC as I love the books it was compared to and I've always been fascinated with Ancient Egypt. Overall, I think this is a really interesting read with some wonderful female characters and some great relationships. There is definitely a firm sense of place - in that it is easy to invoke the time period from the temples, beautifully wrought stone tombs, lotus-filled ponds, and the shining blue ribbon of the Nile. Even Neferura stands out as an interesting young woman coming into her own and trying to navigate upheavals in power at court and those intrigues. There were quite a bit I enjoyed about the book, one of which was Hathor and her scorpions. It was really great to read about powerful women that existed outside of the typical power constructs of this time period, and that worked for a sense of 'greater good' for the average person, specifically women. This brings me also to the varied and fantastic relationships between women that exist in the story. The friendships were really meaningful and bright, and even the strained relationships felt natural.
With all the great aspects of the story, there were a few things that stood out to me that could have been molded a bit better into the story. For one, the pacing. Part 1 of the book feels very slow and at times, the writing and dialogue felt more akin to YA readership or even coming-of-age. Neferura is very naive and ignorant, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it creates a very slow reading experience. I do wish it was emphasized more that Neferura as God's Wife truly believed in this religious experience and it was often painted as 'ignorance' but this was a religion that many, many people were devoted to so sometimes when it was depicted as just being ignorant it felt a bit wrong. Additionally, for several of the important friendships that Neferura had, we as readers are 'told' instead of shown why these women are so dedicated and loyal to Neferura and Part 1 could have been bolstered a bit more with action in this category. And lastly, the pacing speeds up exponentially in the second half of the book, in Part 2/3, and I think the mismatched pacing doesn't lend itself well to the story.
I think this is a delightful read about a powerful and interesting young woman that has existed in the shadows of history.

4.5 STARS
One of the most interesting books I’ve read this year! I really enjoyed getting to explore what it was like to live as not only a woman in Egypt in the Eighteenth Dynasty, but also what it was like to be a female priest. So many tab worth quotes throughout this book. I enjoyed the book emphasis on womanhood and the messaging of being proactive in making changes you feel need to be made within your community/country. The only issue that I had with the book was the pacing and the ending. The epilogue was a bit confusing for me at first and felt very rushed. It was such an abrupt transition from the previous chapter. I would’ve liked a smoother transition. I also felt that the first part of the book was really slow; however, the second and third part of the book was very interesting. Regardless, the book was very interesting and provides readers with an understanding of the importance of womanhood and making the change you want to see. Highly, recommend for those who enjoy feminist themes, Egyptology, and court politics with a drop of romance (and I mean drop).

Thank you, Sourcebooks landmark, for sending me an arc of this phenomenal book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, Net Galley, for giving me the opportunity to read and review books. Lastly, thank you, Malayna Evans, for writing a beautiful and meaningful work of fiction.

A story that introduces you to the world of ancient Egypt. The politics, faiths and cetemonies..... Specifically when it comes to the place of women.

The tale starts Neferura, our priestess main character and her mother Hetshepsut the Pharaoh.

We follow our main girl as she navigates her often times cruel world, confronting lies and manipulation perpetuated by her family. It was fascinating to see the world through her eyes and be exposed to what was expected of her as a woman as she went through her own struggles and watched the struggles of others as well.

Throughout the tale there is bonds of friendship and found family, the reality that ties of blood don't always mean love, obligations of role, rank, religion and gender, and the drive to do good for those around you.

A wonderful read, made even better by the information the author provides at the end giving us the known histories of the characters she wove into her tale

I did not like this book at all. It was very slow, the writing felt YA sometimes (which would not have bothered me if it was indeed a YA novel, but it isn’t) and the trigger warnings (like freaking incest) should have been announced. If I knew that it had these trigger warnings in particular, I wouldn’t have picked this book.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for a honest review.