I thoroughly enjoyed The Stolen Queen. It would not have been a book I would have picked on my own. Thank you to Penguin Random House (Diamond Bridges/Dutton) for the advanced readers copy. The two time lines were easy to follow and gave the story depth. I loved that the main/secondary characters were female and how much they both over came in their lives. I highly recommend this book.

The Stolen Queen was so different from Fiona Davis' previous books. The Stolen Queen takes the reader on a journey through the Valley of the Kings in Egypt and back to The Met in NYC. Crossing decades, lands and seas, Ms. Davis will spark an interest in Egyptology in any reader. A truly beautiful story about strong women in both domestic and international relationships.

Full flavor: strong females, international travel, Egyptology, art, confidence
Hidden notes: domestic relationships, female empowerment, history, war, provenance.

Fiona Davis never disappoints, and The Stolen Queen is yet another testament to her talent for seamlessly blending historical fiction, suspense, and a touch of romance, all set against the vibrant backdrop of New York City. This time, Davis adds an extra layer of intrigue by tying in the Met Gala, an event I always look forward to each year.

The story unfolds in two timelines, expertly handled as always by Davis. In the 1930s, we follow Charlotte, a passionate Egyptologist at the Met, whose life is irrevocably changed by her experiences at a dig site in Egypt. Despite the tragedies she faced, her dedication to researching the enigmatic Hathorkare remains unwavering, even into the 1970s. Charlotte’s character is rich with depth, and her persistence in the face of adversity is truly inspiring.

In the 1970s timeline, we meet Annie Jenkins, a bright-eyed 18-year-old who lands a dream job working for the iconic Diana Vreeland, former Vogue fashion editor, who is in the midst of organizing the renowned Met Gala. Annie’s excitement quickly turns into a whirlwind of challenges as she struggles to keep up with Diana’s demanding expectations. Through Annie’s eyes, Davis captures the glamour and chaos of one of NYC’s most celebrated events.

The intertwining of Charlotte’s and Annie’s stories comes to a head when items start to go missing from the Met, and the two women must join forces to uncover both a modern-day heist and an ancient mystery. The suspense builds steadily, keeping me engaged throughout, even if it wasn’t my absolute favorite of Davis’s works.

Overall, The Stolen Queen is a captivating read that showcases Davis’s signature style. While it may not top my list of her novels, it’s a solid addition to her repertoire, with compelling characters and a storyline that had me hooked until the very end. Fans of historical fiction, especially those who enjoy a mix of mystery and a dash of romance, will find much to love in this book.

As always, thank you thank you for letting me read another wonderful book by Fiona Davis. I adore her! It was surprising to see her deviate from a standard New York story, and I loved reading about Egypt. It's clear she did incredible research. This book felt longer than her previous ones. I look forward to sharing this book with my followers in Jan!

I loved this book! Not only did I enjoy the Egyptian history and the information about the Met, but I found the mystery to be very exciting with a few surprising turns. It was an excellent and interesting story that kept me turning the pages too late into the night because I had to know what happened next.

Than you NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton for this digital arc in exchange for my honest review which is not affiliated with any brand.

Fiona Davis is a master of weaving the past and present in historical fiction. This time she tells the story of Charlotte in both the 1930’s and again the 1970’s and her career at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and as an Egyptologist. This story has history, intrigue, drama, suspense, friendship and romance. But most of all, it is a tale about a strong, smart, independent woman, who takes charge of her life despite uncertain circumstances.

If you’re fascinated by ancient Egyptian history, Queen Hathrokare (also known as Hatshepsut), an ancient curse, a love story, and heart-wrenching tragedies, along with a setting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET), then this book is perfect for you. Our main characters center around Charlotte and Annie. Despite their different upbringing, their paths intersect, leading to respect and a special friendship.


The story begins with Charlotte in the present day, working as an associate curator at the MET to a mercurial Fredrick. However, we get flashbacks to her days at the Valley of the Kings, where she studied under Mr. Zimmerman, where she hopes to become an archaeologist much to her parents’ dismay. It is Charlotte, not Leon, who discovers the burial chamber containing Hathrokare’s mummified remains, much to Leon’s chagrin. We learn the history of ancient Egypt and Queen Hathrokare’s ambition, ruthlessness, and the alleged theft of the throne from her stepson. The narrative unfolds across dual timelines: 1930s Egypt and 1970s New York City.

There is a lot of character building on the two main characters and there is a mystery centering on a horrible incident that happened in Egypt.

Plotline: The story is addictive. 4/5
Characters: Well developed, even on some of the more complex of the characters. 4/5
Flow: Good pacing but it dips a little in the middle but does pick up. It's targeted at those who love Historical Fiction, dual timelines, and family drama. 3.75/5

Overall rating: 4/5 Stars.



Thank you NetGalley and PENGUIN GROUP Dutton for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This is another wonderful Fiona Davis novel. Set in dual timelines in Egypt and NY, it follows the story of Egyptologist turned Metropolitan Museum of Art curator, Charlotte Cross. After an Egyptian mask of an ancient queen is stolen during the Met Gala, Charlotte teams up with Annie Jenkins, a young struggling assistant to travel to Egypt to uncover the mystery. It's story of stolen artifacts, family mysteries, and female empowerment. I loved Charlotte and the fact at 60, she was portrayed as smart, vibrant, and mentally and physically strong. I alway learn a lot about NYC in Fiona Davis's novels. Don't miss this one.

Fiona Davis is so talented and has once again managed to write a book I could not put down! Traveling with Charlotte to Egypt felt like reality instead of pages in a story. This beautiful work of fiction was somehow heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. RUN to the shelves in January once this is released. If you are a librarian, this would make an excellent book club book.

Wow! Such a great story. I love the two timelines running through the story. The author describes the places with such detail that you can almost feel the damp air releasing from the tomb. You can feel the anguish, the discomfort, the characters experience. I’m so thankful I read this as I have rediscovered the author and I’m now reading her back catalog. If you’re looking for a new author and haven’t found Fiona Davis yet, or like me, read one years ago thought I should read more of her stuff and then never got around to it, here’s your invite to revisit this authors skill! Amazing! Love it! Can’t wait to delve into more beautifully written escapes. This story keeps the pages turning. Almost too quickly.

I have very mixed feelings about this. I just could not get in to it at first. The flipping between Annie in the 70s, but also Charlotte in the 70s and 30s was too confusing. It totally broke up the narrative and just as I was getting the hang of it, the Charlottes from the 30s just stopped. I definitely think that those chapters would have been better suited in the middle of the book as flashbacks, and not at the start when we're still trying to figure out who's who in the zoo.

After the 30s chapter ended, and we were just in the "present day"/70s things picked up. I finally found myself enjoying the story and wanting to know what happened. I found the ending rushed, and too predictable so this was a hard book to pinpoint where I felt I could rate it. I've never read Fiona Davis before, so I'm not sure where this book will fall on her bibliography in terms of popularity. It certainly had interesting points, but also a very slow and unnecessarily word-y start.

I'm glad the author's note clarified the story of Hathorkare - I spent an annoyingly long time trying to find records of her only to come up with nothing. I thought maybe it was a good thing this story was coming out if I couldn't even find a wiki page on her! But it also sounded super familiar so I was so confused!!

Thank you so much for this ARC!

What attracted me to this book was that it takes place during the time of the blockbuster King Tut exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that opened in 1978. I remember how the whole country was swept up in Tut-mania, along with everything having to do with ancient Egypt.

Fiona Davis has crafted another winning historical novel, this time she tells the story of two slightly damaged but strong, individualistic women who want to follow their dreams. The story begins when Charlotte Cross dreams of becoming an archaeologist, an occupation that isn’t too accepting of women in 1936. She is able to win a spot on an archaeological dig as part of her studies and uncovers a hidden tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. Her life turns completely around and after tragedy strikes, everything changes once again for her. Charlotte eventually becomes an associate curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art but her dreams of becoming an archaeologist have ended. She’s seemingly content with conducting research on a misunderstood and little-known female Egyptian pharaoh, Hathorkare ((author based her on Queen Hatshepsut).

Meanwhile, 18-year-old Annie Jenkins lives in a basement apartment in NYC having to care for her helpless mother, a fading fashion model who is more interested in finding a new husband than finding out what her own daughter desires in life. Annie dreams about becoming a fashion designer, and ends up with a dream job working for the demanding and mercurial former Vogue fashion editor Diana Vreeland. Annie’s job is to assist Vreeland in the preparation of the fashion exhibition for the Met Gala.

The turning point comes about midway through the book, as an unexpected incident occurs at the Met gala, billed as the “party of the year.” As the cringeworthy unfortunate turn of events unfolded, while I felt terrible for our heroines, I couldn’t help reeling with laughter! The author has truly created something special; it’s a scene you’ll never forget. Oh, have I forgotten to mention about the curse of Queen Hathorkare and the theft of one of the Met’s most prized artifacts? In addition, there’s the whole thorny issue of the repatriation of art and cultural objects. You’ll have to read this book to find out about all this fabulous stuff.

I think this is Fiona Davis’ best yet. Two complex, captivating characters, an archaeological dig uncovering lost tombs and mummies, the threat of an Egyptian curse, stolen artifacts, 1978 NYC, and an unforgettable Met gala to end all Met galas; this equals the ultimate treasure for me. Fiona Davis reigns as the Queen of the historical novel.

Thanks for the ARC! The Stolen Queen was such a fun read! I guess from the title I was expecting more of a noir style Maltese Falcon or something, but this had so much more going on (nothing wrong with the Maltese Falcon, great book). The actual mystery doesn't even really start till about 50% through, but the character development in the first half was so much fun, I never found myself bored or wondering why there wasn't a mystery. I enjoyed the book the whole way through, and ended up reading it very quickly. A little too quickly I guess, as I haven't been approved for another ARC yet.

Fiona Davis is my FAVORITE historical fiction author, and her latest is a page turner. It is 1936 and Charlotte is a bright eyed eighteen year old with a once in a lifetime chance to be on an archeological dig in Egypt. Not only does she make a discovery that will impact history forever, she also falls in love with a fellow archeologist. Tragedy strikes, and we fast forward to 1978 NYC, where Charlotte works as a curator to the Egyptian Art exhibit at the MET. There we meet another spirited character, Annie, who just started part time as an assistant to the fashion director of the MET Gala. Both women will unite to solve a mystery and also help Charlotte return to Egypt to heal from her past and break the curse she thinks was placed on her in the 1930s.

Davis does a seamless job of weaving between dual timelines and keeping her readers hooked trying to figure out a few whodunits. Ancient Egypt, archeological digs, the MET, plus a few mysteries to solve? What's not to love?! It's also worth checking out Davis' author's note at the end; she explains her research process, which Egyptian figures were the real inspiration to her book, and further reading selections on Egypt.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC for a fair and honest review.

I attempted reading a Fiona Davis book before and actually DNFed it because I was not comfortable with the choices the characters were making, can’t recall the title now. So Ms. Davis is not usually on my radar but this book is all about Egyptology so I knew I had to try. And honestly, those are the best parts of the book: the digs, the discovery of artifacts, the debate over provenance, the inner workings of a museum, and the thrill of searching for history. But, the main character, for all her heartbreak (to be clear, I did care about the sadness in her past), is a selfish person—who longs for the licentious liberty of ancient Egypt!—and I didn’t like her at all, making it difficult to enjoy the other parts of the book that focused on what she wants and her choices. There’s a secondary character I liked much better but she’s so enthralled by the main character that… I’ve gone on too long at this point but let’s just say despite the parts I did enjoy about this book, that “The Stolen Queen” was not my favorite.

Everyone knows I am a huge Fiona Davis fan. If you ask me for a book recommendation and even hint at the fact you like historical fiction, I am going to put her books on your radar. So, it pains me to say that I simply didn’t vibe with her upcoming release. The magic that I have found in other books by Davis was simply not there. I did not feel a strong connection to Charlotte or Annie, the novel’s protagonists, as I usually do which led to me not caring how their stories ended up. I am sad that this one didn’t work for me, but I will continue to recommend and read Davis’ work due to my immense love of her other titles.

Charlotte Cross has been an assistant curator for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for 15 years, and was on staff for two decades before that. She truly loves her job, but she’s never advanced beyond assistant because that would require going back to Egypt. And that’s something she just can’t do.

When she was only 19, she was on the staff of an archaeological dig inEgypt as a young woman in the early 30s. But something happened there, something terrible, and she’s never gone back.

Until a unique artifact is loaned to the museum by an anonymous donor, and she recognizes it as stolen.

Charlotte embarks on a mission to track down the mysterious donor and find out how the item came into their hands, and the search helps her to put the broken pieces of her own, and several other people’s lives, back together.

I’m a sucker for a good book about Egyptology. This one was interesting because parts of it took place in Egypt in the 1930s, and parts of it in 1978-79 in New York City and Egypt. It’s well written, the characters engaging, and the plot intriguing. However, much as I love Egyptology, there was so much information that at times it detracted from the story.

3.5⭐️ - Fiona Davis’s new novel is a well orchestrated tale of 1930s Egyptian archeology exhibition, museum curation, antiquity thievery, and heartbreak. Davis expertly weaves the lives of two unsuspecting women with nearly four decades between them who are both drawn to Egyptian antiquities. When a curious object recognized by Charlotte as a long lost artifact of her time in Egypt 40 years earlier arrives at the Met, Charlotte begins to question everything she thought ahead knew about her painful past. When Annie’s chance to prove her worthiness as an assistant to a powerful woman at the Met ends in disaster and theft, her path crosses with Charlotte and a chain of events unfold bringing them to Egypt together to solve both mysteries… or is it all connected?

I really enjoyed the story and felt it tied together well, but as someone who has seen the current day locations discussed in the books, I would’ve loved more vivid imagery of the historical sites from the 1930s and even the 1970s - less damaged by the hands of tourists. I imagine the hieroglyphics on the walls of the tunnels to the tombs in the Valley of the Kings must’ve been far more vibrant, the tombs likely tossed about from raids conducted long before the archeological expeditions, the tunnels lacking the railings and lighting that exist today. I really liked the fictionalization of real life historical figures, namely Hatshepsut and the righting of her history. What a fun way to intertwine history and fiction. The legends about what happens to those who steal from the tombs could have been played up more given the level of tragedy in the story, but I also like the way this was wrapped.

Without spoilers, I also struggled with the inclusion of Annie in the end - she felt out of place and her inclusion forced. Perhaps a separate chapter to tie them back together would make more sense.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguins Random House for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I have enjoyed several of Fiona Davis’ books but somehow The Stolen Queen is extra special. Maybe there is some leftover enchantment from the newest wave of “Egytomania”, but it more likely due to a well-constructed plot and captivating characters.

The writing is well paced and the dual timeline flows smoothly between the forty-year gap from the mid 1930’s to the late 1970’s. The balanced points of view of the primary characters gives reader the insight to sensibly draw comparisons and form opinions.

Davis also skillfully weaves the topical issue of repatriation of art work. Recently, museums are finding that they can no longer ignore this concern and are actively taking corrective steps to return art to their place of origin. The author allows us to consider the long arc of this concern from art scholar debates to the more modern general public view.

Overall, the turn of events in the story are believable and relevant. What I especially enjoyed is how Davis carefully unfolds the resolution of several plot points in an unhurried manner. Too often, a novel will rush the ending and pack too many revealed secrets in the last chapter or two. With the Stolen Queen, you can enjoy each step of the journey and never feel as though you were misdirected down a false path.

Thank you NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for this advanced copy.

This was my first read by Fiona Davis and now I plan to read all of her books. The writing is sophisticated and the plot is interesting. I enjoyed both Charlotte and Annie as characters and found each of their stories compelling. Through the plot, I also learned a bit about Egyptian history and appreciated the setting (part of the book) in the 1930s. I had fun searching for real Egyptian artifacts so that I could really understand the plot. I highly recommend this bool.
Thank you NetGalley for an ARC.