I do like history and I especially like stories about women who kick ass. I've read so much about Elizabeth I that I could be a Tudor.
Thus, I had no problems turning the pages on Kleopatra -- in fact I read it in one day. At first I thought it might be a little heavy on the fluff and a little light on the facts, but Essex settled down and started in with the connections between the Greeks Romans Egyptians Syrians and the Cyprusians (yeah that's made up.) And although the guys called each other "Darling" a lot, and there was a fair amount of sexy talk -- that worked somehow.
I felt like Essex didn't try to do too much dramatic stuff with Kleopatra, and that was fine for me. If K. was sassily backtalking everyone in sight and indulging some completely fabricated zeal to take on the Romans--that would have been cheap. I liked how her entire viewpoint was, "our best hope is to work with the Romans rather than against them." And she stuck with it.
The historical approach did backfire a bit, though, because Essex was bound to get rid of characters even though keeping them around would have advanced the story and provided good dramatic tension. I hated to see the power-mad eunuch go so soon -- he was just getting interesting.
Good pick, Nat -- I will definitely go get "Pharoah" so I can keep learning about her.
