Last week I said that I needed to read something a bit more educational, but I ended up going away over the weekend and I could not concetrate on a nonficiton book. So I went ahead and read the next Bertrice Small book on my list, The Kadin.
This book was amazing! The life long tale that is The Kadin begins in Scotland with a young, illegitimate Janet Leslie being taken in by her father as his wife’s deathbed wish. Briefly, we see them at Scotlands court before being sent to San Lorenzo where her father has been asked to be the king’s ambassador. It is here that Janet is captured and sold as a slave and thus begins her decades long life as Cyra, the great love of prince Selim and the eventual sultan of Turkey. As the princes’ favorite, she holds a position of respect and influence in his harem. When she becomes mother to the princes’ heir she gains even more esteem. And as mother of the future sultan, she will eventually become the second most powerful person in the kingdom. She never lets any of this go to her head, she rules over everyone with fairness and wisdom. I loved that the majority of the story took place in the East. Due to conflict Cyra was forced to return to Scotland where she is reunited with the family that never forgot her.
The book ends when Janet has peacefully passed away as an old woman and it leads into the sequel which follows her legacy. I am very excited to read the next book in this two part series, I actually had to tell myself that it was necessary for me to write this review before I started the next book or I would never get it done. I finished this over four hundred page book with incredible speed and I imagine that if the sequel is as good as The Kadin I will finish it just as quickly, so you can look forward to my review of Love Wild and Fair next week.
Nonfiction and Nonsense 