I needed an easy read this week because I was falling behind on my schedule, so I went to the downstairs bookshelf and looked for another stand alone by my favorite author, Bertrice Small. This novel was the most unique one out of every book I have read by her. I have never read a book from her that was not based in the United Kingdom and Europe, this one taking place in what is now present day Syria.
We travel all the way back to the third century BC, to the city of Palmyra and the surrounding desserts. The city is under Roman rule, which is a sore spot for its monarchs, although they are mostly left in peace. Young Zenobia, of a desert tribe, sees her mother tortured and killed by Roman soldiers, thus laying the groundwork for her lifelong hate of the entire Roman population. When she becomes queen of Palmyra through marriage, she plans and waits for the right time to overthrow the city’s Roman rulers and bring total and complete authority back to the Palmyran rulers. The story is loosely based on the real life queen Zenobia, of whom I discovered after doing some research online when I was curious if Palmyra had been an actual city in history. Not only was Zenobia a real person, but several of the other characters existed in real life, which gave Mrs. Small the amazing opportunity to use them as inspiration for this exciting tale of politics, revenge, and romance.
As with most of her novels, I was left wanting more. I would have loved to see what happened to Zenobia and her husband in another tale, as we are left with them discussing plans for a new adventure at the very end. It also left me hungry to learn more about this strong willed and ambitious queen that lived so very long ago.
Nonfiction and Nonsense 