Cleopatra's Shadow

Blink Publishing , London, 2015. Good secondhand copy.

Abandoned by her beloved older sister Cleopatra and an indifferent father, Arsinoe, a young Egyptian princess, must fight for survival in the bloodthirsty royal court after her half-sister Berenice seizes power.

But despite using her quick-wits to win Berenice's favour, Arsinoe struggles to establish herself in a uncertain new world, one that carries her from the conspiratorial dangers of the palace, to the streets of war-torn Alexandria.

Meanwhile, her other sister, the usurper Berenice, has her own demons to confront - her cruel, flagging mother, a pair of fickle husbands, and the ever-present threat that her father will return from exile-as she fights to hold the throne as the first queen of Egypt in a thousand years.

Perfect for historical fiction fans who loved discovering The Other Boleyn Girl, Cleopatra's Shadows reimagines Cleopatra's rise to power through the eyes of her forgotten younger sister, Arsinoe.