The Pharaoh's Daughter by Mesu Andrews

The story of The Pharaoh’s Daughter shows us that fear can shake or strengthen faith. But another theme that resonates in this story for me is that God can take the most unusual circumstances and the most unlikely people and use them to change lives. That’s exactly what God did with a young woman who didn’t even know him. He sees the bigger picture, and sometimes he has a purpose for our lives that we don’t initially see or understand.

The Pharaoh’s Daughter by Mesu Andrews

About the book …

Anippe has grown up afraid that Anubis, god of the afterlife, may take her or her siblings at any time. She’s been terrified of having children of her own ever since her mother and infant brother died during childbirth. Now of age, she’s married off to Sebak, a captain of Pharaoh Tut’s army. He’s kind and though she yearns to give him the heir he desires, she’s afraid of becoming pregnant and dying.

The pharaoh wants an heir, and when his wife continues to miscarry, he orders all Hebrew newborn sons to be drowned. While her husband is away at war, Anippe finds a Hebrew baby floating in a basket past her bath house. She believes the child is an answer to providing her husband with a son—and so the deception begins …

My review …

You may know the story of Moses being left in a basket to float down the Nile. You may have heard the story of him standing up to Egypt’s pharaoh and demanding that he release the Hebrew slaves. Perhaps you’ve watched Moses lead his people out of Egypt in the movie The Ten Commandments. But what happened to Moses during the years between? What about his childhood and the woman who saved him as an infant?

Although this portrayal of Moses’ childhood is fictionalized, Mesu Andrews uses intensive research and creativity to fill in the possible missing pieces for us. The Pharaoh’s Daughter makes the story of Moses, Anippe, and the lives of the Hebrew people come alive for me. I was mentally and emotionally thrown back into biblical times. The author has the ability to put us into the hearts and minds of the characters.  It was easy for me to connect with Anippe—her desires, her fears, and her joys.

This isn't a sweet Bible story. It’s filled with action, danger, evil, treachery, and hatred. It shows how bitterness and envy can twist perceptions and affect people’s actions, decisions, and ultimately their lives.

The Pharaoh’s Daughter is also a story about love between man and woman, parent and child, and God and his people—and those willing to sacrifice for loved ones. Along with heartbreak and pain, there is also kindness, grace, and forgiveness.

Through edge-of-your-seat suspense, I was able to see God’s hand at work in a new and refreshing way. I believe there is a depth to this story that will keep impacting readers long after they reach “the end.”

Mesu Andrews’s deep understanding of and love for God’s Word brings the biblical world alive for her readers. Her first novel, Love Amid the Ashes won the 2012 ECPA Book of the Year for a Debut Author. Her three subsequent novels, Love’s Sacred Song, Love in a Broken Vessel, and The Shadow of Jezebel all released to great reader enthusiasm. Mesu lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, Roy.