Lily of the Nile

Lily of the Nile

Contains some spoilers. 

Has another book mention, also spoilers to that. 

I have currently finished reading a book called Lily of the Nile by Stephanie Dray. It’s actually a really interesting book-and no it’s not about a girl named Lily living near the Nile River. Its close, sorta, it’s about a girl in Egypt (Where the Nile River is.) her name is Cleopatra Selene.  Cleopatra Selene is the daughter of Cleopatra the 7^th. She has a twin [Alexander Helios] and a little brother [Philadelphus]. All of them are children of the great Mark Antony.  

Everyone probably expects Selene’s life to be all amazing, since she’s the daughter of the great Cleopatra. She’s beautiful, well respected, and she’s part of a great family whose motto is “Win or Die.” But sadly, it’s not so great anymore. It was, for the 1^st 10 years of Selene’s life. But then it turned around. Octavian (Or Augustus, as he’s known later) has finally been able to take over Egypt, as he wanted; he finally brought down the Great Family. But, Cleopatra won’t go down, so in this book she has Selene bring her a snake, to kill her and her two closet servants. She had 2 options though, live and be tortured by Octavian or die peacefully to join her already dead husband. She clearly chose death, though she was sorry for her children for they had already lost her father, lost their kingdom, and now were going to lose her... so, before her mother sent the children away she gave each child a gift; the gift of her “magic” which had helped her rule and a necklace for each child that contained their own proclamation-a saying- inscribed in it. Selene’s necklace and gift changed her instantly and forever for her mother stated she was “The Resurrection.” When Selene left her mother’s presence with her twin brother Helios and younger brother Philadelphus they all knew it would be the last time they ever saw her again. And with that, that was the end of Cleopatra the 7^th.

Of course, I’m not going to just leave it like that. I’m not going to leave it a summary. What I want to bring to the topic is something that keeps bugging in my mind. See, before I read this book, I read “Cleopatra’s Daughter” by another author (this was an awesome book, you guys should read it. c:). Both books basically had the same plot, Cleopatra’s Daughter Selene watching her kingdom get turn all Roman-like, and how she grows up and makes a few changes later.

But there’s something different. In the 1^st book (Cleopatra’s Daughter) Selene was feisty.  She put up a fight in not wanting Egypt turning Roman. She wasn’t going to give in easily to also changing Roman, like the Romans who took her and her brother away-happened in both books. You could see the way she fought every step of the way.

While in “Lily of the Nile” Selene seems to just give in, her brother Alexander is what Selene is in Cleopatra’s daughter, but Selene in this book, she rather live more than the other Selene (Wow, this feels weird and confusing.) Selene in CD (Cleopatra’s Daughter) wanted to live yes, but she didn’t bow down to obey Octavian so she could live. No! She showed him that she could be loyal and wasn’t a threat, but she didn’t give in so easily; the Alexander in LOTN (Lily of the Nile) had been pissed off at her. He wasn’t in CD, he just wanted her to calm down more, but the one in LOTN, his personality is completely different.  It’s as if both twins changed personality. And many little things have also changed; I couldn’t help but point them out in the LOTN while I was reading. For one, Selene was the artistic one! Not Octavian! And Julia-she didn’t like Selene that much and was in love with someone else not one of Selene’s half-brothers. Those were little things, yes, but they bugged me a bit since one story told this and then the other story told that! Ugh! Books why don’t you have the same facts? You confuse me so!

If I had to choose which book would be better though, I would choose the 1^st one. I liked it better when she fought for her roots. I liked it better because it was more…I don’t know how to put it. Of course I love Lily of the Nile, it’s really good but Dray just confused me so much. Maybe if I had read this book before Cleopatra’s Daughter it might be that I liked this book more, I don’t know. I’m also not trying to convince you what book you should like. This is just my opinion. All I’m saying is you should read both books, I would be rather interested in what you think, especially if you thought that Lily of the Nile was better. I guess I like characters who put up more of a fight…another thing I find weird too…I’m not usually a fan of historical-fiction book, but this one, I really like, well both books I really like. Meh. Maybe it’s just me. Just read both books! Tell me what you think!