The Queen's Handmaid by Tracy L. Higley

Book Description:
From the servant halls of Cleopatra’s Egyptian palace to the courts of Herod the Great, Lydia will serve two queens to see prophecy fulfilled.

Alexandria, Egypt 39 BC

Orphaned at birth, Lydia was raised as a servant in Cleopatra's palace, working hard to please while keeping everyone at arm's length. She's been rejected and left with a broken heart too many times in her short life.

But then her dying mentor entrusts her with secret writings of the prophet Daniel and charges her to deliver this vital information to those watching for the promised King of Israel. Lydia must leave the nearest thing she’s had to family and flee to Jerusalem. Once in the Holy City, she attaches herself to the newly appointed king, Herod the Great, as handmaid to Queen Mariamme.

Trapped among the scheming women of Herod’s political family—his sister, his wife, and their mothers—and forced to serve in the palace to protect her treasure, Lydia must deliver the scrolls before dark forces warring against the truth destroy all hope of the coming Messiah.

My Thoughts:
This was good!  Lydia is a servant and the story is told from her view.  She leaves her home and goes to Jerusalem and there she enters the world of Herod and the whole scheming mess of that empire.  She is there for a purpose and it must be accomplished.  The scrolls must go to one person alone and she must keep it a secret until she accomplishes that.  The politics of the age are unpredictable at best and downright cruel most of the time.  She must deliver Daniel's scrolls, the problem is staying alive and out of the line of fire to get that far.
The author did a wonderful job with the research on this book.  Add to that, she did a great job with the characters!  I really enjoyed the Bible stories through a new perspective with new possibilities (yes , I know it is fiction, but it could have been real).  There are executions, liaisons, power struggles, marriages for alliances, scheming, it was politics!  Lydia is tasked with such an important job and she has to navigate this world to get it done.  She was really a great character, calm, strong, and just who was needed to take on this task.
I rate this a 4/5.  It was a good one!
Thank you to the publisher for the review copy of this book (via litfuse).  I received this book in exchange for an honest review and the opinions stated above are 100% mine.