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Equal of the Sun
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 13 hrs and 48 mins
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Publisher's summary
Iran in 1576 is a place of peace, wealth, and dazzling beauty. But when the Shah dies without having named an heir, the court is thrown into tumult. Princess Pari, the Shah's daughter and closest adviser, knows more about the inner workings of the state than almost anyone, but the princess's maneuvers to instill order after her father's sudden death incite resentment and dissent. Pari and her trusted servant, a eunuch able to navigate the harem as well as the world beyond the palace walls, are in possession of an incredible tapestry of secrets and information that reveals a power struggle of epic proportions.
Based loosely on the life of Princess Pari Khan Khanoom, Equal of the Sun is a riveting story of political intrigue and a moving portrait of an unlikely friendship between a princess and a eunuch. Anita Amirrezvani is a master storyteller, and in her lustrous prose this rich and labyrinthine world comes to vivid life with a stunning cast of characters, passionate and brave men and women who defy or embrace their destiny in a Machiavellian game played by those who lust for power and will do anything to attain it.
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After the bloody French Revolution, Emperor Napoleon’s power is absolute. When Marie-Louise, the 18-year-old daughter of the King of Austria, is told that the Emperor has demanded her hand in marriage, her father presents her with a terrible choice: marry the cruel, capricious Napoleon, leaving the man she loves and her home forever, or say no, and plunge her country into war. Marie-Louise knows what she must do, and she travels to France, determined to be a good wife despite Napoleon’s reputation. But lavish parties greet her in Paris, and at the extravagant French court, she finds many rivals for her husband’s affection....
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A brilliant novel!
- By BVerité on 12-08-12
By: Michelle Moran
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Royal Mistress
- By: Anne Easter Smith
- Narrated by: Heather Wilds
- Length: 15 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Jane Lambert, the quick-witted and alluring daughter of a silk merchant, is twenty-two and still unmarried. When Jane’s father finally finds her a match, she’s married off to the dull, older silk merchant William Shore. Marriage doesn’t stop Jane from flirtation, however, and when the king’s chamberlain, Will Hastings, comes to her husband’s shop, Will knows King Edward will find her irresistible.
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All history, no romance!
- By Erin on 07-05-13
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Claudia, Wife of Pontius Pilate
- A Novel
- By: Diana Wallis Taylor
- Narrated by: Rebecca Gallagher
- Length: 10 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Claudia is adrift - until she meets Lucius Pontius Pilate and becomes his wife. When Pilate is appointed Prefect of the troublesome territory of Judea, Claudia does what she has always done: she makes the best of it. But unrest is brewing on the outskirts of the Roman Empire, and Claudia will soon find herself and her beloved husband embroiled in controversy and rebellion. Might she find peace and rest in the teaching of the mysterious Jewish Rabbi everyone seems to be talking about?
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Interesting perspective, too juvenile
- By Juliep on 05-15-14
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Cleopatra's Daughter
- A Novel
- By: Michelle Moran
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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The marriage of Marc Antony and Cleopatra is one of the greatest love stories of all time, a tale of unbridled passion with earth-shaking political consequences. Feared and hunted by the powers in Rome, the lovers choose to die by their own hands as the triumphant armies of Antony's vengeful rival, Octavian, sweep into Egypt. Their three orphaned children are taken in chains to Rome; only two---the 10-year-old twins Selene and Alexander---survive the journey.
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A pretty engaging story
- By Annette on 12-23-09
By: Michelle Moran
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Imperial Woman
- The Story of the Last Empress of China
- By: Pearl S. Buck
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 17 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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The story of Tzu Hsi is the story of the last empress in China. In this audiobook, Pearl S. Buck recreates the life of one of the most intriguing rules during a time of intense turbulence. Tzu Hsi was born into one of the lowly ranks of the Imperial dynasty. According to custom, she moved to the Forbidden City at the age of 17 to become one of hundreds of concubines. But her singular beauty and powers of manipulation quickly moved her into the position of Second Consort.
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The Last Empress and the Destruction of China
- By MarilynArms on 07-29-13
By: Pearl S. Buck
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The Queen's Bastard
- A Novel of Elizabeth I and Arthur Dudley
- By: Robin Maxwell
- Narrated by: Angele Masters
- Length: 17 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
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Historians have long whispered that Elizabeth "the Virgin Queen's" passionate, lifelong affair with Robin Dudley, Earl of Leicester, may have led to the birth of a son, Arthur Dudley. In this exquisite sequel to The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn, Robin Maxwell fashions a stunning fictional account of the child switched at birth by a lady-in-waiting who foresaw the deleterious political consequences of a royal bastard.
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Story? what Story?
- By A User on 06-08-13
By: Robin Maxwell
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The Autobiography of Henry VIII
- By: Margaret George
- Narrated by: David Case
- Length: 41 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Margaret George's novel brings into focus the larger-than-life King Henry VIII, monarch of prodigious appetites for wine, women, and song.
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Perfection!
- By Amy M. Walts on 10-20-07
By: Margaret George
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The Architect's Apprentice
- By: Elif Shafak
- Narrated by: Piter Marek
- Length: 16 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1540, 12-year-old Jahan arrives in Istanbul. As an animal tamer in the sultan's menagerie, he looks after the exceptionally smart elephant Chota and befriends (and falls for) the sultan's beautiful daughter Princess Mihrimah. A palace education leads Jahan to Mimar Sinan, the empire's chief architect, who takes Jahan under his wing as they construct (with Chota's help) some of the most magnificent buildings in history.
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I feel like I should like it more than I do
- By nyog on 04-19-17
By: Elif Shafak
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The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn
- By: Robin Maxwell
- Narrated by: Suzan Crowley
- Length: 13 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Robin Maxwell’s debut novel introduces Anne Boleyn and her daughter, Elizabeth: one was queen for a thousand days, the other for more than 40 years. Both were passionate, headstrong women, loved and hated by Henry VIII. At the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign, her mother’s private diary is given to her by a mysterious lady. In reading it, the young ruler - herself embroiled in a dangerous love affair - discovers a great deal about her much maligned mother.
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One of the Best Tudor Novels Availalbe
- By Bonnie-Ann on 03-02-13
By: Robin Maxwell
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First of the Tudors
- By: Joanna Hickson
- Narrated by: Tom Clegg, Non Haf
- Length: 14 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Jasper Tudor, son of Queen Catherine and her second husband, Owen Tudor, has grown up far from the intrigue of the royal court. But after he and his brother Edmund are summoned to London, their half brother, King Henry VI, takes a keen interest in their future. Bestowing earldoms on them both, Henry also gives them the wardship of the young heiress Margaret Beaufort. Although she is still a child, Jasper becomes devoted to her and is devastated when Henry arranges her betrothal to Edmund.
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War of the Roses, Again
- By Laurel on 03-27-17
By: Joanna Hickson
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Push Not the River
- By: James Conroyd Martin
- Narrated by: Dawn Harvey
- Length: 19 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Push Not the River is the rich story of Poland in the late 1700's - a time of heartache and turmoil as the country's once peaceful people are torn apart by neighboring countries and divided loyalties. It is then, at the young and vulnerable age of seventeen, that Lady Anna Maria Berezowska loses both of her parents and must leave the only home she has ever known.
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Save your time; buy something else.
- By AMS on 10-22-15
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Abundance
- A Novel of Marie Antoinette
- By: Sena Jeter Naslund
- Narrated by: Susanna Burney
- Length: 11 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Marie Antoinette was a child of 14 when she was made to leave her family and country to become the wife of another child, France's 15-year-old King Louis the XVI. Far from home and suddenly thrust not only into the role of a woman and wife, but of a queen, Marie Antoinette lived an astonishing, though short, existence.
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Not for history fans
- By Cx30 on 12-09-06
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In 17th-century Persia, a 14-year-old woman believes she will be married within the year. When her beloved father dies, she and her mother find themselves alone and without a dowry. With nowhere else to go, they are forced to sell the brilliant turquoise rug the young woman has woven to pay for their journey to Isfahan, where they will work as servants for her uncle, a rich rug designer in the court of the legendary Shah Abbas the Great.
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Top 5 on my lifelong list
- By Cheryl on 09-14-07
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The Hearth and Eagle
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- By: Anya Seton
- Narrated by: Nancy Peterson
- Length: 19 hrs and 28 mins
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In the mid-1940s, the great historical novelist Anya Seton embarked on a fervent search for her forebears that led her to Marblehead, Massachusetts, a "sea-girdled town of rocks and winding lanes and clustered old houses". There she found not only an ancestor, but also the setting for this, her fourth novel.
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MEDITATION ON A HOUSE
- By mymimisthebest on 08-22-24
By: Anya Seton
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The Snow Empress
- By: Laura Joh Rowland
- Narrated by: James Yaegashi
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
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Chosen by Publishers Weekly as a Best Book of 2007, The Snow Empress showcases author Laura Joh Rowland's deep understanding of 17th-century Japan and her impeccable gift of storytelling. This thrilling novel finds samurai detective Sano Ichirõ working to gain freedom for his son by investigating the murder of a lord's beloved mistress.
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Japanophile delight
- By Lee M. MD on 03-21-09
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Avalon
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- By: Anya Seton
- Narrated by: Anne Flosnik
- Length: 15 hrs and 21 mins
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Prince Rumon of France, descendant of Charlemagne and King Alfred, is a searcher. He has visions of the Islands of the Blessed, perhaps King Arthur's Avalon, "where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow". Merewyn grows up in savage Cornwall - a lonely girl, sustained by her stubborn courage and belief that she is descended from the great King Arthur. Chance - or fate - in the form of a shipwreck off the Cornish coast brings Rumon and Merewyn together, and from that hour their lives are intertwined.
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good story
- By Snooze on 05-07-21
By: Anya Seton
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One Amazing Thing
- By: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- Narrated by: Purva Bedi, Soneela Nankani, Neil Shah
- Length: 7 hrs and 57 mins
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Winner of a Pushcart Prize for poetry and an American Book Award for her short stories, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni explores themes of women, immigration, and her vibrant Indian culture to great effect. Divakaruni expands on these ideas in One Amazing Thing, a project long in the making and full of electric prose.
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An ok way to kill some time
- By R.Reader on 11-07-12
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My Name Is Red
- By: Orhan Pamuk, Erdag Goknar - translator
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 20 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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At once a fiendishly devious mystery, a beguiling love story, and a brilliant symposium on the power of art, My Name Is Red is a transporting tale set amid the splendor and religious intrigue of 16th-century Istanbul, from one of the most prominent contemporary Turkish writers.
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Complex and interesting
- By Kathleen on 05-13-10
By: Orhan Pamuk, and others
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The Blood of Flowers
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- Narrated by: Shohreh Aghdashloo
- Length: 13 hrs and 18 mins
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In 17th-century Persia, a 14-year-old woman believes she will be married within the year. When her beloved father dies, she and her mother find themselves alone and without a dowry. With nowhere else to go, they are forced to sell the brilliant turquoise rug the young woman has woven to pay for their journey to Isfahan, where they will work as servants for her uncle, a rich rug designer in the court of the legendary Shah Abbas the Great.
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Top 5 on my lifelong list
- By Cheryl on 09-14-07
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The Hearth and Eagle
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- By: Anya Seton
- Narrated by: Nancy Peterson
- Length: 19 hrs and 28 mins
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In the mid-1940s, the great historical novelist Anya Seton embarked on a fervent search for her forebears that led her to Marblehead, Massachusetts, a "sea-girdled town of rocks and winding lanes and clustered old houses". There she found not only an ancestor, but also the setting for this, her fourth novel.
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MEDITATION ON A HOUSE
- By mymimisthebest on 08-22-24
By: Anya Seton
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The Snow Empress
- By: Laura Joh Rowland
- Narrated by: James Yaegashi
- Length: 10 hrs and 20 mins
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Chosen by Publishers Weekly as a Best Book of 2007, The Snow Empress showcases author Laura Joh Rowland's deep understanding of 17th-century Japan and her impeccable gift of storytelling. This thrilling novel finds samurai detective Sano Ichirõ working to gain freedom for his son by investigating the murder of a lord's beloved mistress.
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Japanophile delight
- By Lee M. MD on 03-21-09
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Prince Rumon of France, descendant of Charlemagne and King Alfred, is a searcher. He has visions of the Islands of the Blessed, perhaps King Arthur's Avalon, "where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow". Merewyn grows up in savage Cornwall - a lonely girl, sustained by her stubborn courage and belief that she is descended from the great King Arthur. Chance - or fate - in the form of a shipwreck off the Cornish coast brings Rumon and Merewyn together, and from that hour their lives are intertwined.
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good story
- By Snooze on 05-07-21
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- By: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
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An ok way to kill some time
- By R.Reader on 11-07-12
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My Name Is Red
- By: Orhan Pamuk, Erdag Goknar - translator
- Narrated by: John Lee
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Overall
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At once a fiendishly devious mystery, a beguiling love story, and a brilliant symposium on the power of art, My Name Is Red is a transporting tale set amid the splendor and religious intrigue of 16th-century Istanbul, from one of the most prominent contemporary Turkish writers.
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Complex and interesting
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What listeners say about Equal of the Sun
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Miriam
- 01-17-18
Culturally Different Historical Fiction
Most historical fiction I find is from Western Civilization. It is much harder to find any from other cultures. I really enjoyed listening to this novel about the Iranian government and royal family from Elizabethan times. The palace intrigues and layers of officials are intriguingly placed within the sparce historical figures depicted in this tale.
I usually hear Simon Vance speak in his native English accent. He used a quite believable Arabic intonation throughout this performance.
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- Erika Townsend
- 06-15-19
Do yourself a favor !
I absolutely adored this book! I also really enjoyed the narrator he was right up there with the guy who did game of thrones , the story in its self is beautiful and had me on a storm of heart ache and true feeling for the characters . I have never read a story such as this and I truly loved it
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- MDG1000
- 03-19-19
Gripping
Fantastic narration! Started slow to develop characters, then was very hard to pause the book. excellent story telling, weaving truth and fiction to create visuals that made you feel like you were there, and gain a better understanding of life in those times.
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- JGrace
- 06-26-13
A Woman in a Man's World
The story is told by the eunuch, Javaher, closest advisor to the Princess Pari. Javaher is uniquely positioned to navigate the treacherous political pathways of Iran’s 16th century court intrigue. While her father lives, Pari is in an unusual position of power and influence. After her father’s murder, her influence within the court decreases drastically.
This was an interesting look at historical events and a culture that are completely unknown to me. So, I can’t speak to how much this fiction conforms to fact. As a novel, this book was enjoyable reading. The descriptions were very rich and the action was well plotted. I was drawn into the conspiracy and the trauma of the story. I liked the major characters and I was saddened by the tragic events of the story. Clearly it was as dangerous to be female in the Iranian royal family as it was to be a female relation of 16th century English monarchs.
Simon Vance handles the accents and varied voices with his usual expertise. His performance goes a long way to set the exotic atmosphere of the story.
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67 people found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 12-28-17
Stick with it
I personally found it hard at first because of the various foreign names and thought of not finishing only after a few chapters. But then the poetry and charm of the narrator took a hold of me and I began to love the cadence and rhythm of everything. I was eventually sad for it to end and immediately tried to find something more by the same author or narrator. If you can, be patient as this nothing you have ever experienced before. I'd give it six stars if I could!
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1 person found this helpful
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- claire b cotts
- 12-29-17
very difficult to follow, probably better to read rather than to listen to
it's challenging to keep track of who is who and to follow the characters because the names are unfamiliar, and some are very similar.
sometimes, the rich florid style is interesting, but like baklava, a little goes a long way- afterwhile, it's a little bit too rich.
I made it over 2/3 of the way through, but then it started to feel repetitive, and I realized I wasn't enjoying it at all.
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1 person found this helpful
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- crystal
- 12-29-15
Loved it!
I really enjoyed the performance. The story wasn't predictable. It was a great read. Would read again!
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1 person found this helpful
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- Nathan
- 12-25-17
Great historical story
This is one of those books that is hard to find when specifically looking. It is a well written as a story, based on true events and is read by a great narrator. Highly recommend.
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- SUSAN V.
- 01-07-18
Fascinating Historical Fiction!
It was so interesting to follow the inner workings of a politically savvy historical female. A strong woman leader who was very influential in a world and culture dominated by men.
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- Polina
- 02-01-18
One of the best I read in a while
This is such an exhilarating story! Love that it's set in Iran and you get to know the history and experience the culture at that time. Not a romance novel and not quite a history book, but I was hooked!
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