Eye of the Moon, and Eye of the Sun by Dianne Hofmeyr (Children's, 11 years +, 10E/10E)

2007, (Moon) 2008 (Sun) Simon and Schuster

313 pages (Moon), 325 (Sun)

Ancient Egypt continues to be a source of inspiration for stories. Eye of the Moon sees Isikara, daughter to the Priest and Embalmer for Sobek, the Egyptian crocodile god, exchange the safety of her old life for one fraught with danger. No longer will her days be filled with set duties helping her father and brother. Instead, she lives life on the run with Prince Tuthmosis. Who, according to the High Priest, is dead, buried with his mother.

Along the way the spirited Isikara teams with Anoukhet, a girl with a past, who helps her and the prince escape the clutches of the High Priest. It's a story of survival and courage, as well as a tale of how Isikara lost two of her fingers. The best part of this book, was that it outlines the details of the servants' lives in Egypt's royal Court. All the rituals, the different status' the servants had are clearly laid out here, and in the sequel, Eye of the Moon.

Eye of the Sun doesn't exactly have a HEA. The end was a real shock to me. It starts where Eye of the Moon left off. It contains the tale of Tuthmosis fight to defeat the High Priest, but doesn't just evolve around him and Isikara. The other characters in Eyes of the Moon have their story told in further detail, and from their own POV's. This enriched the secondary characters for me, although at times the switches of POV felt a little disjointed.

These 2 books made me wonder more about life in the royal court, and a desire to read more stories about it. There are a lot of female POV's, enough for my satisfaction. The fight scenes and male POV's were pleasant to read, and had me looking forward to them.

The twists and turns in this series had me open mouthed at many pages. A captivating, character driven tale.

Dianne Hofmeyr can be found here.