Book 1 in the Queen of Egypt series.

Anubis, the god of the Underworld, is fascinated by Queen Cleopatra and wants her for himself. He hatches a plot with Set, the god of Chaos, to capture Osiris as bait for Cleopatra. Meanwhile, Cleopatra has been having strange nightmares of shadows and darkness. Her lover Mark Antony tries to reassure her, but Cleopatra is worried. She uses her magic and turns to Isis for help, but the goddess is frantically searching for her husband Osiris.

Cleopatra is drawn into Anubis' web as she attempts to free Osiris from the Underworld. As she struggles to fight off Anubis and save Osiris from a horrible fate, she uncovers the startling truth about her parentage and the source of her powers. Now she must use her magic for good and so she can return safely to the arms of Mark Antony.

While there were some good ideas in this book, it fell far short in the delivery. I liked the idea of Cleopatra standing in for Nephthys in the myth of the dismembering of Osiris, but there were so many problems with the text that the good idea got lost. The Awakening needed much better editing. There are typos, missed punctuation and lines in the wrong place on almost every page, and while one or two editorial mistakes are to be expected, this was only a novella and so the errors really stood out. Then there's the historical/mythological problems-Set is not subservient to Anubis in the Egyptian pantheon, Cleopatra wouldn't lower herself to make a fire, and she certainly wouldn't be making a cup of tea! Overall, the story is far too much 'tell' and not enough 'show'. A shame, as there was a good idea here, but unfortunately the writing isn't strong enough to do it justice.

Reviewed by: Maija