The Queen's Handmaid review

The Queen's Handmaid written by Tracy L. Higley

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.

Review:

Mystery, romance, history - this book has it all!  Higley ties all of the historical aspects together with the fictional character, Lydia, and a secret mission to return the secret scrolls of Daniel in such a way that you can't help but be drawn in.  The fictional and suppositional aspects of the story are woven in so well you can't differentiate them from what is historically accurate in the story line.  
Higley brings Cleopatra, Herod, Mariamme and the political climate to life.  I look forward to reading more of her historical fiction!