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Book Review of The Gilded Chamber

The Gilded Chamber
SierraK avatar reviewed on + 194 more book reviews


This was a very well-written historical novel. It retells the Biblical story of Queen Esther. Young Hadassah is orphaned tragically and sent to the city of Susa in Babylon to live with her cousin Mordechai. Then at the age of 14, Hadassah is kidnapped from her cousin's home and sent to the harem of the Persian King Xerxes. Her cousin tells her to change her name to Esther to hide the fact that she is Jewish. As the story develops, Xerxes makes Esther his queen, and she is able to influence him to save the Jewish people living in Babylon.

I absolutely loved the descriptions of life in the harem. A wonderful read, and one that would be great to discuss in a book club.