With few clues to as who her real family was, Lydia has found some familial comfort in Cleopatra's palace, though certainly not from the intense Cleopatra herself. When one she loves dies and leaves her with a special mission involving the scrolls of the prophet Daniel, Lydia has to leave the only place she's known as home and enter King Herod's court. Lydia will have to do her best to complete her mission without becoming involved in the many betrayals and deceptions of the court.

Though I can easily see this being an awesome read for some, THE QUEEN'S HANDMAID isn't for me. Tracy L. Higley paints an excellent portrait of long ago Egypt and Jerusalem, and the determination and sincerity in Lydia's character is beautiful. However, there is quite a bit of politics going on in this story, from Cleopatra's agenda to Herod's to Octavian's to Marc Antony's etc. While politics can be a great source of intrigue and plot, it feels like there is too much of it going on here. The background research is clearly thorough and well-done, but it comes off a bit much. The deal with the scrolls seems to actually get lost in the middle of the all the politics, especially as years passed. They were so intriguing at first that I really wanted to know more about them, but they just seemed to fade away until occasionally they popped back up. Lydia's journey is nicely relatable as she tries to figure out what she stands for. Her interactions with Simon are nice in supporting that, though I wish his character had a little more page time.

Though it won't be on my favorite's list, THE QUEEN'S HANDMAID by Tracy L. Higley definitely has a solid story and elements to it that I'm sure could make it someone else's favorite. I would suggest it to readers who want a clean, political, and religious historical fiction.