The Gilded Chamber

This tells the story of Esther, who becomes queen of Persia and saves the Jews (as in the Book of Esther in the Bible). It was a decently entertaining and quick read, though I didn't think it was fantastic. Good airplane reading. I didn't feel like the characters were developed enough for me to feel vested in what happened to them, nor did we get enough insight into why they acted the way they did. That said, the descriptions of the era and life in a harem were interesting, but not as good as I've read in other books. My opinion might be slightly biased however, because I had a book about Queen Esther a long time ago that I remember really liking, but I have no idea what happened to it and it was really old so I think it is out of print. Perhaps it has become better in my memory and that is why this book doesn't seem to measure up...