ROYAL DIARIES: CLEOPATRA VII (57 BC)

I decided just today to tackle an epic rereadathon of the Dear America series and its spinoffs. Because I'm going in chronological order, we'll mostly be seeing The Royal Diaries for awhile. Royal Diaries is definitely my favorite. I only wish they'd done even more. I find it sad Cleopatra is the only Egyptian ruler present, when she was Macedonian Greek and not one of the older Egyptian female rulers.

I believe this was the first Royal Diary I read, which makes sense, being Egyptian and all. I still enjoy it quite a bit, even though it's actually fairly boring. There's a lot of intrigue, but Cleopatra is only 12-14 as the action takes place, so you don't get her big adult adventures. She suffers through seeing both her older sisters betray their father and get killed for it. Cleopatra went through some serious family shit. She meets some big name Romans like Julia, Pompey, Cicero and of course, Antony. No Caesar. That was later.

But my favorite part of the book was seeing just how smart she really is. The author captures her love of knowledge and her gift with languages. Her best friends are a Jewish boy who wants to be a rabbi (he taught her Hebrew and they communicate in it) and a Greek boy who wants to be a physician (and who taught her Latin, so she knows exactly what's going on in Rome).

Cleopatra is presented as a very intelligent girl stuck in a situation that makes her grow up too fast. (Although in those days, she was basically a woman at her age.) She's surrounded by mostly likeable characters, but the majority of the book once they escape to Rome is rather dull and slow-paced. I still recommend it though.