On My Wishlist #1

On My Wishlist is a fun weekly event hosted by Book Chick City and runs every Saturday. It's where we list all the books we desperately want but haven't actually bought yet. They can be old, new or forthcoming. 

  

This meme is a great fit for me, as often the books I'm pining for are those that are already out, but I've only just heard about. On my wishlist this week is just such a book:

 Queen of Kings by Maria Dahvana Headley

In 30 BC, as Octavian Caesar and his legions marched into Alexandria, Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, learned that her beloved Mark Antony had taken his own life. Desperate to save her kingdom, her husband and all she held dear, Cleopatra turned to the gods for help. She summoned Sekhmet, goddess of death and destruction, and struck a mortal bargain. And not even the wisest scholar could have foretold what would follow …

For, in saving Antony’s soul Sekhmet demands something in return: Cleopatra herself. Transformed into a shape-shifting, not-quite-human manifestation of a deity who seeks to destroy the world, Cleopatra follows Octavian back to Rome. She desires revenge, she yearns for her children … and she craves human blood.

In Queen of Kings, meticulously researched historical fiction and the darkest of fantasy collide in this spectacular reimagining of a story we thought we knew so well.

I know what you're gonna say and I thought I was over vampires, too. But Cleopatra as a vampire? In what universe is that not cool? I'm a historical fiction nerd, anyway, and I love the story of Antony and Cleopatra and their ill-fated attempt to conquer Rome. Any book that covers Cleopatra's life and feelings at that time is one I'd be interested in reading. But making her a vengeful supernatural out for Octavian's blood? That sounds like so much fun that I want this book right now.