Egypt’s Golden Couple: When Akhenaten and Nefertiti Were Gods on Earth
Authors: John Coleman Darnell and Colleen Manassa Darnell
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Released: November 1, 2022
Received: NetGalley

I’ll confess that I have not been that great about reading a lot of nonfiction this year. I keep making grand promises to myself, only for them to fall through. However! I did get around to reading Egypt’s Golden Couple, written by John Coleman Darnell and Colleen Manassa Darnell.

As the title suggests, Egypt’s Golden Couple is a deep dive into the lives of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. I’ve heard lots of snippets about their history over the years. Some of it is true, others wild speculation. This made me curious to sit down and read a comprehensive look at their story.

Even if you know next to nothing about Egyptian history, you can likely cite three names: Nefertiti, Tutankhamun (King Tut), and Akhenaten. But if you want to learn more about this couple, you will want to pick up this book (or another of similar depth).

There is a veritable ton of information crammed into these pages. So it took me a little longer than normal to get through it – but I’m still so happy I did so! I feel like I learned so much about their history.

My only problem is that I feel like Egypt’s Golden Couple blurs the lines slightly between fact and fiction. I’ve seen this done before in historical novels, and I’m not the biggest fan of the practice. Essentially, this novel contains chapters that envision how their story unfolded, fleshing out the details and portraying (potentially real?) scenes.

While that may sound more interesting, it does make things more confusing. Where does the embellishing end? How much truth went into those chapters? I certainly don’t know – and I doubt I’ll be the only reader confused about where that line is.

On the bright side, I did enjoy the more informative chapters. There’s real depth here, with lots of interesting facts. Those chapters alone made Egypt’s Golden Couple worth reading, as far as I’m concerned.

Thanks to StMartinsPress and #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

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