“This story is told from two different points of view. The first is that of Helen, the young Scottish woman who has run away from home after she loses her virtue and ends up pregnant. Helen's ship gets taken over by pirates who kidnap her and sell her to a brothel in Morraco.
The second is that of Mircophil, a dwarf who is the keeper of the emporer's harem. Microphil falls in love at first sight with Helen. The problem being that he has to give her to the emporer as a new addition to his harem. (Plus Helen isn't at all interested.)
The emporer falls in love with Helen, and takes her as a wife. Shortly therafter Helen becomes very sick, one of the other wives has poisened her! During her recovery Helen begins an affair with Mircophil, but ends up going back to the emporer because she likes being spoiled and having pretty things.
I won't go into detail about what happens after that, but needless to say, I didn't really find it believable. Understandably the book is fiction, but I did not believe that the dwarf nor Helen would act the way they do in the book, out of fear of the emporer. Also, I didn't like the style in which the book was written, at times it was hard to follow. Still it was entertaining and I do feel like I learned a few things about the time period, so it was worth it. ”
Meghan R wrote this review Monday, September 14, 2009.
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