When I turned my attention to Ancient Egypt as a setting for a time travel romance, I went looking specifically for a  female Pharaoh – and not one I knew like Nefertiti or Cleopatra. In the thousands of years of Ancient Egyptian history, there were nine. And one of them was Twosret. 

And with Twosret there are many mysteries. One of the richest finds of gold and silver ever found in the  Valley of the Kings has her name emblazoned in it, yet she herself is a woman without a tomb. She was originally buried with her husband, but as her reign ended in civil war and the beginning of a new dynasty, the new Pharaoh moved Seti II to another tomb in the Valley of the Kings, but Twosret was not reburied with him. 

And Twosret became Pharaoh after the “mysterious” death of her stepson Siptah, the rightful heir to the throne of Egypt, who died young and for no reason left behind to history. Twosret took power, and in addition to becoming Pharaoh she usurped the years of Siptah’s reign as well. In the absence of a more mundane explanation, the wicked stepmother’s ambition to rule came into play, for better or worse.  

Aside from the steamy hot scenes, the books pretty much wrote themselves.