Fourth Queen [Paperback]

Debbie Taylor's THE FOURTH QUEEN takes the reader into the world of the harems of Morocco, where a young Scottish girl has been kidnapped and taken to live with thousands of other women to be the playthings of the Emperor. Comparable to Dora Levy Mossanen's HAREM, THE FOURTH QUEEN takes a young woman from a culture outside that of Middle Eastern heritage, and places her into a foreign world full of strange foods, colors, music, and values. But, while HAREM was filled with magical deeds and other wonderful things akin to fairy tales, THE FOURTH QUEEN is rooted in reality. Both books share a wealth of knowledge of this time and place in history, a world vastly different from that descended from the culture of Western Europe.

It is the mid-1700's, and young Helen Gloag is on a ship headed towards the New World. She is looking for a new life away from Scotland and a life of poverty that she wanted desperately to escape. As the ship is headed toward its destination, it is attacked by pirates and she, along with many of the women, are taken to Morocco to be sold.

Helen's life takes on a strange turn. She is now ensconced in the life of the harem, one of thousands of women that are vying for the attention of the Emperor of Morocco. Only four lucky women are chosen as queens, and while at first Helen finds her new life horrid and unbearable, she soon learns the ways of this culture, and aspires to be one of the lucky four. She gains weight to be more of a prize catch, as large women are considered beautiful, while thin women are considered undesirable. She learns how to apply makeup in a much different way than is done in her native land of Scotland. No more corsets. The larger the stomach and buttocks, the more appealing she will be to the opposite sex. Helen is slowly transformed into a woman that belongs in Morocco, no longer recognizable as that young Scottish girl, even taking on a new name Aziza.

Along her journey to this highest of positions, she befriends one of the queens, Batoom, known as the Black Queen, who takes Helen under her wing. Helen also meets the head Eunuch, Fijil, a Scottish dwarf who was captured many years ago and is now one of the most notable men working under the Emperor. Fijil finds himself in love with the lovely Helen, but he knows that his fate will never allow him to capture the love of this Scottish lass. He hides his feelings for her as best he can, becoming one of the best friends Helen could possibly have in this new world of hers. Helen's only goal at this time is to become a queen, and she cannot see past the jewels and the wealth that would go with that title.

A wonderful tale of love, greed, and power, THE FOURTH QUEEN was a book that at first did not catch this reviewer's interest. But, as one continues with each chapter, it is easy to succumb to the charms of this story. Debbie Taylor did an excellent job with highly descriptive particulars on what life in a harem was like. She interspersed her story with the erotic passions that came with living in a harem. She wove highly illustrative details of the foods that were enjoyed by Helen, so that the reader could imagine tasting and eating them. One could feel the heat that bore down on Helen day in and day out, and could imagine the life that she led with the emperor, with whom she was consumed with a desire so strong that she could see nothing else.

The fascinating aspect of this book is that THE FOURTH QUEEN was based on a person straight from history. Helen Gloag did exist, as did Fijil and the Emperor. History shows that there were indeed several Empresses of Morocco with red hair. Taylor took the liberties to write a story with these characters, and although they may not have co-existed in the same time period, Taylor did a good job making this story work. It has truly ignited in this reviewer an already burgeoning interest in the world of the ancient Ottoman Empire. This book is highly recommended to lovers of historical fiction everywhere.