The Girl with Two Names

She entered the palace as Hadassah. But Hadassah is a name she can no longer speak.

Behind the doors of the Persian king's House of Women, beauty is not merely admired. It is measured, prepared and presented.

For twelve months, the women gathered from across the empire will be bathed in oils, perfumed with myrrh, dressed, ranked and readied for a single night before the king.

One of them will become queen.

The others will never return to the lives they knew.

Among them is an orphaned Jewish woman carrying a dangerous secret.

Her name is Hadassah.

The palace knows her as Esther.

Mordecai has commanded her to conceal her people and her family, but hiding a name inside the most watchful court in the empire comes at a cost. Every step closer to the king takes Esther further from the woman she was before the palace doors closed.

Yael remembers that woman.

She remembers Hadassah before the oils, the servants and the royal favour—before speaking her friend's true name became dangerous. Now she must watch from the edges as the distance between them grows.

Parysatis sees something very different.

Raised to understand status and opportunity, she entered the palace believing the crown might be hers. Then Hegai's attention begins turning toward the quiet woman called Esther, and ambition becomes rivalry as the future Parysatis imagined starts slipping away.

And Hegai, keeper of the women, understands what neither woman yet can.

In this palace, being chosen does not necessarily mean being free.

As the months disappear and Esther's night before the king approaches, friendship, rivalry, desire and identity collide inside a world where women have little control over what comes next.

Then the king sees Esther.

And everything changes.

The girl who entered with two names will leave wearing one crown.

The Girl with Two Names is Book Two of The Hidden Name, a sweeping adult biblical historical-fiction saga that retells the story of Esther through the people who stood beside her.

Rich with Persian court intrigue, female friendship, rivalry, adult relationships and the dangerous politics of royal favour, this is the story behind the few extraordinary verses in which an orphan of the Jewish diaspora entered the palace—and became queen.