Vashti's Daughter

The Book of Esther, also known as the Megillah, is one of the five stories in the Writings section of the Old Testament. It is a story well known to both Christians and Jews as the tale of the heroic Esther who saves the Jewish people from annihilation by the evil Haman.The festive holiday of Purim is celebrated every year in the Jewish community with costume parties, parades and special fruit-filled tri-corner pastries called Hamentashen.But before Esther, there was Vashti, the king's first wife. Her defiance of his order to debase herself for the amusement of his cronies led to her being banished from the kingdom. This paved the way for Esther to take her place, and Vashti was never heard from again.Until now.Throughout the centuries, Vashti has been both vilified and praised. She's portrayed as the bitch of the land, or hailed as the first Feminist. The argument has been raging for decades. Vashti's Daughter definitively ends this debate.Actual events and locations both from the past and the present, plus several actual religious, astrological and reincarnation authorities, lend credibility to a fictional story that could very well be real.After a mysterious manuscript appears on her desk and at her home, Anna is haunted by dreams where she is living in 366 BCE. With the help of reincarnation experts, archeologists and a Kabbalist Rabbi, Anna discovers she is, in fact, Adara, the reincarnated daughter of Queen Vashti.Risking her company and budding relationship with book's author, Dr. Nathaniel Braverman, a Middle Eastern Studies professor at Brandeis University, she must find a way to break an ancient curse put on her and fulfill a vow she made centuries ago, before her 30th birthday in the present, that will finally bring her true happiness in love and change the world's view on a biblical heroine. Raven West is the author of Red Wine for Breakfast, First Class Male, Undercover Reunion, and Vashti's Daughter (2023).West has appeared as a guest on numerous radio and cable TV broadcasts. She's been a book-signing author at Book Expo Association (BEA) in both New York and Los Angeles as well as a featured author at the Los Angeles Times Book Festival and Santa Barbara, Ojai and Ventura County book fairs and was a featured speaker "A Hanukkah Miracle for Modern Times" at the 2018 USA Storytellers Project.Follow her blog From a Bird's Eye View at http://raven-west.com.For more information, please visit: www.ravenwest.net