Genre: Historical Fantasy
Release Date: November 14th, 2023
Pages: 416
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press / Wednesday Books
My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Publisher’s Synopsis:
“Bolivian-Argentinian Inez Olivera belongs to the glittering upper society of nineteenth century Buenos Aires, and like the rest of the world, the town is steeped in old world magic that’s been largely left behind or forgotten. Inez has everything a girl might want, except for the one thing she yearns the most: her globetrotting parents—who frequently leave her behind.
When she receives word of their tragic deaths, Inez inherits their massive fortune and a mysterious guardian, an archeologist in partnership with his Egyptian brother-in-law. Yearning for answers, Inez sails to Cairo, bringing her sketch pads and an ancient golden ring her father sent to her for safekeeping before he died. But upon her arrival, the old world magic tethered to the ring pulls her down a path where she soon discovers there’s more to her parent’s disappearance than what her guardian led her to believe.
With her guardian’s infuriatingly handsome assistant thwarting her at every turn, Inez must rely on ancient magic to uncover the truth about her parent’s disappearance—or risk becoming a pawn in a larger game that will kill her.
The Mummy meets Death on the Nile in this lush, immersive historical fantasy set in Egypt filled with adventure, a rivals-to-lovers romance, and a dangerous race.”
My Review:
When I first heard this book being compared to The Mummy, I knew I had to read it. And while I absolutely see the similarities and think that it is relatively comparable, it just wasn’t as captivating to me as those movies are. Maybe I went in with different or too high expectations, but I just didn’t love this as much as I was hoping.
The main character in a lot of ways reminds me of Evelyn from The Mummy, she is independent, an adventure seeker, and an anomaly for her time. But in other ways I found her to be rather docile and timid and immature. I also didn’t really find the romantic interests in the story to be very passionate or endearing. I never really felt fully connected with nor empathetic towards any of them.
The setting and the historical context was very well crafted. I was hoping for more emphasis on Egyptian mythology, which is also so fascinating to me. I was hoping for the fantastical side of things to take more of a forefront in the story. It wasn’t as fleshed out or prominent as I was hoping. It borders more towards magical realism to me than true fantasy. So for my personal reading tastes this was rather disappointing.
My biggest issue was the pacing of the plot. It was really slow. If you like stories that take their time grounding you in the world and the characters, then you may love this aspect of it. But for me, there wasn’t anything that swept me away into the events of the story. I needed something more urgent driving the story from the beginning to keep me intrigued in the outcome. I wanted more excitement and adventure and mystery than it was giving.
I feel like this story had so much potential that it just didn’t quite live up to for me. There was so much promise in the concept that I wasn’t executed in an engaging way. I think a lot of readers will really love this book, especially fans of Ibañez’s previous books. But I do think the comparison with The Mummy may end up polarizing a lot of readers’ expectations and the realities of the story. I went into this book thinking it could definitely be a five star read for me, but sadly I’m settling with three.
Disclaimers:
Huge thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for gifting me an early copy of this amazing story! I voluntarily read and reviewed this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Have you read this book? Planning to add it to your TBR?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
I love a good book discussion. 🙂
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