By Cate Masters
Published November 9, 2014
Book Blurb:
Ancient pyramid tomb doors. Mummified warriors. Artifacts appearing from nowhere. And that’s just Sandy Whitaker’s work as museum curator. When spells become curses, and the dead return for vengeance, her dream job turns into a living nightmare.
The warrior Iker’s triumphed over difficult pharaohs and returned from battles victorious, but dealing with Sandy Whitaker is his hardest task yet. A descendant of Egyptian goddess Bastet, she’s headstrong, naïve and completely alluring. Can he convince her to perform the ritual spells to save the Queen Pharaoh Hatshepsut’s eternal soul? More importantly, can he help her realize she doesn’t need to be descended from a goddess to be one herself?
Sandy reluctantly embraces her heritage as Sanura, demi-goddess of cats. But even with her new powers, can she fulfill her destiny? If she can survive being kidnapped by a cobra shifter, she’ll do her best to perform the Pyramid Texts ritual spells so Hatshepsut can sail into the Afterlife at long last. But once the queen pharaoh is gone forever, will Iker leave her too?
Reviewed by Phoenix Andrews, 4 out of 5
The author did an excellent job of showing not telling. The paranormal element was well done and the ancient Egyptian pantheon integrated with present day in a believable way.
A ton of ancient Egyptian facts find their way into this book and there was one error I couldn't look past. There were many references to Mark Anthony and Cleopatra. Except...it was Mark Antony, not Anthony. I kept thinking J-Lo's ex husband somehow made his way into this book instead of the ancient lover of Cleopatra. Now, I took a course specifically concerning ancient Egypt while in college and the average reader probably won't know the difference but every time I saw "Anthony" instead of "Antony" I cringed. There were also some "tense" issues where the tense would slip from past to present.
Despite the few issues listed above I thoroughly enjoyed reading Goddess, Spellbound and will be adding the previous two books in this series to my TBR list.
Reviewer, Phoenix Andrews
Thanks so much for the wonderful review, Phoenix! I'm so glad you enjoyed Sanura and Iker's story.
ReplyDeleteYikes, thanks for catching the error too - my crit partners and I missed it but I will be fixing it.
And thanks for reading Goddess, Spellbound so quickly!
No problem, Cate! I'm one of probably a handful of readers with extensive knowledge of Ancient Egyptian history and mythology. I wrote a thesis for a college course (was it really ten years ago?!) on Ancient Egyptian mythology as it relates to ancient art. I was crazy happy to read Goddess, Spellbound since it fell perfectly inside a niche so close to my heart. You were just lucky (or unlucky? lol) enough to have your submission read by a reviewer sporting an Eye of Ra tattoo on the back of her neck and matching scarab beetles and ankhs on both wrists. We see lots of Celtic and Greek mythology in romance but not so much Egyptian. On a side note, I'd be more than happy to be one of your Beta readers for future books. :-)
ReplyDeleteCleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran is another excellent book in this niche. It's set entirely in ancient Egypt and it isn't romance as much as drama or women's fiction.
ReplyDeleteVery cool tattoos! And thanks for the book tip, that sounds like one for the TBR list. I tried to steer clear of similar-sounding books while I was writing (and went out of my way to prevent any Mummy movie references, lol).
ReplyDeleteThank you for the beta read offer as well! I will make a note for future reference.
Congratulations, Cate, on a fine review, and best of luck with "Goddess, Spellbound."
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