A rather ordinary historical romance in an extraordinary setting.
A dead warrior sent back to the land of the living confronts betrayal, treason, and romance in Scott’s (Magic of the Nile: Gods of Egypt, 2014, etc.) latest series novel.
Periseneb, an honorable leader in Pharaoh’s army, has been doomed to battle demons in the “gray lands” since his murder some 200 years ago. The lack of a proper burial prevented his spirit from moving into paradise until Ma’at, the goddess of truth, plucks him from his purgatory and offers him a deal: she’ll guarantee his passage into the “duat” if he can help preserve the balance of good and evil as her earthly champion. She provides few details, but Periseneb nonetheless agrees to the 30-day challenge. He’s put back into his home province, just in time to save Neithamun, the firecracker mistress of Heron Marsh, from an assault at the hands of her dastardly neighbor Haqaptah’s men. Haqaptah schemes to keep her estate in debt so that he can one day absorb the land for himself, and with payment due in one month, the clock is ticking. Periseneb interprets the deadline as a divine sign and offers to help her rescue the estate. As they toil side by side on an eleventh-hour push, a romance blossoms between the two. But complicating matters are Periseneb’s personal history at Heron Marsh and a treasonous plot in the province. Scott, who’s clearly done her historical research, paints a vivid ancient Egypt that will set readers’ imaginations ablaze with its detail and complexity. The relatively black-and-white characters, however, don’t quite match the Technicolor setting. Aside from the spunky Neithamun, whose working-girl approach sometimes makes her seem like a modern-day transplant, the many personalities of the story often come off as simplistic. The evolution of Neithamun and Periseneb’s relationship is also conventional, sticking to the tried-and-tested rules of romance writing. But although the story isn’t particularly deep-thinking or inventive, it succeeds as easy-to-read good-versus-evil entertainment thanks to Scott’s masterful worldbuilding.
A rather ordinary historical romance in an extraordinary setting.Pub Date: May 28, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-9962903-0-2
Page Count: 232
Publisher: Jean D. Walker
Review Posted Online: July 9, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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