Information:

• Goodreads: 4.24 Out of 3,164 Ratings
• Age Category: Adult
• Genre: Fantasy, Historical Fiction
• Series: Raiders of the Arcana, Book 1

Summary:

Did you like The Mummy as a kid? Did you love the romance between Rick O’Connell and Evelyn O’Connell? Has a piece of your soul been begging for something somewhat similar to that since you watched for the very first time? Look no further, Jacquelyn Benson is on the same page. Ellie Mallory believes wholeheartedly in women’s rights. Unfortunately, the men do not agree. She gets arrested during a protest and is fired from her job because of it. But here’s the thing. Ellie is a well-read woman with a passion for exploration and adventure. She finds a map to a mysterious ancient city and decides, you know what? These turds don’t deserve this. So she just kind of takes it. And sets off to discover it on her own. And sure, there’s a guy hunting her down because he was looking for the city, too, and is definitely willing to kill over it. But that’s where good old Adam Bates comes in. Adam’s an American who also loves adventure. And when an attractive young woman quite literally falls into his lap with her wrists bound, he can’t pass up the opportunity to help her escape the man hunting her down and help her find this city – and protect the ancient and powerful artifact that could shake the world from the raiders.

Review:

First thing’s first, I loved The Mummy when I was a kid. Rick O’Connell was my first crush and his wife was the second. Everyone in that movie is obnoxiously attractive. Adam within this book is described as a rogue who is constantly messy because he’s always exploring and has blonde hair and blue eyes. We’ll forgive that character flaw – he looks like Rick in my mind and I will not be changing it. The characters in this book gave me exactly what I was looking for. Adam and Ellie are the dynamic duo who are cute and funny and really like each other but can’t admit it until a while later. That scene of Adam seeing Ellie in her underclothes just floating on the water with her hair fanned out behind her is a scene I need to see painted immediately because, for whatever reason, I think it so beautiful. Ellie is stubborn. She doesn’t trust men because she’s so scared of a man taking credit for something she’s doing or has done that it prevents her from being able to see that Adam is not that kind of man. Yes, he does protect in her moments. He is chivalrous in cases and is certain that they have to get married after this adventure so that her reputation and her family’s reputation isn’t ruined. All of that can be annoying, but none of that suggests he’s the kind of person she should be worried about. Yet, she still rips the map they desperately need in half and refuses to show him the second half, resulting in them taking the long way around. They aren’t perfect, but they do fit perfectly together and I love it. I would like to see more character development as we go through the series, but I think they’re development is going to be meant to be more similar to the character development people in a sitcom go through or maybe even the development of Stoker and Veronica in the Veronica Speedwell Series. I don’t know how many books will be in the Raiders of the Arcana, but I think there’s going to be a few, so it would make sense (to me) for there to be a slow process to their development. Still, even in this book, Ellie went from starting this journey with the certainty that she should keep everything to herself, no man is to be trusted, and everything she finds is a discovery she can share with Europe to beginning to trust in her friends and comrades and understand the sanctity of keeping these treasures with or around the people it originally came from. Not everything discovered has to be in the British Museum.

The villains in this book can be a bit mustache twirly. But, they still have a reason for their villainy – to gain power for the people they’re working for. While I do hope that they develop a bit more as well in the second, I don’t think this is the type of book what wants in depth character explorations – and that’s okay. This book give exactly what it promises. It’s an adventure with romance added in that has similar vibes to The Mummy. And it does a damn good job. You’re not going to get an in depth exploration of why this person thinks this thing or why this other person behaves this way. You’ll get mentions of colonization, how archeological finds should stay with its people instead of being shipped off to a people who can never relate to it on that level. You’ll get a woman trying to do things a woman simply can’t do without damaging her reputation – such as going on an adventure with a man, because oh no, what if they had sex while she’s unmarried – but you’ll get it in ways filled with flirtation, humor, and genuine care from the heart. It’s not going to lecture on these issues, it’s going to acknowledge them with respect. I’m a big advocate for allowing books to be what they are seeking to be. And this is not seeking to be top of the notch literature (in my opinion).

I loved the exploration. The artifacts and ancient city were so interesting to learn about and you can tell Jacquelyn knows what she’s talking about when it comes to archeology – at least to me, who doesn’t know a thing about it. The Mayan people have always been interesting to me, as well as the way they seemed to be so ahead of their time. I don’t read books about things like this often, but I adore them whenever I do. It’s fun. It’s exciting. Seeing Adam and Ellie grow closer while they’re trying not to fall over waterfalls or get shot or get eaten by giant bats is cute. I loved every single second.

If you’ve read this book or the next one, I would love to know your input on it. Do you think it compares to The Mummy? Did you get what you wanted from the book? Do love Adam and Ellie as much as I do? I had such a great time and cannot wait to get to the second in the series. Unfortunately, only 2 books are out currently, so I’ll have to wait on a third, whenever it gets released, if it does. I don’t actually know how many books are supposed to be in the series. I do know that this book fed something to me that I didn’t even know I was missing.

If you were interested in reading this book, you can find it at https://amzn.to/3EsK1r2 – I would love to know what you think! If you’ve already read the first one and would like to move on to the Tomb of the Sun King, you can that here:https://amzn.to/3PVyao7