Reviewed by Sarina
TITLE: Tomb of the God King
AUTHOR: Julia Talbot
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 142 pages
RELEASE DATE: May 11, 2018
BLURB:
Second Edition
Englishman Christian Hewler travels to 1920s Egypt as the man Friday to an eccentric American millionaire, hoping to make history and establish his name in archaeology. What he doesn’t count on is meeting brash hired gun Eric Lawless, an American cowboy working for a rival team, or the paranormal mystery that draws them in and has them facing down crazy archaeologists, dark entities, and even ancient gods.
From dark tombs to the burning-hot desert of the Egyptian landscape, Christian has to prove his mettle. During this dangerous game of cat and mouse, the reluctant partnership between Christian and Eric blossoms into more—maybe even a love that can last beyond the deception and terror hidden deep in the tombs of the Valley of the Kings.
First Edition published by Torquere Press, October 2006.
REVIEW:
This is so different from what I usually read by this author but it was still a fun story. Kind of but not quite an enemies to lovers story, Christian and Erik are on opposite sides of a dig in Egypt, both working for a different employer and while they should by all rights want nothing to do with one another, they can’t help but be drawn together instead. Set in the time right after Carter’s discover of Tutankhamun’s tomb, this managed to capture the setting really well and with an added paranormal/mystery bonus, I pretty much loved the story from start to finish.
I have to say that I just loved both main characters; Christian is this kind of fussy in the best way Brit while Eric is the cowboyesque gun for hire that just can’t seem to keep his hands off of him. Both men were appealing on their own but together they were practically perfect. I enjoyed seeing Eric get under Christian’s skin, doing things to make the other man huffy just because he thought it was cute. Christian, meanwhile, found his opinions and first impression of Eric to be disproved time and time again; reading about them together just made for a fun time. The chemistry was great between them, too, even with them needing to hide there was no disguising how much they were coming to mean to each other.
The mystery portion of the story was, I felt, nice and enjoyable. It wasn’t too overbearing but wasn’t stagnant either; the author did a nice job keeping things flowing and each little nudge towards the inevitable reveal was done well. I can say with certainty that I never expected how things would eventually go which made it that much better when the ‘evil mastermind’ was finally revealed. I adored how she used the Egyptian mythos, as well!
With a nice solid ending and an epilogue sweet enough to make me super happy, this was overall a great fun read; a little campy and Saturday matinee-ish, I had a fun afternoon reading. If you enjoy your paranormal mysteries on the lighter side or are looking for a fun historical read, I’d suggest giving this one a look. Meanwhile, I’m going to head off and re-watch the mummy because I’m suddenly in the mood for more Egyptian fun. 😀
RATING: 
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