Of Gold and Shadows by Michelle Griep (Austenprose PR Book Tour)

Have you ever seen any Egyptian artifacts?  I have seen them in museums in Chicago and Kalamazoo, and I find them fascinating.

Edmund Price has returned to England from India and is a very eligible bachelor.  He has acquired a collection from Egypt and has hired an Egyptologist to sort and catalogue the collection.  He is surprised when Ami Dalton, a beautiful female Egyptologist shows up to do the job.  She is a professor’s daughter and knows her stuff.  Within the collection is a cursed golden griffin.  When mysterious things start to happen around the estate, is it a curse or something else?

My thoughts on this novel:

·       I loved the strong female lead, Ami Dalton, doing what is considered to be a man’s job, in a world where men do not value her mind.  I love that Edmund respected her for her mind.

·       Ami also spends her evenings as the “shadow broker” to rescue antiques from the black market and return them to museums.  She like a female Victorian Indiana Jones.

·       The chemistry between Ami and Edmund felt real and palpable.  I liked their banter.

·       This novel was full of mystery and intrigue.  It kept me interested and engaged with the plot.

·       The secondary characters were interesting.  I especially enjoyed Phineas, the gardener, and his sage wisdom.

·       This was a forced proximity romance and a clean read.

·       There are great historical notes at the end of the novel that explain in detail some of the terminology.  My favorite is that “excelsior” is a fancy word for using curly wood shavings for packing antiques.

·       There are great questions included that could be used for a book club.

·       The sneak peak of the next books was fantastic.  I can’t wait to read it!

Overall, Of Gold and Shadows by Michelle Griep is an engaging historical romance and suspense novel set in Victorian England.  I loved the Egyptian artifact angle of the story.

Book Source:  Review copy from Bethany House as part of the Austenprose PR Book Tour. Thank-you!  Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

BOOK DESCRIPTION

The shadows hold secrets darker than they ever imagined. . . .

In 1888 Victorian England, Ami Dalton navigates a clandestine dual life. By day, she strives to establish herself as a respected Egyptologist, overcoming the gender biases that permeate academia. But with a heart for saving black-market artifacts from falling into the wrong hands, she is most often disguised as her alter ego, the Shadow Broker.

After eight years in India, Oxford's most eligible bachelor, Edmund Price, has come out of the shadows to run for Parliament and is in search of an Egyptologist to value a newly acquired collection. Expecting a renowned Oxford professor, Edmund instead finds himself entangled with Ami, the professor's determined daughter. As they delve into the treasures, their connection deepens, but trouble emerges when a golden griffin--rumored to bear the curse of Amentuk--surfaces, and they're left to wonder if the curse really is at play, or if something more nefarious is hiding among the shadows. . . .

AUTHOR BIO

Michelle Griep has been writing since she first discovered blank wall space and Crayolas. She is a Christy Award-winning author of historical romances that both intrigue and evoke a smile. She's an Anglophile at heart, and you'll most often find her partaking of a proper cream tea while scheming up her next novel . . . but it's probably easier to find her at MichelleGriep.com.