The Stolen Papyrus by Cate M. Turner

Some Flaws Mar Total Enjoyment

I was very nearly turned off this book when on my first Kindle screen I saw two words that were misused, the close-but-no-cigar type words. This did happen throughout the text, as if the author was grasping to sound either more erudite or poetic. This book did hold a few surprises but not of the good kind. The cover is a bit misleading. While there is a romantic element, it is relatively mild and feels minor compared to the rest of the story. Given that romantic feel of the cover, too, I wasn’t quite expecting the level of violence, and I am not really a fan of that. The author did do a good job, however, of showing the world through the characters’ eyes. I especially thought she did a good job with the heroine. You could feel her excitement about joining what she knew could be an amazing dig. You could also sense her disappointment when she realizes that the hero, with whom she has a complicated past, is also a part of it. The author did a fantastic job of showing the setting, both Egypt and the alternating senses of boredom and excitement of an archaeological dig. The visual descriptions were particularly detailed, but not overly much so, and engaging. So to me, all in all, this book was an odd mixture of parts, some that were very good and some that were disappointing.