[NOVEL] Empire of Shadows by Jacquelyn Benson

This was AMAZING!

Nice Victorian ladies don’t run off to find legendary lost cities.

One trifling little arrest shouldn’t have cost Ellie Mallory her job, but it’s only the latest in a line of injustices facing any educated woman with archaeological ambitions.

When Ellie stumbles across the map to a mysterious ancient city, she knows she’s holding her chance to revolutionize Pre-Colombian history. There’s just one teensy complication. A ruthless villain wants it, and Ellie is all that stands in his way.

To race him to the ruins—and avoid being violently disposed of—she needs the help of maverick surveyor Adam Bates, a snake-wrangling rogue who can’t seem to keep his dratted shirt on.

But there’s more than Ellie’s scholarly reputation (and life) on the line. Her enemies aren’t just looters. They’re after an arcane secret rumored to lie in the heart of the ruins, a mythical artifact with a power that could shake the world.

Between stealing trousers, plummeting over waterfalls, and trying not to fall in love with her machete-wielding partner, will Ellie be able to stop the oracle of a lost empire from falling into the wrong hands?

Raiders of the Arcana. Book 1

It's great for people who want some adventure, romance and historical fiction spiced with fantasy and is close in spirit to something like The Mummy and Indiana Jones.

I'm very happy that I picked up this book. I went into reading with low expectations, because how many times it has been? A pretty cover, but the contents are not on the same level. But I was wrong. A lot of work was put into this book to make it what it is. It has a mature style and a nice pacing between the moments of pure adrenaline and leisure. Author doesn't treat the reader like a brainless bird that needs to be fed all the information. But we still get a nice picture about our two main characters from what they think and what they do. Along with the two main characters others also make their appearance to make the cast more interesting and more voices to sound.

It's wrong to compare, but just so it happened that just a while ago I've read Veronica Speedwell. Seemingly the same time period and both women are on the side of women, but they could not be more different. As I said previously I could not fathom for whom Veronica preached for an entire book. Here Ellie doesn't preach but gets arrested in the first chapter for a small riot during the demonstation.

Through bits and pieces of information that she lays down we can get the feeling of helpless woman that has dreams and aspirations, can do better than men, but she is hopeless in this system that does not allow women to take any serious position. She goes to demonstrations, her arrest cost her a job in archives, the only job she could land and liked but she wanted so much more with her education and love for archeology. She literally dreamt of having her own adventures and how she would spend days somewhere in a desert.

At least we can see that her motivation isn't on adventure and fame, along with her goal to keep her found map and amulet safe, she also wished to do it as a woman and then might be the one opening the path for others.

Unfortunately grand plans did not go as planned.

I also appreciate a lot that the chain of actions and consequences are quite consistent. Like Ellie did not want the psalter she got with the map and the amulet to end up in the hands of thugs and villains. She might have not wanted the trouble for herself, but with people chasing after her a crazy idea formed in her head - to travel herself. She was most certain that the dangerous man named Jacobs is one of those people who do private expeditions and simply loot what they find for private collections, something her scholary soul could not take. But because of all those factors combined she risked to take upon herself to travel to another continent in search of the lost city and later maybe with that fame she could open the door of possibilities. Consequently followed by everything that happened next. Even the fact that this is a series, it does not exist just to start a new adventure that is not connected to the first book, it has the connection, the truth behind Jacobs and people who hired him, Adam and Ellie find where one of their goals is - and that is Egypt, place where Ellie's brother is currently is. So it all fits nicely with the newly found goal that Ellie could not allow people like those behind Jacobs to reach artefacts that could give them unimaginable power. 

Not a focal point of the story but the plot has commentary on the colonization period, the invasion and idea of converting those conquered no matter the means, those who have guns rule. Another part if the commentary on how archeological expeditions were not always for the sake of history, with a lot of unscrupulous treasure hunters, who were mostly only after riches and the destruction of things valuable to the understanding of history never bothered them.

Adam on the other hand is similar to Ellie in a sense, he does not want the fate that was given to him, to be the same like his father, to think only about money, how to use people etc. he wanted another life and freedom and he found it as a surveyor, even if as a man he got it much easier. But Adam is great, okay? Him and Ellie had a lot of accident through which we can feel the greatness of his character.

Together they became something like a great company to each other, despite the fact that they did not have a good start, almost forced to be together they take upon this adventure and slowly their affection grows with each day passing. It's good that they had a lot of things happening before realizing how they can rely on each other, especially Ellie. There was a bit of physical pining, but not too much to come across as vulgar.

I don't even mind that Adam calls Ellie 'Princess", why not. Even if Raccoon would fit her too, since she likes her trash pile. Adam actually is a great guy, although his description is like a cliche American guy hahaha they're both a bit cliche tbh.

It's a great adventure, I liked it a lot. All those thrudding through jungles, vivid descriptions of the atmosphere, the lost city, the trials full of danger, the relationship. It indeed has the spirit of Mummy and Indie.

Oh yeah, a side note. It has the legend of the Smoking Mirror. It's funny because I once played a game Broken Sword 2: The Smoking Mirror which is about the same myth/legend. It is a great game, loved it a lot, played it several times through years. So it also made me closer to the book content.

RATE: 5/5.