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marygrace_'s review
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
alyp16's review
adventurous
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
SO GOOD! The Mummy meets The Lost City (with Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum) meets Indiana Jones meets National Treasure -esque of a book! Loved every bit of it. Love Ellie and Adam 🫰🏽
karireads's review
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Fast-paced adventure story, in the tradition of Indiana Jones and King Solomon’s Mine. It’s great light entertainment and plenty of fun to read.
read_and_blossom's review
adventurous
challenging
funny
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
4.0
This was a fun read!
I loved our FMC, Ellie, and our MMC, Adam.
It was fun seeing their adventures and how they were a team. They had great team work honestly.
Ellie was awesome as it is set in the past when women had no rights, she really fought hard for women’s right and it was awesome to read about.
Adam was great that he didn’t look down on her like the other men look down on Ellie and other women!
I loved our FMC, Ellie, and our MMC, Adam.
It was fun seeing their adventures and how they were a team. They had great team work honestly.
Ellie was awesome as it is set in the past when women had no rights, she really fought hard for women’s right and it was awesome to read about.
Adam was great that he didn’t look down on her like the other men look down on Ellie and other women!
archaeomancer's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
esthaut's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
laelyn's review against another edition
3.0
"Empire of Shadows" is apparently a heavily edited, almost entirely new version of a book that has already been published by the author some years ago, as per her foreword. Only now, after years of experience, did she feel skilled enough to finally tell the story she always wanted to tell - and I'm glad she did! I love authors growing, and while I haven't read that previous version of Ellie and Adam's adventure, I had quite some fun with this 'remake'.
"Empire of Shadows" is a quintessential oldschool adventure story with a sweeping romance, evil villains, lots of humour and a dash of magic. Think the Mummy films, but in book form (although Empire is not on that level both as a story and with regards to the characters, but what is, really). It's fun, it's not too deep or complex but delivers everything you expect it to - though also not much more than that.
Our protagonists are Ellie, a scholar held back by society's views of a woman's role (which she tells us repeatedly because subtlety is not this book's strong suit) and Adam, a big hunk of a man with a really impressive chest. When Ellie steals an artifact and map that might lead to the legendary White City in Colombia that is also sought by a very dangerous man named Jacob, she decides to do the job society doesn't allow her to do, travel to Colombia and find this fabled place. In dire need of a guide through the rainforests, she finds Adam, and thus the shenanigans begin.
Both characters have their highs and lows. Ellie is smart, fun, opinionated, but also very on the nose in all things. She's a modern feminist and Benson REALLY wants you to know that, so she hits you over the head with it constantly. Adam is a dashing rogueish big guy who's smarter than he appears to be, but also sometimes suddenly an idiot. They are fun to read, but they're neither as complex as they are clearly meant to be nor do they have the chemistry I was hoping for. The attraction was mostly physical really until it suddenly wasn't, and I felt like the kind-of-spicy scene between them later on was more... awkward then sexy to be honest. Didn't work for me. The romance, thus, is cute and entertaining but not exactly memorable.
I did really like the plot of this, as cookie cutter as it might be. I love stories revolving around archaeology and myths, so I was really invested in this one. It made me read more on Mayan and Aztec history, and that is always a good thing. I was at some point reminded of the Assassin's Creed Games weirdly enough, what with the Mythical Artifacts With Powers thing, which was something I didn't expect - but also I really really like it. The plot did suffer a bit from pacing issues - the first about 25% were a lot of fast-paced fun, then the middle part kind of dragged for a while, then the ending picked up speed again. The book could have been about a 100 pages shorter with more focused storytelling. Still, I liked the mystery, I liked the history.
So all in all, this is a nice adventure book bringing back all the nostalgic feelings about the genre. Its mystery is enticing, the characters are alright (I did like the main villain quite a bit), and the writing is great. It did leave me wanting to read the sequel because Egypt!!!! Definitely read this if you enjoy archaeology, myths and adventure with an enjoyable romantic couple at its centre.
3 stars.
Many thanks to Crimson Fox Publishing and Netgalley for the arc!
"Empire of Shadows" is a quintessential oldschool adventure story with a sweeping romance, evil villains, lots of humour and a dash of magic. Think the Mummy films, but in book form (although Empire is not on that level both as a story and with regards to the characters, but what is, really). It's fun, it's not too deep or complex but delivers everything you expect it to - though also not much more than that.
Our protagonists are Ellie, a scholar held back by society's views of a woman's role (which she tells us repeatedly because subtlety is not this book's strong suit) and Adam, a big hunk of a man with a really impressive chest. When Ellie steals an artifact and map that might lead to the legendary White City in Colombia that is also sought by a very dangerous man named Jacob, she decides to do the job society doesn't allow her to do, travel to Colombia and find this fabled place. In dire need of a guide through the rainforests, she finds Adam, and thus the shenanigans begin.
Both characters have their highs and lows. Ellie is smart, fun, opinionated, but also very on the nose in all things. She's a modern feminist and Benson REALLY wants you to know that, so she hits you over the head with it constantly. Adam is a dashing rogueish big guy who's smarter than he appears to be, but also sometimes suddenly an idiot. They are fun to read, but they're neither as complex as they are clearly meant to be nor do they have the chemistry I was hoping for. The attraction was mostly physical really until it suddenly wasn't, and I felt like the kind-of-spicy scene between them later on was more... awkward then sexy to be honest. Didn't work for me. The romance, thus, is cute and entertaining but not exactly memorable.
I did really like the plot of this, as cookie cutter as it might be. I love stories revolving around archaeology and myths, so I was really invested in this one. It made me read more on Mayan and Aztec history, and that is always a good thing. I was at some point reminded of the Assassin's Creed Games weirdly enough, what with the Mythical Artifacts With Powers thing, which was something I didn't expect - but also I really really like it. The plot did suffer a bit from pacing issues - the first about 25% were a lot of fast-paced fun, then the middle part kind of dragged for a while, then the ending picked up speed again. The book could have been about a 100 pages shorter with more focused storytelling. Still, I liked the mystery, I liked the history.
So all in all, this is a nice adventure book bringing back all the nostalgic feelings about the genre. Its mystery is enticing, the characters are alright (I did like the main villain quite a bit), and the writing is great. It did leave me wanting to read the sequel because Egypt!!!! Definitely read this if you enjoy archaeology, myths and adventure with an enjoyable romantic couple at its centre.
3 stars.
Many thanks to Crimson Fox Publishing and Netgalley for the arc!
flower_lover's review
adventurous
funny
informative
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
spellbindingtomes's review
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Sexism, Blood, Death, Gore, Child death, Animal death, Murder, and Colonisation