A review by kimalah
The Shabti by Megaera C. Lorenz

adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The Shabti is a marvelous read.  It is a 1930s m/m romance between a fake medium who walked away from the grift and a nerdy Egyptologist. Hermann, the college professor, reaches out to Dashiel, the reformed conman, for help with eerie happenings involving his college’s collection of Egyptian artifacts. The main characters fall for each other, finding connection later in life.

This is a fun ride with smart dialogue, great humor along with creepy occurrences, and an absolutely lovely romance. I won’t go much into the plot because the reveals are a lot of the fun, but when the reason behind everything was revealed, I exclaimed out loud.

The secondary characters are well drawn and the sense of time and place is great. I recommend The Shabti quite highly, and look forward to future books by Megaera Lorenz.

Thank you to CamCat Books, NetGalley and the author for the advance reader copy. All opinions are my own.