A review by lizhop
Seven Wonders by Ben Mezrich

3.0

A perfectly pleasant "romp," as book review quotes go, but so formulaic. I enjoy Ben Mezrich as an author; his writing style is clean and easy to read. I heard him interviewed on the radio when I was nearing the end of this book, and he described how he had basically been commissioned to write a Raiders of the Lost Ark/DaVinci Code book that could easily be turned into a movie, and that's exactly what this felt like. It was filled with a lot of actual good information about the various sites of the Seven Wonders of the World, so I certainly appreciate the research that was put in, and I enjoy factoids and anecdotes as much as the next person. But the facile following of the clues, the shockingly dangerous and violent yet easily dispatched encounters with the "enemy," and the slow yet obvious build towards romance were all so predictable that this book didn't feel like a page-turner, but rather, something to get through because it just wasn't that hard to do so. It's fine, it's pleasant - I was disappointed, because I was hoping for great.