Helpful Score: 4
I read about 1/4 of the book before deciding to put it aside. It wasn't necessarily poorly written or boring, but just unoriginal in comparison to a lot of romances I've recently completed. It was part historical romance, part paranormal romance with the enchanted mirror, but nothing about this book drove me to want to finish it.
I had originally purchased this book on a whim because it sounded intriguing. I have no doubt that other fans of romance will enjoy this one! :)
I had originally purchased this book on a whim because it sounded intriguing. I have no doubt that other fans of romance will enjoy this one! :)
Helpful Score: 1
From Publishers Weekly:
Roman McKendrick, an impoverished Egyptologist, returns to the glittering ballrooms and intrigue of 19th-century English society after an excavation. He agrees, reluctantly, to reside with the count of Claybourne in hopes of getting his next expedition funded. The newly married countess, Tess, turns out to have been the girl who rejected Roman's suit 10 years ago. Despite the span of years, Roman and Tess (who is dissatisfied with her impotent and indifferent husband) discover that their passion still smoulders. They try to resist the attraction, but the count and his sister, for their own reasons, continually throw them together. Tess eventually follows Roman to Egypt, where he unearths the legendary mirror of the title; in it, she sees their future together as lovers. The melodramatic confrontation at the end and Willman's (The Lost Bride) sometimes awkward descriptions ("The heavy hunting knife he'd thrown protruded from Leland's throat. It had passed clear through, like a knife in cheese") mar this otherwise satisfying and unusually exotic Regency.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Roman McKendrick, an impoverished Egyptologist, returns to the glittering ballrooms and intrigue of 19th-century English society after an excavation. He agrees, reluctantly, to reside with the count of Claybourne in hopes of getting his next expedition funded. The newly married countess, Tess, turns out to have been the girl who rejected Roman's suit 10 years ago. Despite the span of years, Roman and Tess (who is dissatisfied with her impotent and indifferent husband) discover that their passion still smoulders. They try to resist the attraction, but the count and his sister, for their own reasons, continually throw them together. Tess eventually follows Roman to Egypt, where he unearths the legendary mirror of the title; in it, she sees their future together as lovers. The melodramatic confrontation at the end and Willman's (The Lost Bride) sometimes awkward descriptions ("The heavy hunting knife he'd thrown protruded from Leland's throat. It had passed clear through, like a knife in cheese") mar this otherwise satisfying and unusually exotic Regency.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
