I wanted to enjoy Cries from the Lost Island as much as I had hoped that I might, but from the beginning the novel grated on me.

First, I see this listed as an adult novel. There are certainly adult characters in this novel, but this is at best a young adult story with a tone to match.

All in all, Cries from the Lost Island has a lovely presentation, that unfortunately fell short for me in its delivery.

I hate to say that this book was very disappointing, I was expecting quite a bit from it. I saw that intriguing cover with hieroglyphics and had to see what it was about. Then I read the description and um..excuse me? "This standalone fantasy brings an ancient Egyptian mystery to life against a modern background, in a tale expertly crafted by a seasoned anthropologist." This was literally screaming my name because all my life I've been fascinated with Ancient Egypt and Egyptian mythology and I was obsessed with it when I was a child. This brought back those feelings of nostalgia and I was so freaking excited to give this a read. I was expecting it to be more focused on the Ancient Egypt aspect and have a lot more lore and myth within its pages. Unfortunately, this was not the case and I was left with a very unsatisfying read.

First of all, as far as I could tell this was being pushed as a more adult book which it did not feel like at all. This felt a lot more like YA and at times the writing even felt a tad Middle Grade-ish to me, which is fine of course, but not really what I wanted when a book is being advertised as Adult. The writing, aside from feeling immature at times, was just sort of odd and didn't flow very well. The story and the dialogue all felt sort of jumbled together and choppy. An example of something that bothered me was some of the word usage. Such as, the word "trotted" was used to describe movement WAY too often. The reason I bring this up at all is to show you HOW MUCH IT FREAKING BOTHERED ME! I'm serious. That word itself was used so much to the point where it was actually driving me crazy while reading. "Hal trotted towards the stairs", "He trotted to the tent", etc. Use some other words! "Walked", "Ran", "Scrambled", "Scurried". I don't know! Just quit saying the characters were "trotting" everywhere. So yes, I was not a huge fan of the writing or style at all.

The story itself was, again, a huge jumble. The main reason I was excited to read this book was for the Egyptian mythology and we got so little of it that I felt cheated almost. Whenever there was any Egyptian myth, lore or history it was essentially info-dumped onto me and that made things even less exciting. The story would constantly be all over the place too, whether it was Hal and Roberto's escapades at home in America or in Egypt or flashbacks of Cleopatra and Marc Antony, it was a mess. I just felt confused about WHAT the story was actually supposed to be about because there was history and fact and then randomly throw some myth and magic in for the sake of doing so. A lot of the time magic was actually used as an excuse for some sort of plot point or to easily explain something without actually explaining something. I could not even begin to tell you how magic or myth was actually supposed to fit into this story.

On top of being mostly a confusing mess, the plot was also extremely unbelievable. Which says a lot considering magic and myth were involved and this was supposed to be a FANTASY novel. Such as the main character, Hal, being essentially forced into taking a trip to Egypt after finding his best friend brutally murdered in the woods instead of allowing him to grieve. Yes, that makes perfect sense and oh, take your other friend with you for no reason other than to have another character there. On top of that the ending was absolutely over the top, I can't even. I don't actually want to spoil anything so I won't say exactly what happened but it felt so hasty and thrown together and further solidified my opinion that nothing made sense and the story didn't actually know what it wanted to be.

And as if all of that wasn't bad enough, it's extremely slow paced and I felt very bored once I got further into reading the book. Boring, confusing, messy, and poor writing. It did not have much going for it and even after finishing it all the way up until the end I still feel that way. Although I will give it props for being decent enough for me to finish instead of just DNF'ing it.

The main character is Hal, interested in Egyptian history and Cleo, who is his best friend that believes she is the reincarnation of Queen Cleopatra. Cleo is murdered, by a demon that only Hal saw, and thus Hal is thrust on a quest to Egypt with his tag-along friend, Roberto to free Cleopatra's soul. Hal was pretty boring and I don't believe any of the characters had any level of complexity, they all felt like cardboard cutouts. The adult characters were hardly even there and when they were, they felt so....fake. The book's only saving grace is Hal's friend, Roberto, honestly. He was hilarious and actually had a personality, easily my favorite part of the book.

Honestly, I don't even want to get going on this either. Hal had a crush on Cleo, which leads him on this entire journey essentially. This goes hand in hand with the flashbacks and over arcing plot point of Marcus Antony and Cleopatra's relationship. I don't want to spoil a whole lot of the story but their romantic relationship is probably one of the only plot points I could actually hold onto while reading and is generally what the book is supposed to be about. Yes, it's a romantic concept. However, the whole thing with Hal and Cleo just never made any sense to me, it's just sort of...there.

What I Loved:
The little bit of Egyptian mythology and history that were present.
Roberto.

What I Didn't Love:
Poor, slow pacing.
Writing was choppy and didn't flow well.
Story felt like a jumble and didn't know what it wanted to be.
Magic and myth were used as an easy excuse or explain-away.
Info dumping.
Aspects of the story were over the top and unbelievable.
Characters were flat .

Overall this story didn't have a lot of redeemable qualities for me and felt boring and messy. None are more disappointed than I with this book, trust me, I expected something very different than what I got. I can't say I recommend this book at all, especially if you're like me thinking "Oh, Egyptian mythology and history, fun!". Don't do it. I gave this a two star rating purely for Roberto and the fact that I managed to finish the whole thing.

**** Huge thank you to the publisher for providing me with a copy via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review ****

Kathleen O’Neal Gear’s Cries from the Lost Island followed Hal and his friend Robert after they find their friend Cleo murdered, and set out to grant her last request. Cleo claims to be the reincarnation of Cleopatra. They set out with archaeologist Dr James Moriarty to visit Egypt in hopes of finding the legendary graves of Cleopatra and Marc Antony.

I loved Roberto. He was pagan and cast spells at times (off page). Those outcomes came to pass, and while it could have been coincidence, it's more magical to think he really did. He's practical though, and doesn't believe just anything. Really, it's like magic as science.

I loved the history and the archaeology! I’m a big fan of the Gears’ First North Americans series and offshoots. Egyptian myth is fascinating and Egyptology equally intriguing. This was the first book I've read by Kathleen alone, and I found the tone quite different! In fact, I almost shelved reading it at the time because it didn't 'feel' like a Gear novel. I'm glad I stuck with it after all. It's given me an even greater appreciation for the Gears' writing.

***Many thanks to Netgalley and Berkeley/DAW for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Hal is a misfit at school and at home. He is deeply in love with Cleo who claims to be the reincarnation of Cleopatra. When she is murdered, Hal and his best friend Roberto travel to Egypt with Cleo’s uncle to solve the mystery of her death.

Part fantasy, part mystery and part historical romance this is a difficult book to categorize. This is definitely a YA book aimed at teen readers though adults should enjoy it as well. As an adult some things did not ring true for me. For instance the fact that Hal’s mother is insistent that he is mentally ill because of his love of history and deep feelings for Cleo and the fact his parents were willing to send him the Egypt with a man they barely knew. Hal’s constant vacillation between belief in Cleo and his visions of the past and then believing he is mentally ill as his mother insists is probably true as to how teens doubt themselves but it was distracting to the story’s progression.

While the story wraps up nicely it leaves room for a sequel. As hard as it was to get into this book initially, I would be happy to see more of Hal, and especially Roberto, and their adventures. ~~ Stephanie L Bannon

I was never able to really get into this book which is a shame because the synopsis and cover made it look amazing.

“Cries from the Lost Island” follows Hal as he struggles to manage his parents desires for him to love a normal life and the love he feels for Cleo, a young woman who believes herself to be the reincarnation of the infamous Cleopatra. Following an unfortunate series of events Hal and his friend Roberto find themselves in Egypt where they must uncover the truth from the past and return what was stolen to its rightful owner.

A lot of my problems for this book stems from its pacing, a good portion of the book is weighed down by heavy exposition to explain the historical references and mythology that surrounds ancient Egypt in order to make some of the later moments make sense but it ended up making the read rather dry.

Another issue is I was never quite sure what this book was supposed to be it plays to some elements of fantasy where you have the demons and gods that lurk in the shadows, an archeological site where things keep going missing leading to a crime ring, a murder mystery, a sprinkle of reincarnation and a question of sanity and I’m not sure which of those themes won out in the end. I enjoyed the tastes of myth and history folded together into this big mystery of is it magic or madness but the book never managed to give a good pay off to that other than a brief chapter that basically serves as the epilogue which was a bit of a let down especially when it started to become a bit heavy handed with the misdirects pointing towards a mental break.

With all that being said the main focus was on Cleo and Hal and I never once understood their relationship. We’re told that they were true loves but I never felt like they had enough history no pun intended for it to be believable which didn’t help as he set off on this quest to break the cycle which is why I think I wished for it to be a more mundane answer because at least those missteps could be explained away by how perception changes with trauma.

I think this book could have been fun if it managed to balance all the elements it needed to or even better took some out but I think if you enjoy Egyptian history and mythology you’ll be able to find the magic in it that I unfortunately did not.

**special thanks to the publishers and netgalley for providing an arc in exchange for a fair and honest review**

At first, I was drawn to this book because the story was so promising. We start off with a bang, when there is a murder and the main character is thrown into a world of confusion. We follow them to Egypt, where they try to piece together the reasoning behind the murder.

The story was a little slow for me a full of historical information fed to the reader through dialog. I got a little bogged down but was able to finish this short novel within a day.

Will be live on Book Confessions Blog on 1-23-2020