This book was a fun, adventerous, female heroines. I enjoyed listening but did find my mind drifting at times. I found some parts fell a little flat and was expecting more of the overall mystery

This took me a minute to get into but was overall enjoyable. I do enjoy a female led book so this was entertaining!

The Lady Adventurers Club by Karen Frost is a charming historical fiction novel that follows a group of women exploring the world in the late 19th century. The characters are vibrant and the plot is full of adventure, suspense, and romance. Frost captures the spirit of sisterhood and her characters successfully break free from societal constraints. The writing style is engaging and the attention to detail adds to the authenticity of the story. Overall, I found this to be a fun and engaging read for anyone looking for a little escapism and empowerment.

Lots of things gave this book great potential but it didn’t all seem to pull together. Some great action scenes throughout do it kept my attention, but could have done without the the sudden switch to fantasy close to the dnd.

A sapphic adventurer romance set in the 1920s - what more could you ask of wlw fiction? Well written and great set up for what can presumably become a book series.

This book had a terrific premise and mostly delivers on the concept of an age of explorers style adventure through Egypt, but with four women acting as the story’s explorers instead of the usual cast of male protagonists present in a book like this.

The idea was great and the execution is good for the first 80% or so of the book. Alas, it’s always guaranteed to ruin a book for me when an author writes a story grounded in the rules of reality only to toss in a supernatural element at the last minute.

There was plenty of derring-do throughout the book of the real world variety. Tomb robbers, assassins, the works. So I’m not sure why the author felt the need to do an about face into fantasy at the end by having the protagonists get chased by angry gods and imaginary animals.

I’m fine with fantasy books and fine with those with no fantasy elements, but when you get a book that is grounded in reality as, essentially, historical fiction, and then the author tosses in fantastical stuff out of. I where at the end of the story, it just feels like bad writing. It seems like the author couldn’t come up with an explanation for what happened to the treasure the protagonists are trying to recover, so she essentially cheated and brought in a god and turned the book into a fantasy at the last minute.

It’s a shame because there are plenty of plausible endings for a story like this that don’t require this kind of cheat on the part of the author and that would allow the reader to continue enjoying the story instead of feeling ripped off by a cheap bait and switch at the end of what was otherwise an entertaining, enjoyable novel.

Oh dear, it could have been good, the idea was ok. However, so ponderous, every thought and word over analysed again and again. The relationship between Anna and Clara was not even consential to start with and was ridiculously dragged out with minutes spent on every breath and flutter of eye lashes. The only character that was likeable was Georgette, the rest of them could have died in the desert to spare us from the over explaining of absolutely everything.....

This would have been an amazing comic.

As a story, it was fine. It was fun and not that deep. It felt a little superficial but action packed. I enjoyed the lgbt aspect that was included. Cute.
I didn’t think the women were distinct enough as I would get mixed up on who’s perspective it was. The audiobook gives them all accents actually. I didn’t enjoy the narrator. Sounded like she needed a drink of water the whole time, very raspy.

There really wasn’t anything wrong with it overall. It was fine, but not very memorable somehow. I’d say read it if you want.

Let me start by saying that I loved the characters and the set up and the romance in this book. A sapphic adventure romance is a great concept.

Unfortunately, the story was boring. The plot was rote and predictable. At no time was I surprised by a single plot point. This book should have felt like an adventure, but it didn't. The story would have been just as well served up as a two page spread in the newspaper with lots of pictures of the treasure and tomb and the ladies who found it. It would probably make a great 2 hour movie, but definitely not a 10.5 hour audiobook.

Historical fiction isn't my favorite genre but typically if it's queer I enjoy the story. Unfortunately I did not enjoy this book. I think it's more of a me issue than the book it's self. I think the book is well written and the story is good, just not for me. I think there will be a lot of people that really love this one tho!

**Netgalley Arc***

(3 stars)

CW:

In full transparency I have a degree in Egyptology/Archaeology.

This book is about an Egyptian borne Egyptologist/Archaeologist named Anne

So I was very excited about this book because I love to mix my interests. And I enjoyed the general idea of the plot but I wanted more from it. More adventure and fun. Overall the book was okay.

The main character was kinda grimey. What I did like was how each character was distinct and distinguishable from one another. (And the audio narrator nailed this as well).

Thank you to netgalley and publishers for the arc in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this novel for an honest review. It has been published in September 2022.

"The Lady Adventurers Club" by Karen Frost has everything I could desire: a highly original premise, an all-female cast of genial misfits, a queer budding relationship... and yet, it fell flat for me.
First of all, the story takes forever to start (nothing really happens in the first quarter of the book), and even after that, the pacing stays torturously slow, with plot developments few and far-between, and an over-abundance of pointless dialogues and filler scenes. That's not how an adventure novel is supposed to work.
Besides, too many plot points rely entirely on the protagonists behaving in ways that qualify them as being "too stupid to live". Meh.
The characters themselves are stereotyped, with no depth whatsoever.
To top it all off, there's an awful lot of romanticised sexual harassment in this novel. I'm not saying books can't talk about sexual harassment, but what made this story truly cringey is that the sexual harassment happening here has been airbrushed, excused away, and even justified. The reader is supposed to sympathize with the sexual predator in her relentless pursuit of a woman who has told her no time and time again, in words and actions alike. No. Just no. We don't need one more novel portraying sexual harassment as an acceptable form of courtship, in this day and age. And the fact that the abuse is woman-on-woman rather than man-on-woman (or any other possible combination) doesn't make it any better. No means no, ladies!

Fun concept, execution didn't work for me. Love the idea of a series with ladies from all walks of life banding together, but the second Clara talks to the one character, you knew what was gonna happen and I was not at all invested in the predatory relationship. I felt bad for Clara most of the book. Also, these women were supposed to be in their late 30s/40s? In what world?

If Jane (from Tarzan) grabbed a few plucky female friends and went tomb hunting in Egypt, with modern-day storytelling, you’d have this book. I loved it and thought it was an excellent read!

While I liked the premise of this story, I found it difficult to really get into it. That being said, the narrator for the audiobook was great. The story includes a good sense of adventure, and I could see people liking it for that, but the relationship within this story reads uncomfortably due to the character's manipulative personality, which was disappointing.

I really didn't get far enough to rate it well. Only 6% in and the blatant colonialist/imperialist mindset turned me off. It's 2022.

This book was certainly an adventure, but I wanted a bit more cohesion from the overall story.

I feel like I was reading two different narratives that never quite came together or found a resolution on their own. On one hand there's this story about women trying to carve a place for themselves (both professionally and romantically) in a world built to cater to men. And then on the other hand there's a story about colonialism and the moral (and spiritual) implications of digging up sacred burial sites in the name of "discovery." I went into this book expecting it to be about the former and then about 2/3 in it pivots to the latter (with a heavy dose of magical realism and supernatural mythos) and kind of abandons the rest.

Georgette was easily my favorite character--always piping in with the cold hard logic of math and giving zero f**ks. There were a few laugh-out-loud moments and they were all due to her. Anna was my least favorite character. The manner in which she aggressively pursues Clara was a bit off-putting (it seemed like a conquest more than anything and at one point Anna even notes how easy Clara is to manipulate) and her pride leads her to make really stupid decisions on more than one occasion. On a similar note, I really hate it when intelligent women make dumb decisions for the sake of "plot" and sadly it happened more than once in this story.

Despite all that, I still enjoyed the overall experience. It was fun and whimsical and despite my frustrations, I would totally read a follow-up with the Lady Adventurers Club exploring a new location (especially it went all-in on the magical realism and supernatural elements). But please for the love of all things, give Eliza a chance to fly next time.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tantor Audio for a copy of this audiobook.

I have a very specific problem with this book. Namely, the archaeology. The female archaeologist is a totally irresponsible treasure-hunter. I can't sympathize with her experience of sexism when her whole motivation is trying to find gold. She's like a colonizer treasure-hunter. I really had a hard time rooting for her, because I am an archaeologist who works on projects and let me tell you, if you go into archaeology to get famous, you will be disappointed. In any time period. I liked the premise of this book and if the archaeology had been better, I would probably be a fan, but this just didn't work.

This book is going to primarily appeal to people who are into Egyptology. I’m lukewarm on it myself, but still I enjoyed this story.

All four women are main characters, and they all have their unique appeals. Anna the archeologist is intrepid & assertive. Georgette the mathematician is observant & frank. Clara is a shy & adventurous trick shooter. Eliza a is fearless & independent barnstormer.

I much prefer Eliza, especially because she calls out Anna for how… aggressively (?) she pursues a romance with Clara at first.

A good read, very fast paced & enjoyable. Thank you to the publisher & Netgalley for the audiobook ARC!

Well now, this was an interesting take on a redundantly overused setting/trope. Maybe I didn't read the description closely enough, but I did not anticipate the twists in the end and I almost feel like it belittled the work and buildup of what are these strong women's stories and empowered character development was a bit of a mixed bag for me. I enjoyed the characters for what they were there to do. I didn't really understand their motivations for how they got to that point in their life, attending this one chance meeting in New York, leading to an all expense paid trip for three of them to join the 4th in Egypt for a world revealing of an undiscovered tomb of an ancient pharaoh. The naivete and misguided choices of all of these women at multiple points in the novel, is rather mind-boggling, but here we are trying to suspend my disbelief. I preferred the characters in this order from fave to least favorite: Georgette >Eliza>Clara>Anna.

I have some major critiques of Anna's romantic pursuit of Clara, as it appeared manipulative and unnecessarily predatory. I know that there are no perfect relationships in reality, but this didn't feel like the aspirational relationship pursuit for strong adventurous and yet supposedly logical women, that we should be modeling for readers, in my opinion.

I appreciated the direction the story was headed, but found a few hiccups in pacing along the way. I do hope that we might have an opportunity for a sequel to discover better character motivations and a smoother plot pace, as the raw components felt so promising.

One note on the narrator, Kim Bretton: she provided great distinctive voices for all of the women and created a fun ambience for the unveiling of the story. I certainly do believe that she did a great job with the material and would recommend the audio version.

Thank you to Tantor Audio for allowing me an eARC for the audiobook via NetGalley!