To truly appreciate Grace and Frederick Astley, you should read The Mistletoe Countess before reading The Cairo Curse by Pepper Basham.

I love Grace and Frederick so much that I re-read The Mistletoe Countess (I am not a re-reader) before reading this one. I am glad I did because it was fun to pick up where The Mistletoe Countess left off. I was excited to see what their adventures in Cairo, Egypt, would entail.

However, I struggled with a good portion of the story. There were quite a few spots where it was too much description for me, bogging the story down. I also felt the story moved slowly, then all of a sudden, everything happened at once. 

The humor and light moments kept me reading. We get typical Grace moments that I adored (hello camel scene). I also really enjoyed getting to know Elliot more. I hope his story continues in the next book because we did not get a good resolution for him!

While this is not my favorite Basham book, I will always be a fan, and I can't wait to read the third book in the series (I am totally assuming there will be one!).

Thank you to Net Galley and Barbour Publishing for the opportunity to read this book. I was not required to provide a positive review. All thoughts and opinions are entirely my own.

The Cairo Curse by Pepper Basham
Release Date: February 1, 2023 by Barbour Publishing
Genre: Christian, Historical Fiction, Christian Romance

Description: Clue meets Indiana Jones with a fiction-loving twist only Grace Percy can provide.
Newlyweds Lord and Lady Astley have already experienced their fair-share of suspense, but when a honeymoon trip takes a detour to the mystical land of Egypt, not even Grace with her fiction-loving mind is prepared for the dangers in store. From an assortment of untrustworthy adventure-seekers to a newly discovered tomb with a murderous secret, Frederick and Grace must lean on each other to navigate their dangerous surroundings. As the suspects mount in an antiquities’ heist of ancient proportions, will Frederick and Grace’s attempts to solve the mystery lead to another death among the sands? The Cairo’s Curse is a delightful sequel to The Mistletoe Countess by Pepper Basham in the Freddie and Grace Mystery series.

The Cairo Curse is amazingly captivating and delivers a strong five-star rating! I highly recommend this book to everyone! The author, Pepper Basham, uses her remarkable writing skills to transport us to Egypt in such a way that we smell the fragrances, we see what the characters are seeing, and feel what each of the characters are feeling.

What did I love most about The Cairo Curse? The imaginatively strong fictional mind and lifestyle of the main character, Grace, and how her and Frederick’s relationship with God was first in each of their lives. Here are two terrific quotes from Frederick: (1) “It has been a hard lesson, and one I’m still learning, but God is slowly teaching me that I am not to be defined by my past, my relations, or my station, but by Him.” and (2) “… keeping to the view that my identity is in Christ helps place the proper importance in the proper places…”

The Cairo Curse is complete with adventure, mystery, love, romance, tenderness, surprises, redemption, grace, mercy, and love.

The author’s passion for creating stories with vivid settings, dimensional characters, and rewarding plot lines comes through excellently in The Cairo Curse.

I plan to re-read this captivating story to make a list of the mentioned authors, books, and associated characters because this list would make a challenging, yet fun and rewarding, readathon!

The Cairo Curse inspires me to laugh more than I have been, have peace that passes all understanding regardless of my circumstances, continually bubble with joy, and focus on how God sees me -- instead of being consumed with worry, fret, and fear.

I received an eArc of The Cairo Curse from Barbour Publishing through NetGalley.com. I was not required to write a review or paid to do so. The words above are my honest review of this terrific book.

#TheCairoCurse #NetGalley #BarbourPublishing #PepperBasham

Exciting new story featuring Freddie and Grace. This time they are on their way to a delayed honeymoon, with a stopover in Egypt to see Freddie’s cousins. Mysteries abound in between Grace’s excitement about so many new things to see and explore. We meet cousins Georgina and Timothy as well as Sydney, Amelia, Zhara, Mr Smallwood, Mr Andrews and a few others, as well as Elliott traveling with them. When jewelry starts missing and people start coming up injured, Grace and Freddie are in a race to figure the mystery out without anyone else getting hurt. Engaging, page turning story with these two fantastic characters.
A complimentary copy was provided by Barbour Publishing via NetGalley. A review was not required and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

I have never been so excited for a sequel as I was (and honestly still am) for this one! Grace and Frederick are two of my absolute favorite fictional characters ever. I will gladly take as many books in this series as Pepper Basham can write! First off, let's talk about the romance because let me just say that Pepper did a marvelous job of not losing any of the romantic spark even though the marriage took place in the previous book. Grace and Freddie still make my heart melt with how much they adore each other. Next, let's talk humor... all I'm going to say is CAMELS. My face still hurts from laughing. I was delighted with those scenes and cannot thank Pepper enough for putting them in there! (I have the biggest smile on my face even now just thinking about it) And the mystery!! Pepper may claim that writing mysteries is hard, but she certainly makes it seem easy. Just when you're certain you've figured it out, something comes along to convince you you've got it all wrong. The setting... I need to go to Egypt now more than ever because she brought this distant place to life. And honestly, Grace can sell me on anything with her enthusiasm for it. And the history we're provided with! I loved the details - they added a layer to this story that made it stand out even more. I simply cannot stop smiling because of this book and these characters. Do you know the scene in Despicable Me where Agnes yells "It's so fluffy" while shaking a stuffed unicorn ? Yeah, that's pretty much me whenever someone mentions this book. I love it and will make sure everyone knows it!

The Mistletoe Countess is a personal favorite of mine, so it was such a fun treat getting to read another story about Grace and Fredrick.

Pepper D. Basham has such a talent for crafting witty and original stories within the Christian fiction market, and I can wholeheartedly state I've never read anything quite like this lovely tale before. Freddie and Grace continue to be one of my all time favorite literary couples, and I loved getting to witness just how much their relationship has matured and strengthened since the first book.

This was one of those rare reads that truly had something for everyone, and the author has, once again, hit it out of the park. The characters were a hoot, the mystery was well crafted and kept me guessing right through to the end, the plot was genuinely engaging, and the faith element was blended in effortlessly.

Perhaps, however, my favorite part of all was the fact that I continue to love how this author writes characters that love the book world wholeheartedly. Grace's fascination with famous literary characters is pure brilliance, and added a whole other level of humor to an an already hysterically funny story. Rarely have I enjoyed reading about a character more, and I hope that there will be many more Freddie and Grace mysteries to come.

Basically the author took my two favorite characters and threw them right into the middle of a mystery in Egypt swarming around tombs, artifacts and mummies, and I could not possibly have enjoyed this any more than I did.

Final Rating: 5/5.

I have a feeling this one is going to end up near the top of my favorite books of the year, and I can't possibly recommend it enough.

Thanks so much to Barbour for allowing me to advance read and review this one!

I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary advance reader copy of this novel from the publisher (Barbour) via NetGalley. I was not required to give a positive review. All thoughts and opinions are my own, and this is my honest review.

On their way to an Italian honeymoon, newlyweds Lord and Lady Astley take a detour to visit Fredrick's cousins in Egypt. Upon arrival in Cairo, it is clear that something is not quite right among the archeologist party at the Amarna site. Cousin Georgia's husband is determined to leave the site before season's end. The archeologists want to stay. Jewelry has gone missing, and artifacts from Amarna are showing up in unexpected places. When Grace accidentally stumbles upon an "undiscovered" tomb that appears to being excavated, it sets off a series of events that include multiple murders, kidnapping, and near-death experiences.



Normally I would not read a book that is labeled 'Christian fiction,' but I was intrigued that the mystery was set in Egypt. It took me until about the halfway point before I finally got into the story. For me, it dragged up until then. Yes, the reader is being introduced to the characters and is being set up with little clues that something fishy is going on. I was also confused about references to events in the first novel, THE MISTLETOE COUNTESS. Having not read the first novel in the series, I did not understand the references and could have used a bit more explanation. The action did pick up in the second half of the novel, and I got more into the story. I will admit to skipping over the really religious parts. I also didn't really like either of the main characters and couldn't really bring myself to care about what happened to them. Overall, the novel was well written and packed full of facts about Egypt.

Lord and Lady Astley are out for another adventure to celebrate their nuptials with an exotic honeymoon.. They travel to Egypt where they tour ancient tombs, ride camels and find mystery and murder. As with the first novel, this one provides plenty of humor and romance. Lord Astley's valet, Elliot has a prominent role in this book and I kinda fell in love with him as well. Grace is such a hoot and Fredrick is so sweet and tender with her, it is absolutely precious. I am enjoying this series, I really do hope there will be more.
*I was given a copy of this book by the publisher and this is my honest opinion.

Pepper Basham’s book Authentically Izzy made it to the top of my favorite reads of 2022! All the book references (cue all the heart eyes). It was unexpected and Delightful! So I began this arc with exceedingly high expectations (which is rather unfair to any book) and expected to fall madly in love with the book in the first pages, but unfortunately, I didn’t. (It’s not you, it’s me). I didn’t read the previous book, so I started out with a disadvantage. The couple was cute, but I hadn’t witnessed their courtship and so I wasn’t already invested in their story, and because I had such sky high expectations, I lost interest (truly, it’s my issue).

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC! I really liked this book. In fact I think I liked it more then the first one. I loved the traveling aspect of things, and was surprised by the outcome of it all. I knew there would be trouble where Grace is, but didn’t suspect who the trouble makers were.

I look forward to reading more, especially if there was an Elliott and Amelia portion.

Pepper Basham should add travel guide to her resume. Without fail, every book she writes immerses her readers in the setting. It’s like reading while wearing a virtual reality headset. And inevitably, these destinations she guides us through, becomes one of the characters. This book was a fabulous escape into a story with twists and turns galore. It was like the game Clue got together with the movie The Mummy, and had a baby. But with the added bonus of romance and faith elements. So much fun!

This is the first book by this author that I have read. I was drawn in by the title and I was not disappointed. It was well written, with wonderful characters and the setting was so well described, I could imagine myself there. I found it a little different in that it is written from the perspective of 3 characters but I found that delightful. The mystery was well laid out and it kept me guessing till the end. I was surprised to find a lovely Christian message throughout the book, but it didn’t overshadow the story. I found it very uplifting and a nice addition to the story. Even though it is the second book in the series, it can be read as a stand-alone. Well worth reading. I received this as an ARC from NetGalley and freely give my review.

The Cairo Curse is a well written historical mystery. Great plot and character development. I definitely recommend this book. My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my advance ebook. This is my unbiased review.

Oh, I am so excited for this new adventure with Freddie and Grace! We find Grace and Freddie making plans to start their honeymoon with a trip to Egypt. When Grace and Freddie find themselves caught in the middle of the discovery of a secret tomb, crooked antiquities dealers, ulterior motives and murder, they work to uncover the truth. However, for every question answered, more are uncovered as everyone involved schemes to hide their secrets.

Well done, Pepper! What a delightful read, full of everything we love about Grace and Freddie - romance, adventure and humor - but more importantly we see once again how the love of God and understanding of our identity in Him transforms lives. While this book is a sequel to The Mistletoe Countess, it works well as a stand alone read.

I received an early copy for review. My opinions are my own.

I absolutely loved Frederick and Grace in The Mistletoe Countess and was so excited to see a second book that included them.

Camels, pyramids, tombs, and Graclyn Percy. What possibly could go wrong? This was a truly enjoyable sequel. I loved that it closely followed Mistletoe Countess so we didn't lose a lot of time in Grace and Fredrick's lives. We also got to know Elliott, learning about his background and what made him the man and friend that he is. It is a story of adventure, redemption, acceptance, and as always, allowing God to work in our lives and that He knows what is best for us.

I thoroughly enjoy all of Pepper's books, but Grace and Freddy are my favorites of her characters and I hope we get to enjoy many more stories of their adventures.

I read an ecopy from the publisher and Netgalley but all opinions are my own.

3.5 stars
So I really adored the first book in this series, The Mistletoe Countess. It was just so cute and a breath of fresh air. I was really excited to see that there was going to be a second book. The Cairo Curse is the second book in the series and it is written by Pepper Basham. It follows Freddie and Grace as they travel to Egypt.
I did enjoy this book but it took me a bit to get into and longer to read than usual. The characters were engaging but I was not super invested in the plot. However I was invested enough to keep on reading and see what was going to happen. As I read more of the book, it got more interesting.
It was fun to see Grace and Frederick again and see their relationship grow. They have certainly been through a lot. The side characters were also engaging and I hope that some of them come back in later books.
The Cairo Curse is a Christian historical mystery read. I did not even guess how the story was going to end so that was cool. I would recommend it to those who enjoy historical mystery books with a hint of romance.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book which I received from the publisher through Netgalley. All views expressed are only my honest opinion, a positive review was not required.

Frederick and Grace stole my heart in The Mistletoe Countess, so I couldn’t wait to get my hands on the sequel. And then I devoured The Cairo Curse in two days.

Basham manages to keep the romance going between Frederick and Grace. It’s beautiful to get to see their romance continue. But she sneaks in another romance to with a secondary character. I don’t want to give away anything, but it was a pleasant surprise!

Then, of course, there’s the mystery element. The mystery gave me Agatha Christie vibes. With a twist I didn’t see coming, Basham really outdid herself. She added plenty of suspense to keep me hooked with enough romance to keep me smiling.

Overall, The Cairo Curse is a captivating mystery paired with sweet romance. Historical romance and mystery fans alike will enjoy this tale.

I have enjoyed other books by Pepper Basham so I was happy to receive The Cairo Curse from NetGalley. Let me begin by saying, I didn't know this was a second book. Apparently there is a previous book called The Mistletoe Countess. It details all of the adventures of Lord and Lady Astley before they married. Not having read this book, I felt very disconnected with the characters and their history. There was a lot that I missed! I would recommend reading The Mistletoe Countess so that you are not lost.

The Cairo Curse follows Grace and Frederick on a stop in Egypt while on their honeymoon. Grace is excited to explore tombs, see mummies, and ride a camel. But when people start dying under mysterious circumstances, Grace feels that she must determine if the deaths are natural or suspicious. With clues pointing to different members of their party, Grace and Frederick must carefully investigate, all while keeping out of the line of fire.

Overall, The Cairo Curse is just OK. The plot line is good, the mystery is engaging but I found the character of Grace a bit annoying. I understand that the author was trying to paint her as an unconventional woman. Grace says and does exactly what she wants regardless of what others around her expect. Unfortunately, I felt this made her seem very silly. Similar to Kitty Bennett in the book, Pride and Prejudice. I kept getting annoyed with Grace for rushing into danger with no thought for her personal or other's safety.

For example, Grace promises her husband that she would stay put in her hotel room while he is gone. The next minute, she is writing him a note and disappearing into the night. This makes her character feel very flighty and unreliable. Despite this character flaw, I did enjoy the book, and I will be getting my hands of a copy of The Mistletoe Countess and finding out what I missed.

Thank you to Barbour Publishing and NetGalley for electronic advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This comes as the second installment in a series of adventures had by Lord Astley and his energetic, spirited & book-loving Lady Astley. Set just a short time from the end of the first book in the series, there are many characters and events referenced that make this feel like a true sequel. If chosen to read as a stand-alone, it can be done, but certain details may leave you confused.

The endearing Grace Astley is an enchanting heroine who seems to stumble upon adventure and mystery wherever she goes. She’s imaginative, spontaneous and as annoyed by social customs as she is thrilled by her husband. And here comes to something I greatly appreciated about this book - a marriage relationship portrayed where the two partners truly value and honor each other as friends and soulmates. This isn’t often found in fiction, but I found it dear and refreshing
Lord Frederick Astley has grown in his likability from the first book and performs as a man of honor, loyalty, and courage in the face of danger.
The setting of an archeological dig in Cairo, Egypt was unique and seemed to take a great deal of research leading to accurate details, as far as I could tell. The many action scenes were well depicted and followable - truly some of the best of any Christian fiction I’ve read.

But what proves to be my favorite part of Pepper Basham’s writing is the way she takes foundational truths of the Christian faith and seamlessly weaves them into her stories. There’s echos of forgiveness and redemption, and a clear picture of the gospel of grace and the life-changing power of love throughout.

Apart from one story-line of an individual in the group turning up to be a displaced granddaughter of an Earl back in England, which seemed a bit far-fetched, the ending suited me just fine! And left ample room for more Frederick and Grace books in the future - yes please!

This is my favorite quote from the book: “For the most beautiful and memorable stories were only the best because people had to overcome obstacles or fight for truth or brave dangers to get to the happily ever after. Risks and tears and moments when all seemed lost abounded, but the very best stories left a smattering of hope braided into every hardship to ensure the readers the ending would be worth the difficulty.”

The Cairo Curse is the sequel to The Mistletoe Countess both by Pepper Basham. The sequel works well as a stand alone also. The newlyweds Lord and Lady Astley end up in Egypt on their honeymoon. Grace an avid reader, has read up on the subject of Egyptian archeology and is very excited for new adventures. There is plenty of romance, mystery and dangerous situations. This is also a great example of a beautiful redemption. This book releases February 1,2023 but is available for preorder now. I received this ARC through the publisher via Netgalley and was under no obligation for a positive review. All opinions are my own.

This was a fun and intriguing mystery to read! From the setting to the characters, I had a hard time putting this book down!

I really enjoyed Grace and Frederick’s first book, so I was excited to read this new story about them. Grace is such a delightful sunshine character! I love her enthusiasm for life and the way she talks about books and characters from books often. Frederick loves Grace so much, and it’s sweet to see him supporting her and accepting her as she is, while still working to keep her safe as danger and adventure constantly find her.

The Egyptian setting was so intriguing, and I loved the descriptions of the culture and the scenery! I felt like I was right there with the characters. The mystery was fast paced, and I enjoyed reading it very much!

I hope there will be more books about Grace and Frederick!

4.5/5 stars!

Content:
Romance between a married couple, fade to black scene without specific details
Several murders happen, no graphic descriptions

I voluntarily read and reviewed a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.