Romancing the Stone meets The Mummy in this delightful novel about a suffragette swept into an adventure to Belize to look for the fabled White City where she meets a roguish hero determined to help her. The chemistry between Adam and Ellie was instant and addicting!!! This was a very well written novel and while it can be read as a stand alone, there were definitely hints near the end that there could be another adventure in their future. I would love to read a sequel!

𝐄𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐬 by 𝐉𝐚𝐜𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐥𝐲𝐧 𝐁𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐧
Raiders of the Arcana series ℬℴℴ𝓀 𝒪𝓃ℯ
3.75 ★

Empire of Shadows is such a fun start to what I imagine will be an adventurous, historical fiction fantasy series! We kick it off strong with our FMC, Ellie, fighting for women’s rights and we love a strong feminist woman! Unfortunately, she gets fired from her job shortly after her boss finds out that her protest led to her (one little) arrest. Ellie leaves her job, but not without first stumbling upon a map that could send her on an adventure of a lifetime! Sure, she may have stolen this piece of history from her boss but she has good intentions! She just wants to protect and preserve what she might find from other more dangerous characters with less favorable intentions.

I loved the way this story began! It felt very much like The Jungle Cruise and Indiana Jones with promise of exciting adventure and fun-quippy banter. We have a strong willed FMC, Ellie, who is not scared to speak her mind and a physically strong/protective MMC, Adam, who allows our FMC to be herself.

The excitement and snarkiness continued for me up until the actual adventure into the jungle began. After that it somewhat fell flat for me and the quippy banter somewhat disappeared for me. I’m not saying it disappeared completely, it just didn’t hit for me like the first part of the book. The antics Ellie and Adam got themselves into were definitely dangerous and exciting; I just felt like I was missing the comic relief that the earlier parts of the book gave me. I think the only way I can really explain it was that it was a lot of descriptions of what was going on and not a lot of fun dialogue to go along with it. I felt like I was just watching things happen to the characters rather than experiencing it with them. But, truly, aside from that, I did enjoy this book and its adventure. I look forward to the other books in the series and I can’t wait to see what Ellie and Adam get up to next!

Thank you to @netgalley and @crimsonfoxpub for this ARC! You can also find my review on GoodReads and Instagram linked below.

You can start your Raiders of the Arcana adventure beginning April 2nd!

✨"I know a thing or two about having dreams
the rest of the world thinks are madness"✨

If you love "Indiana Jones" and "the Mummy" this is the book for you!

✨Ellie lives in London , she is part of the Suffragette movement and her dream is to become an archaeologist . She has the education and all the qualifications to follow her dream ..if only women were considered equal to mens. So when she comes into possession of an old map and a magical artefate she decides to set off for the Hounduras and find out what new discovery the map will lead her to. From here will emerge Ellie's stubborn and ambitious character who turns out to be an intelligent, stubborn, independent ,courageous and unabashed woman while still remaining fine and elegant!

🤠 Adam, on the other hand, complements Ellie perfectly:
He is the heir of a wealthy American family who’s decided to leave everything behind to go and explore the unknown territories of the English colonies... and he will become Ellie's guide.I loved his optimism and cheerfulness even in the most desperate situations, as I loved his being able to stand up to Eliie but still consider her his equal. Eliie and Adam have crazy chemistry and reminded me a lot of Richard and Evelyn from " The Mummy" so I am sure you will love them!

✨I loved @'s ability to place the element of the supernatural within an accurate historical context while reducing it to make it seem completely natural! Plus Empire of Shadows has such vivid writing that you will easily find yourself exploring ancient Mayan civilizations with Eliie and Adam facing adventures and dangers with them!

4 1/2 stars

When I heard this story was a mix of Indiana Jones, The Mummy and What the River knows, I knew I had to read it. This is my first book by the author and it was such a fun ride.

This story is full of adventure, mystery, history and the banter between the main characters Ellie and Adam was utterly delightful. it was a real sloooow burn but it was worth the wait. I can anticipate that the next book will amp up the romance.

I really enjoyed the historical aspect of the book and the archeology has always been an interest to me so it was fascinating to learn facts along the way and made me want to research more about the culture.

Ellie was a strong protagonist that was completely capable of saving herself, however, Adam had skills that work collaboratively with Ellie and made them a fantastic team. Ellie is a feminist and suffragist, whilst I enjoyed it, it was repeated often. Adam balanced her out well.

Overall the book was so enjoyable and I look forward to the sequel. Thank you to Netgalley and the Author for the ARC.

I absolutely LOVED this book. Holy moly. It’s giving the mummy but with more fun details. The adventure was amazing, the setting, the romance!! I just ate it all up! It was perfect. I can’t wait to buy this one!!

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an arc of this book!

Before i get into the review i would like to say that i hit roughly 25% before i had to dnf, that being said what i did read i did really enjoy there were just a few things that stopped me from going any further!
I think people who enjoy a very slow paced action/adventure story would really enjoy this the most as it has an Indiana Jones, The Mummy, even Sherlock Holmes feel to it.

The writing style took me by surprise the most i think, but in a good way. It felt very authentic to the period that the book is set in, and was the perfect amount of descriptive and lyrical.
The one thing that i struggled with the most was the actual layout of the pages. It all felt incredibly long and tiring, and mixed with the writing style it felt like it was taking a very long time to actual make progress through the book. I think it would have benefited greatly from more paragraph breaks to help indicate when things were changing, and to just make it a much easier read on the eyes as seeing that much text at once can be very overwhelming.

The storyline was very intriguing and if it wasn't for the formatting and incredibly slow pace i do think that i would have enjoyed the book a lot more, and would have likely carried on reading it. I liked the character Ellie and felt like i could have connected to her more if she didn't seem so transparent. It was very obvious what she was going to say, was thinking, or what actions she might take next which made everything feel quite pradictable, but not necessarily in a bad way. I didn't get to the romance aspect of this book, but i feel like i would have enjoyed it the most, and also feel like the romantic lead would have probably taken on a comedic role, or a role to try and bring Ellie out of her shell and make her feel like "the main character"

overall (from what i read) was very enjoyable, the characters i did meet i enjoyed, it was just a struggle to follow the pages and read it because of the formatting and very long chapters.

2.5 stars, rounded down.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my review copy.

It took me a good 30 - 35 percent to decide if I wanted to stick with this book. The writing style took me by surprise as it felt very "Tell" rather than "Show". It also took me a while to get used to having Ellie as our narrator as I found her pretentious to begin with, and the pretentiousness of the voice, I'll admit, does fit in with the 1890 aesthetic of the book, but I am not sure if it is for me when the book is over 500 pages long.

Ellie mentions a lot about being a woman and the hardships she faces and it did tend to feel that this was her only character trait.

Overall, I dislike the nature of the relationship between Adam and Ellie. It feels very stereotypical to me and the sort of relationship where you know how it is going to end. I think most of my disliking towards it was to do with how shallow the relationship felt and I could tell there was going to be a makeout scene and when it happened, it cememted that I disliked the relationship.

The plot was very easy to guess - it followed a typical adventure plot and it was only in the last 15 percent that we got more development of the "Arcana" within the world. I would've liked more of this from the start. I know that this is the first book in a series and that the other books may have more of the magic aspect in them, but I won't be continuing with this series.

Despite the length of the book, it simultaneously felt like it was a long book (due to how wordy the chapters are), but also not that long (due to how quickly I read it and how much of a light read I found it) but a lot of the plot felt very surface level and it didn't have much depth.

I know that there will be people who enjoy this book more than I do and that a big section of the book (the relationship between Ellie and Adam) wasn't for me, but it will be for someone.

4.25/5

The adventure-seeking protagonist and the feminist message behind her character, the banter she shares with a great love interest, all in with this fabulous setting? I am sold! Read this in no time as it gripped me and I felt like I was running with them!

This was such fun to sink into with almost an Enola Holmes type heroine wanting to be Indiana Jones and yet somehow she's caught up in a situation straight out of King Solomon's Mines with a hint of The Mummy ! Our intrepid protagonist Ellie has a brain to rival any other scholar and yet due to ignorance and the misogyny of her time she's stifled and overlooked. Well that all changes when she undertakes a daring hunt to locate what could be the surprise of the century. Trouble is she herself is hunted and the jungle is no place for an inexperienced traveller so its lucky that a certain American gentleman finds himself at a loose end and very intrigued by the female who quite literally drops into his lap !
I loved Ellie and she showed such gumption even though at times she's painfully out of her depth. Adam was the perfect foil to her bookish manner and I very much enjoyed his teasing ways. This was a fabulous adventure with a truly odious villain but perhaps best of all are the sumptuous descriptions of a fantastical world full of history and still to this day mystique. I very much look forward to reading more by this author.
This voluntary take is of a copy I requested from Netgalley and my thoughts and comments are honest and I believe fair

This was such a good read! I was immediately sucked into the story and could not get enough of the characters. I went on a full emotional journey with these characters and I really enjoyed it. The book was easy to read and kept a good pace where I was never bored. I will be recommending this book to all of my friends and family.

For lovers of Indiana Jones and The Lost City, for the archaeologists and anti-colonialists, for the slowburn historical adventure junkies, this one's for you.

Ellie is a suffragist and archaeologist - or she would be, if anyone in 19th century England would allow her to be. When she stumbles upon an old map to a mythical city and a No Good Very Bad Dude looking for it, she is determined to find it first and preserve what knowledge she can. But the only way she's going to reach this city deep in the jungles of British Honduras is with a guide, and no one wants to take her. Unfortunately for Adam Bates, the job falls into his lap. Literally.

This is a slow one. Jacquelyn Benson takes her time setting up her story and getting her characters to their end goal with a pretty good balance of harrowing near-misses and moments to breathe and talk. The romance creeps in over time and I'm grateful for all the breaks Adam and Ellie had to get to know each other along the way. Despite knowing where, physically, they would end up, I had no idea how they were going to accomplish their goals (and it still surprised me at the end).

DNF at 11%

While I get that most books follow a formula depending on the genre, I couldn't get beyond the feeling that I'd seen this scenario before and I realized it's because The Jungle Cruise movie is a very similar start.

Female scholar is held down by men due to the times, finds an object, pursued by a villain, leaves on an adventure to a lost civilization. I didn't even meet the guy but from the cover, I can definitely see him being the comedic relief boat skipper.

Overall, not for me, especially with +500 pages.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for letting me read an advanced copy of this!

A swashbuckling fantasy-adventure that perfected its balance of romance, fun, and history. Ellie and Adam were fantastic leads, and I can't wait to read more of their adventures together! Jacquelyn Benson is a master of properly selling you into the setting. I had a blast reading every page. - Goodreads and StoryGraph

Did you ever think you would need a book mash up of The Mummy with Brendan Frasier and Disneys The Jungle Cruise? Because this book is absolutely the best versions of both! I love the characters they each have their own unique personality and the humor and back story you get throughout is great! It gives you a sense of wonder and I was absolutely wishing that it was real! I will be adding this to my shelf because I would like to read it again physically🖤
Posting to good reads Magaidh Dunbroch
Posting to Instagram @author_magaidh_dunbroch

Thank you, NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC!

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

This book blew me away. Historical fantasy isn’t a typical genre that I reach for, but Jacquelyn Benson may have changed that for me.

As many other reviewers have said, this is a The Mummy x Indiana Jones type of novel with a strong FMC. I was immediately rooting for Ellie Mallory, a well-educated aspiring archaeologist, stuck in a job she was simply overqualified for. An arrest for protesting for women’s equality that led to her losing her job forced her hand and catapulted her into an adventure she’d always dreamed of - searching for ruins and uncovering history.

I loved the banter between Ellie and Adam, who despite his educated upbringing also chose a lifestyle against the grain. Their adventures together were so fun to read and I loved seeing Adam be the level-headed explorer counterpart to her impulsive and bold nature. The character development throughout the whole book were extremely evident and the attention to detail in describing their surroundings was phenomenal.

If you are looking for an action-packed adventure with a hint of fantasy and romance, I highly recommend.

Empire of Shadows comes out April 2nd, 2024- and there will be a sequel

I love the characters. Both Ellie and Adam are very likeable. It didn't take long for me to enjoy the story. It was fun reading about their treasure hunting adventures!

The romance in this book is also very entertaining. Those of you who like historical romance with exciting adventures will probably want to give this book a try.

Thank you to Netgalley, lovely author and publisher for this ARC~!

Thank you to NetGalley and Crimson Fox Publishing for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

I absolutely LOVED this book! Picture The Mummy meets Tarzan meets Sandra Bullock’s The Lost City. It was so different from what I would normally read, and I really enjoyed the dive into the realm of historical fantasy.

Ellie immediately captured my heart with her fierce but dry personality and passion for history and the knowledge that comes from it. Adam was the perfect rugged American counterpart to the proper English lady that Ellie is. The banter is perfect, the slow burn is sloooow but so good, and I just couldn’t get enough of the two of them. The book was really well paced and I loved the action and mystery of it! I also think the author set up the next book really well, and I can’t wait for more!

Eye. Blood Drinker. Priestess. Power. Blade.

Eleanora Mallory, a fearless civil rights rioter, arrested by the knights 🗡️ of Her Majesty the Queen. An independent girl, told to get a husband in the place of a job.

Inhabited kingdom. The White City. Enticing words and even more alluring adventure. River of Smoke, far more than fairy tales and Hokum. A tempting expedition.

Cups of tea and eclairs. Treasure maps. Hieroglyph of Truth, a feather 🪶. Strangers. Coral 🪸 snakes. Princess 👑. Adam Bates. Kidnappings. Mayan civilizations. El Dorado.

A Smoking Mirror 🪞, allowing the viewer to see the Past, across vast distances, and the Future. The Mary Lee. Winchester rifle. Manatees, the ugly mermaids pirates scouted.

Caves and mountains. Swamps and crocodiles 🐊. Egypt. Dreams. Death God guardians. The House of Gloom. Evil spirits. Santa Muerte, Saint Death. Cursed Realm of Hungry Spirits.

The Arch Hollowed by the Hand of God. El angel de la Muerte. This was truly a riveting read! A scholarly englishwomen on a treasure hunt with a map cartographer - I recommend this adventure to every reader who craves unique storylines and historical, mysterious expeditions. 🌟🌟🌟🌟/5 Stars!

Thank you to the author, @netgalley , & @crimsonfoxpub for an advanced copy of this book! I have never read a book that felt as perfectly written for me!!!

After finding a historical relic, Ellie leaves behind proper society for an expedition in the British Honduras. There, she enlists the help of Adam, cartographer extraordinaire, to beat nefarious competitors to the ancient, mythological civilization of Tulan.

What I liked: Chock-full of action, mystery, and adventure the likes of which haven’t been seen since the third Indiana Jones movie, this book was full of lighthearted banter, a compelling romance, and a truly evil villain. I love love love these characters and I need their next adventure NOW. Huge shout out to @wordsandwyverns for the A+ recommendation!

What I didn’t: Before it became clear, I thought the villain would become the love interest… That may be my own issue.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Spice: 🥰
No-scroll: 📵📵📵
Jaw-clench: 😬😬😬😬

Recommend if: you are also a huge Indiana Jones fan, you like mainly action/adventure with some romance sprinkled in and leaves you wanting more, you’re into cinnamon roll guys, you love a feminist protagonist

4.5 / 5 stars

First off, big thank you to NetGalley, Crimson Fox Publishing, and anyone else that allows readers to read books beforehand and help attain our goals of reading new authors.

My honest review is: I freaking loved this book. The mythology, the history, the fantasy, and of course, Ellie and Adam. This is an amazing blend of lore + great character development.

This is my first Jacquelyn Benson and I know it won’t be my last. I look forward to picking up more of her books in the future.

Spoiler alert here: damn, that ending left me wanting so much! I cannot wait for the next one.

I will say the only reason this is marked as a 4.5 instead of a true 5 is because of the amount of historical / mythology intertwined within the story - it could be a wee of a turn off for anyone not prepared for it but ya girl was really happy with it.

Overall, great read and enticing from page 1 to the end - great work Jacquelyn!