This premise was a great idea and the writing also promising but I really didn’t think the execution was successful. I had to stop reading it and pick up something else. I honestly figured that I’d pick it back up eventually but that never happened and I forgot all about it. I’ll give it two stars for the writing but since I didn’t even make it halfway through I can’t give it more. Life is much too short to read books you aren’t enjoying.

I love Judy Hall's work. I wanted to love this book. I just couldn't. I don't know if maybe there was a lot cut out of it that could have made it better, but what is here is just not good.

3 stars

To be honest I haven't finished it. I got a bit distracted with the concept of the magical sexual practices and I read Judy's other book which helped a bit with this one. I might return to it but the fact that I stopped is indicative of it's content. It didn't hold my attention and I got a bit confused with some of the characters. For me this might have to be a complete reboot and currently I have too many books on my to be read shelf.

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

The Alchemy of Night by Judy Hall
Review by Dawn Thomas

344 Pages
Publisher: Roundfire Books
Release Date: May 31, 2019

Paranormal, Past Lives, Egyptian, Fantasy, Erotica

Phillipa, a reference librarian was on her first vacation with her boyfriend Tom. They were traveling through Egypt when they met Samantha. Little did Phillipa know that would be the undoing of her relationship with Tom.

Sebastian is a patron at the library. Phillipa looks forward to helping find obscure books. After helping her clean out her flat, she feels a bonding with Sebastian. This leads to some steamy dreams which leave her breathless. All of the characters must work together in the present time to send the spirit on to the Afterlife.

This book is written from multiple points of view and bounces from the present to the past. If you like books about past lives or anything about Egypt, you may enjoy this book.

Heat Factor: I have never actively rooted against a couple, but there’s a first time for everything
Character Chemistry: I’ve had indigestion with more fire than these characters.
Plot: Pippa and Sebastian were ill-fated lovers in a past life in Egypt and have a chance to create a different ending for themselves while Pippa runs around obsessing over vocabulary words and shooing smelly ghosts away.
Overall: This book had a great premise but--

Okay guys, I don’t like snarky reviews because they’re not nice and I tend to be a people-pleaser but this one…ooooo, this one got me. First off, I’m pretty inclusive about what constitutes a romance novel, but this simply wasn’t one. My very lax rules about romance novels are that the plot has to revolve around a relationship between people who want to be together and their journey to get there, and the end has to satisfy the needs of those characters, thus simultaneously satisfying the reader. Right? So many possibilities! In this particular book, the author made the interesting choice to have the lead characters not interact in any way for ⅓ of the book and then spend the majority of the rest of the book having dream sex with dead people (or ALMOST having dream sex with dead people). That’s right. Not even each other. Other people. Other people who are dead. I had to check multiple times that this was listed as a romance because the relationship between Pippa and Sebastian was so bland. Honestly, for a decent chunk of the book Pippa just wanders around between the library where she works, the thrift store where she volunteers, and her house occasionally thinking to herself “I wonder what Sebastian is doing?” or “I hope Sebastian comes back soon” without really sounding like she means it. Their connection really is the emotional equivalent of how I feel about my Nissan Versa. Perhaps I’d feel differently if this book had been listed under a different genre, but it wasn’t. The author and publisher clearly meant for this to be marketed as a romance novel so that’s how I’m reviewing it.

Quite frankly, I was put off by Pippa’s propensity for off-topic inner monologue. I will admit, there have been a handful (bushel) of occasions where I personally have been nervous and couldn’t stop talking. And I knew full well I should just stop, because when the person you’re talking to kind of bends away from you and laughs politely and then looks around discreetly, clearly hoping for a rescue--you need to stop. Mid-sentence, if need be. Do not hold people verbally hostage, because it’s not nice. Pippa clearly hasn’t learned this. Pippa tends to say things like, “Oh, I’ve always wanted to be able to use the word ‘[insert SAT vocabulary word here]’, and now I have” which I’m sure is meant to be charming, but actually makes me feel quite used, like I’ve been forced to sit there as some kind of verbal test subject. I did laugh out loud once, and that was when Pippa dryly noticed that one of the secondary characters was a bit “verbose”. Pot...kettle? There’s nothing better than pulling some dusty word gems off the shelf and putting them to use, but please don’t do it at the reader’s expense, and use some finesse. Inner monologues should move the plot forward, not showcase one’s thesaurus. Also--case and point? If the main character is about to undergo a dangerous, life-threatening ritual with the hope of finally uniting her and her love after centuries of suffering, maybe don’t have her casually admire someone else’s haircut and then make a long-winded mental note that she should go have a trim at the salon RIGHT when she’s prepping for said ritual. Incense? Check. Candles? Check. Invite everyone who had a role in the trauma of interwoven past lives to participate in the ritual? Check. Bob haircut with some saucy bangs? CHECK!

Also, let’s get into the reincarnation, shall we? Lovely. There was one bit of the book where I truly started to get into it, because the author started building up the history of the two characters. And then the evil Pharoh kills her. That’s pretty much how it reads and feels. So, to reiterate--the main character will allot multiple pages just to use fancy vocabulary words but wraps up THE MAIN CHARACTER’S DEATH in one sentence. Okay, maybe just an interesting literary decision, and I plodded along until her star-crossed acquaintance lover finds out his soulmate has been murdered. His response? “Noooooooo.” That’s right--”Noooooooo” with a period. I’m awash with emotion. Can you tell? But here I do have to give some credit to the author--the modern romance simply didn’t do it for me and it was pretty emotionally constipated, but you could feel ancient Egypt when she wrote about the main characters’ past lives. That’s where the writing felt comfortable and the characters were dynamic and interesting.

But lastly, and since we’re reviewing romances here--you know I have to talk about the end. Oh, that satisfying heart swell that happens when you finish up a good romance novel. The glee of two fated people working out their obstacles and finding their own version of true love. In this book? The main characters wrapped up their story by finishing up their ritual, reassuring their guests they’d clean up, and sending them home. Oh, how I WISH that was a euphemism--but no. These crazy kids are finally free to make up for all those years they could have been making out and grabbing each others’ buns and were instead dead and alone, and they celebrate by cleaning up and doing the dishes.

I just…

Sigh.

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. We disclose this in accordance with 16 CFR §255.

This review is also available at The Smut Report.

I am not quite sure what to make of this book. The premise sounded interesting, to say the least, but I am not sure the author succeeded well in translating it to the written word. On a disastrous pre-honeymoon holiday, Philippa Grayson, who wandered into an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh’s tomb, now finds herself possessed by this pharaoh—who claims Philippa was his once upon a time, in a previous life. Philippa now needs to reclaim her soul as well as a colleague. The story involves murder, betrayal and sorcery in ancient Egypt, enabling the pharaoh to get to the present day to haunt Philippa and anyone else he wants as well as intertwine a serious murder plot into it all. Still, Philippa is determined to figure out things, as she delves into a book on sexual magic she finds, to enhance her capabilities and confront the specter that haunts her. The story came across to me as a poor mismatch of a lot of things the author was trying to put into place in a fantastic, seemingly unreal tale. I am not one to usually read time travel books or stories filled with lots of esoteric ideas and erotica, so I had some difficulty with this one. The ideas presented were definitely interesting and unheard of previously by me, so I did like the learning aspect. However, I had a lot of difficulty relating to and getting into the book because it was so strange to me and because I am not sure it was as well done or put together as I think it could have been. I enjoyed the many twists and turns in the book, mostly because they keep me off guard a lot of the time. As I said, it just did not seem to come together that well for me. Not sure where I will go from her, whether I will continue the series. This book is definitely not the normal romance, but I am not sure I would just discount it and pass on to the next book. It might interest and be more satisfactory for others who enjoy different sorts of romances—or even for many time travel readers. I received this from NetGalley to read and review

This book was really hard to get into. I had to leave it for awhile and come back time and again. It was really confusing to me. I just think it was not my type of book. I know others will love it.

Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity. I NEVER take these for granted. At this time though, I will not be able to provide feedback. Please receive my apologies hoping this may not affect me in any future requests.

A passionate tantric romance with a taste of memories from Egypt and modern love.

#TheAlchemyOfNight #NetGalley

Review excerpted from my blog post over at FanSciHist (https://fanscihist.wordpress.com/2019/05/20/alchemy-of-night-by-judy-hall/)

My Rating: 2.5 stars

Library recommendation: Not recommended for public library collections.

Warning: Hereafter, you chance spoilers. I will try never to reveal major plot points, but to review any book, you must reveal some parts of the story.


____________________________



Number of titles I have read by this author: 1

Love story speed: Hard to define, due to time-slip nature of the story.

Relationship dynamics: The Anachronistic Librarian (h) / The Shy PhD Student (H)

Sexual content: Some (and certainly not as much as the title and blurb suggested); sex is “onscreen” and quasi-explicit (the author uses Ancient Egyptian terminology to mask explicit terms).

Triggers: Incest (not between H and h); rape (of h, not by H; of H, not by h); non-sexual violence.

Grammar/Editing: This ARC had a number of layout issues, including words, sentences, and paragraphs being run together. There are also some typos, and some use of anachronisms in the “then” portions of the text.

Review: For a relatively short book, 10% of which was back matter (afterword and appendices), the pacing in this book felt very slow. The concept of the tantric time-slip was an interesting one, but the execution fell quite short for me. The narrative felt overly fractured, with sudden and ambiguous changes to point-of-view. What could have been straight forward in the “present” sections of the book read as if it were textual criticism laden with obscure terms found in a thesaurus. Other sections of the book read as if they were from a manual. The result is a work of fiction that reads as if patched together with parts of a work of non-fiction.

So fractured is this tale that describing the heroine and hero and their relationship is difficult without revealing too much of the plot. Phillippa is a curious reference Librarian who has lead a relatively sheltered life. Sebastian is a lonely PhD student who wishes Phillippa would notice him. Their relationship is sweet, but fraught with impediments at every turn, which ultimately caused me to lose any investment I had in its success. The supporting characters would have been far more interesting had they not all been written with similar back-stories, and as related to one another through a series of convoluted relationships that even the heroine could not keep up with. I will not be picking up the next book in this series.

Thesaurus version: A narrative for the grandiloquent and pedantic. While the premise bespoke promise, the realization elicited nothing more than disgruntlement.



Full disclosure: I received a free advance review copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was an interesting read. I requested it on a whim. Just looking for something outside my normal reading material.

It's a lot more interesting than I thought. I enjoyed it at parts and hated it at others. But it was a fun time waster.

For my personal tastes I'm only giving it three stars and it's because I got very confused several time and had to return to pages previous and piece together what wasn't connecting in my mind.

Good read, not the best.

Thanks NetGalley for the chance to review this book.


Side note: I do want to finish the series...I may revisit my review at the end.

This book was an enjoyable story travelling across time from ancient Egypt to present day and the story of love and obsession. I loved it because it was not your run of the mill erotic novel and fitted perfectly with the erotic text it sat along side the story of an ancient manuscript.

This book wasn’t exactly what I expected. Unfortunately, the storyline which seemed to sound strong when I requested it, fell flat when I read it. It jumped around a lot and some things didn’t make much sense, and when throwing romance in the mix, I become very picky. For this novel to have properly caught my attention, I would have needed more detail, more accurate Egyptian facts, and characters that didn’t all seem flat.

2.5 ⭐️ rounded up to 3

Philippa Grayson awakes in the throes of a fierce orgasm. She finds herself possessed by the spirit of an Egyptian Pharaoh whose tomb she had ventured into when escaping a disastrous pre-honeymoon holiday. The spirit claims that Phillippa was his in a previous life. Phillippa needs to reclaim her soul and a colleague called Sebastian. It all seemed a bit far fetched for me. There is plenty of information on ancient Egypt. Not my usual choice of reading material.

I would like to thank NetGalley, John Hunt Publishing Ltd for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn't that find of this book it was at times hard to read and the plot was not easy to follow i would still recommend to lovers of the genre

I think this author is conflicted. She has created a book that has several threads but none relate to the others or contain any understandable meaning. Egyptology might have been an interesting concept on its own but she has thrown in fantastical time slips and an erotic underpinning that has no possible correlation to what else is going on. I am not a prude I have enjoyed books that contain or even focus on erotica but this is just sexual description for the ski of it. How did the publishers cut the reviews to give the praise that is cited - it denigrates the reader by picking superlative phrases that cannot possibly have been meant to praise this utter rubbish.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
Sadly, this is a DNF review. I stuck it out as long as I could. I feel like, by 15% through the book, I should feel some sort of a direction. I just didn't feel it. What I did feel though, was that I was being talked down to. The use of large obscure words throughout the book is fine, but when it just seems unnecessary, it didn't feel like those words are being used organically. It was really odd to have these random words and definitions thrown in. I also didn't really understand the "sexual magic" piece. It really didn't seem like that's what was going on? The first scene was more of a " What the heck is going on?" than a real sexual scene? The story line jumped a round a lot, and some of the pieces seemed really random. To describe Sebastian as a random customer in one sentence, and follow that up by saying how much she'd like him to ask her out, and that she dreams of him at night, was just too strange for me. Might be a great read for someone else, but it wasn't my jam.
#NetGalley #TheAlchemyofNight

I had to DNF this book. I just couldn't stand Phillipa as a protagonist and honestly, I thought she was a flat character. She seemed so naive in the portion of the book that I read and just not a character that I could relate to or even wanted to relate to.

I feel like the writing was also very dated, if that makes sense. We are in 2019 and I felt like I was reading a book that was written in the 1990's. There is nothing wrong with that, I am just not able to get into a story that is written that way and with a character that I could care less about, I felt like if I kept reading, I may start to get angry and be more harsh in a review.

A bit hard to read in some ways, but certainly different. I voluntarily read this book via Net Galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Another great informative read from Hall- her expertise shines through. Read alongside the Magical Sexual oractises of ancient Egypt, this gives the reader a well informed deep knowledge of the magic of sex and ancient Egyptian practices.