I received a free copy from NetGalley. Long and without an ending. I kept putting it down and reading other things. Back and forth from different points of view and different times they are looking for the dish from the last supper.

This was a hard one to get in to. I tried to give it many chances but this was not the book for me. The synopsis had me in. But. The book itself. It just wasn’t my style.

This book was not what I expected. First off….it’s very very long. Close to 600 pages. Secondly, there are a lot of characters in the story. I don’t like when a book has so many that things get confusing and hard to follow. Thirdly, the synopsis sounds really good. The idea is interesting. Similar to Angels and Demons in the fact that it is a religious mystery with people racing to locate something important that is hidden. Lastly, while this wasn’t for me, do not let that stop you for reading it. I think it’s a creative one that others may like.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Interesting storyline, but almost impossible to follow.

This one is hard to write about because, even though we were provided with a synopsis, nothing of the pages I managed to read seemed to reflect that.

Marketed as a Indiana Jones-like adventure through the ages, not a whiff of that was evident while reading.

Every chapter is a different 3rd person perspective, rotating through characters and time with abandon and what seems like very little care.

The exposition is gratuitous, the prose somehow overly descriptive to the point that you miss the point, and there appeared to be no through line connecting each separate narrative.

I had to re-read several passages to try and figure out what exactly was going on and wound up continuing with very little enlightenment each time.

To put it mildly, this isn’t the book for me. It might be a better fit for those readers that enjoy every detail of the minutiae that make up a scene in order to build an image within their heads; for me, the excess served as a distraction and ultimate deal breaker.

DNF @ 15%.

"The Die Is Cast"
By Heights and Woodhouse

I'm fairly sure "The Die Is Cast" was intended as a farce. Unfortunately, it was a waste of my time. The novel lacked sympathetic or empathetic characters. The action was directed toward uncovering the long-lost dish that Christ supposedly used at the Last Supper. Nothing was resolved.

Most aggravating, however, were the references to a tiny dog owned by an air-headed young heiress who is an ardent "disher," someone trying to uncover the famed dish. Baby Girl clearly is a female dog and should be addressed as "she." The authors, however, persisted in calling her an "it."

The plot was ridiculous. The characters were caricatures. The writing was inane.

I had lots of other books I could have been reading. I only wasted my time to finish reading this because I promised NetGalley a review.

This review was shared to Goodreads and to Facebook groups: Sixties Plus Reading Room; 52 Books; Books, Brews and Bibliophiles, Too; The Book Club Girls; and TBR and Beyond Book Club.

Vatican officials, documentarians, archeologists, and others are on the search for a dish that is the last surviving artifact of the Last Supper. Is what the church has legitimate and are they the rightful owners? Or, are the skeptics correct and the true bowl is still out there somewhere? The Die Is Cast combines history, religion, romance, and humor in book one of what will be a continuing story.

If you’ve ever watched the Indiana Jones movies and thought, “well this is great but I wish we could delve more into the minutia and discussions behind the story,” then this is for you. Sadly, it was not for me. Of course, the romance aspects were my favorite part, but the rest was too much of a slog to get through.

Thanks to Netgalley and Heights and Woodhouse Books for the gifted e-book.

(Weird comment and I’m not sure if this is the way it is in the actual book or just the eARC: the typeface was distractingly bad and incredibly difficult to read. I couldn’t even change it through the kindle app. Hoping it’s not that way in print and the final ebook.)

⭐⭐⭐ -- The book that never ends! 😂

So where do I start with this one? First, I will say that I enjoyed it a lot...until the end. 🤬 This book is LONG. Sometimes it felt like I would be reading it forever. There are several interconnected storylines, and characters. Which is confusing to start with, but I found the further along I read and the more familiar I got with all the distinct characters, the confusion cleared up. The plot was super engaging (although a little repetitive). Intriguing. Humorous. Tongue in cheek (the Oak Island stuff cracked me up). I found the writing decent as well.

So why 3 stars? Because I spent days reading this book just for it to end on a cliffhanger. And honestly, it is a stretch to call it a "cliffhanger" because that implies something significant has happened. This book felt like a long drawn out setup for book two. So yeah, a little perturbed about that. That said, the story intrigued me enough that I will definitely give book two a read. 👍🏻

**ARC Via NetGalley**

"The Die Is Cast": 3⭐

(Unpaid Review: thanks to @netgalley, @heightsandwoodhouse and the publishers for allowing me to read this eArc copy in exchange for a review).

This book felt like reading a classic. The characters were amusing, yet there were a few things I couldn't understand nor relate to. I love multiple characters and multiple storylines, but in this book was a bit confusing and felt like we were in a world-building different from the present ones.

The Die is Cast, Heights & Woodhouse. Lady Jane and the Last Supper Dish Book One

This book follows the stories of multiple characters, Jane Whitaker, a ditsy heiress, Ray and Natalie, documentary film makers with a tangled romantic history. Adam Burke, an archaeologist on the cups of a big discovery and an ancient religious order with secrets to hide. All of these characters seem unconnected from one another but are tied together by one thing, the quest for the fabled Last Supper Dish.

This book has set up multiple characters all with different interests in the Dish and I hope that further books in the series will develop these characters and storylines more. Jane Whitaker has a lot of potential but at the moment she feels a bit flat. Zainab Ayhan seems an interesting character and the motivations behind her actions intriguing, I hope her character will be explored more through the series.

For me, the writing style was a bit hard to follow at points with the narrative changing regularly between these characters, making the storyline a bit disjointed. I spent the first half of the book wondering how these characters all interconnected and while by the end of the book most of them had met the title character, Jane, reminded separate. I did like how the authors used Ray and Natalie's film as a way to move the storyline forward and to introduce and connect these seemingly unconnected characters.

The premise of this series is intriguing, with characters of today trying to solve a mystery of the past while members of a secret order try to stop them. This is just the sort of story that I love to read. Unfortunately this book just didn't grab me. I think we didn't get to know the characters that I liked well enough for me to be invested in the story.

Thanks to @netgalley and @heightsandwoodhouse for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This is a long drawn out book with multiple characters and story lines. The premise of the book sounded interesting. There’s so much going on, at times I had a hard time keeping things straight. It felt choppy and for me just didn’t flow well. I do think some other readers will enjoy the way this book is written.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the early copy