Eh….this is just ok. I love a good archeological adventure/mystery, but this one fell flat for me. The dialogue seemed a bit too modern and I didn’t connect with the characters. The action was a bit slap stick as well.

Thank you NetGalley for an advanced digital and audio ARC. All opinions are my own.

“The Antiquity Affair” was full of thrills, history, and some romance. I really enjoyed the switching between viewpoints from sister to sister and I really hope we get a follow up book(s). The only downside was that the digital arc was pretty hard to read as there were random spaces in the middle of words/sentences frequently but that did not take away from my enjoyment of the book.

Entertaining journey through Victorian society and early 20th century Egyptology. Mia and Tess both come into their own as modern thinking women, and slowly throw off the constraints that society put on “ladies” of the era.
Loved it!

An Indiana Jones-style adventure, but with ladies? Sign me up! I've always been fascinated with Egyptology, and there was history, mythology, and archeology, mixed with the perfect amount of mystery, action, and adventure in this book. I thought the alternation POV chapters was well done. I liked the writing style, and the plot and character development were very well done.

Available June 6, 2023
5 ⭐
(Perfect for a beach, holiday or pool read!)

This was quite a romp of a read. It was as if Indiana Jones brought his two daughters along with him as additional adventuresses! Their father is a excellent archaeologist and both girls are quite bright in their own way. Through childhood with their father being gone so long, they had come up and devised their own language. Lila, is able to translate symbols and she's an excellent code breaker. Tess is well versed in the knowledge of various mythologies, everyone has talents that they will need in order to ultimately translate the ancient scrolls that will lead them to a relic, a relic that is thought to give the ultimate power to the person who claims it. However, it's not that simple, there is a society individuals that want it for themselves and they will do anything, kidnapping, a forced engagement, anything to get to it before Lila, Tess and her father do. Expect a lot of light romance, puzzles to solve, sibling rivalry between Lila and Tess, near death escapades, a shootout and of course much more. It was really a lot of fun to read. I definitely recommend the book.

The Antiquity Affair, by Lee Kelly and Jennifer Thorne
Rating: 4/5
Published: 6th June 2023
Oh, this book is fantastic fun! I was entirely swept up its pages. Lila and Tess are the estranged daughters of the renowned archaeologist, Dr Warren Ford. They are broke, and their father is constantly off gallivanting in Egypt, seeking the mysterious and supposedly magical Serpent’s Crown. Tess and Lila are drawn into the dangerous pursuit against their will. A wealthy and secret society kidnap Tess, and force her to solve riddles that will enable them to discover the Crown before her father, but the stakes are too high for it to fall into the wrong hands.
As an archaeologist myself, I was massively impressed by the attention to detail. Every character was fully formed and brilliant, and I loved how Kelly and Thorne threw in some real characters too (Howard Carter in the Cairo Museum really made me smile!) Kelly and Thorne successfully capture 1907 Egypt in all its majesty. Their descriptions of both the new and old parts of the city are beautiful, and I enjoyed seeing how each sister is forced to adapt to survive. It reminded me of Indiana Jones, but with strong female leads, which we don’t see often enough in this sort of story and genre. The prose is easy to follow, and I was completely swept along on this quest. The love story is subtle, which I appreciated, because this is a book about women overcoming adversity. It’s about two women fighting to do what’s right in a world where corruption lurks behind every corner. All in all, this book is great fun.

3.5 stars, rounded up

This was a pretty fun historical fiction ride with likable characters and a compelling archaeological mystery at its center. It doesn't exactly reinvent the wheel, but feels familiar in a good way, harkening back to classic adventure fiction while also acknowledging some of the more problematic aspects of the whole treasure hunting Westerners trope, which I appreciated.

The dual POV is split between two sisters, but personally I found Lila to be far more compelling than Tess, both in terms of her role in the plot and her character arc. It seems like this book is setting itself up for a sequel, so I'd be intrigued to know how Tess' story continues, since Lila more or less has her happy ending wrapped up while she doesn't.

All-in-all, I enjoyed this! It's one of those weird ones where I don't have much negative to say, and nothing overwhelmingly positive either, it was just very serviceable and scratched a certain entertainment itch for me.

This book sends its reader on an adventure! I enjoyed getting to know both main characters and seeing how very different people can both be parts of the same incredible story. The writing was inviting, humorous at times, and well crafted. Highly recommend.

"An archaeologist's estranged daughters.

1907: The dawn of Egyptology is a time of imperialism and plunder, opulence and unrest, and Dr. Warren Ford, esteemed archaeologist, is the man of the hour. His daughters - intellectual Lila, on the eve of her debut as a Manhattan socialite, and nonconformist Tess, who dreams of following in his footsteps - have always lived in his shadow, and their lives couldn't feel more different. But when a secretive organization seeks to find a lost relic legendary for its dangerous power, it isn't Dr. Ford they turn to - it's his two remarkable daughters.

A legendary artifact known as the Serpent's Crown.

Rumored to reside in the mysterious Tomb of the Five Ladies, the Serpent's Crown will only be found by solving a seemingly impossible riddle that will open the tomb - and the organization believes that one of the Ford daughters holds the key to deciphering the code. What was supposed to be an elegant debutante ball for elder sister Lila quickly turns sinister when Tess is kidnapped and put on a ship across the Atlantic. When Lila and her father realize that Tess's life is in danger, they must act quickly to track her down and stop the Serpent's Crown from falling into the wrong hands.

A puzzle three millennia in the making.

A race for the Crown begins, with Lila and her father in hot pursuit of the organization and Tess. With lives at stake, the fractured family must keep their wits about them, find the artifact, and escape the ruthless men who are also determined to possess the Crown and use it to their own advantage - no matter the cost.

In this women-centered nod to the beloved Indiana Jones stories, The Antiquity Affair is a high-stakes, trans-Atlantic thrill ride, with the page-turning excitement and romance of classic adventure novels and a poignant story of sisterhood at its core."

And don't forget Egyptology!

This book was a fun read. The setting and premise are what drew me in but the author doesn’t quite deliver with the other parts of the book. I would still recommend it for someone looking for a quick read though.

The book is almost non-stop action, with Tess getting kidnapped and Lila and her father trying to get her back and fleeing the country within the first few chapters. It doesn’t slow down much from there. Because of that, it was a quick read. Although, I could have gone for a little more down time with the characters actually communicating with one another.

I thought the setting, quest, and puzzles were the best part of the book. Ancient Egypt has always been fascinating to me and the quest to uncover an ancient Egyptian artifact was right up my alley. The parts of the book focusing on the quest (all towards the last half of the book) are the reason why I gave this book a 3 star rating and not lower. Those parts of the book were very well done.

However, I feel like the book took too long to build up to that point. I would have preferred if the book spent more time with the characters looking for the artifact than the whole kidnapping plot with Tess. I felt myself frustrated at how long it took Lila and Tess to reunite and it didn’t feel like the actual quest began until then.

I also feel like the characters needed more work. I found myself annoyed with Tess and Lila. I felt that they were pretty inconsistent characters and I went between liking them and not liking them as the main characters. I really did not like their father. It seemed like he was there for convenient plot points and to make bad decisions. The one character I did like was Alex but I wished he was fleshed out more.

Overall, this was a fun and quick read, there were simply some parts I did not enjoy.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This was a great freshman effort. The characters needed some developing and the plot was a bit thin in places but I am wholly looking forward to the next in the series!

This was a really fun read, kinda Indiana Jones but with sisters, Lila and Tess as the adventurers. Their father is an archaeologist, both girls are brilliant, they have their own makeup language, Lila can translate symbols and break codes, Tess has lots of knowledge of mythology - all talents they will need to translate some ancient scrolls that lead to a relic that gives ultimate power to its wearer. But it’s not simple, there’s a society of bad guys, a kidnapping, forced engagement, light obvious romance, sibling rivalry, puzzles to solve, near death, a shootout and lots more.

i do love me a good historical fiction novel full of history and archaeology and badass female characters

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. I was fascinated by the description of this book, and was not let down. This is a story of sisterhood, faith and love. Not only does this book offer a very fun journey of two estranged sisters, it's a very fast paced thrilling ride to the farest regions of Egypt. As a lover of history, taking this journey with the two sisters, whilst fighting off the evil cabal, was the perfect form of escapism. I was wary the characters would be too obvious in their struggle to find each other, and find true love; I was not let down. I can truly say this is a must read for all who are seeking a novel filled with adventure, cunning, joie de vivre and loyalty. I would certainly look forward to reading more adventures of the Ford sisters.

A group of greedy, rich men go on a quest to find Egypt's famous Serpent Crown. Having the Crown would enable them to control the world, but is the Crown real or a myth. They are thwarted in the attempts to solve the riddle of the papyrus scrolls and decide to enlist the daughters of archeologist Dr. Warren Ford. Both young women are puzzles and games experts, and the group are positive they can coerce the women to solve the riddle. Lila and Tess resist their efforts and begin the quest on their own, aided by Dr. Ford's assistant Alex. The book is action packed and a thrill ride of ancient Egypt. My only complaint is that it is about 20,000 words too long.

I absolutely loved this book!! It had all the elements of The Mummy and Indiana Jones that I love. I enjoyed the use of actual Archaeological terminology, incorporation of real digs and Archaeologists. As soon as you start reading you're thrown into the adventure which I appreciate. The pacing was perfect, not too slow or rushed. The characters were well written and developed. I'd definitely recommend the book and these Authors. I hope they continue on with the Ford sister's adventures.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I found myself getting swept up in the action and excitement of the story. The writing itself was descriptive and allowed me to picture almost all elements of the story, from the characters, their environments, right down to objects. I really enjoyed the plot and the thrilling nature of solving the riddles. The characterisation was great and we got to see really diverse qualities in Tess and Lila and the sisterly dynamic between the two was written really well.

I think addressing the issues surrounding early archeology is really important, I’ve read other historical fiction books about archaeological discoveries that have made me very uncomfortable because the author hasn’t in some way attempted to address how these discoveries (while fabulous for our knowledge of the past) profited on colonialism and imperialism and were at the expense of the people who actually lived in those countries. In particular, I found the quote “I find them wretchedly distasteful. Not the objects themselves but our possession of them. These are pilfered things, spoils of bald theft, snatched from peoples in no position to argue because they’re dead or too poor or downtrodden or ensnared in political nets not of their own making to fight for what’s rightfully theirs” poignant in expressing this sentiment.

This novel is perfect for fans of The Mummy franchise, or 2000's Kids who carried the gold Egyptology book around with them everywhere. I look forward to reading about the Fearless Fords again.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Muse for giving me the opportunity to read this book, I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Thanks to Harper Muse for the copy of this book.

I was absolutely baited by the cover of this book - it's gorgeous!!! The premise also sounded very much up my alley. However, it fell a little flat and read very YA at times, which usually is not the genre for me. There is also a lot of belief that needs to be suspended for this narrative to work well, and with the narrative also being a little longwinded, this was difficult.

Perfect for fans of The Mummy and Indiana Jones, The Antiquity Affair is a swashbuckling misadventure of two sisters through early twentieth-century Egypt.

This reminded me of all of my favorite books and movies growing up. It was seriously just a delight from start to finish. I love the contrast between Tess and Lila. Alex was adorable. I loved their Dad and his antics. It was just a fun ride.

🎵 Songs I Listened to While Reading: The Mummy (Original Motion Picture Album) on Spotify 🎵

✍🏻Writing Quality: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
🗺 World-Building: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
👤Characterization: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
💭Dialogue: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆
🎯Plot: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
👣Pacing: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
👻 Scaredy-Cat Meter: ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
🖤Enjoyment Level: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

「 Overall: ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆」

This story is filling an interesting spurt of books all focused on the fasicination with Egypt that was erupting around the world in 1907. It's a multilayered story told from the perspective of two sisters who have gone separate directions to fulfill family expectations after their mother dies when they are young. One follows their Indiana Jones-esque father to Oxford and Egypt, while the other stays on the fringes of the highest echelons of society. In the process neither is fully themselves until they are swept into a terrible pursuit for the serpant's crown that will supposedly let one rule others through mind-control. To survive they have to work together, something that seems impossible until it is forced in the final pages of the race to outwit the challenges in the hidden tomb.

It was an interesting story though I enjoyed Jocelyn Green's Metropolitan Affair more. This story is filled with the story elements I would expect in a general market read.