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City of Jasmine Deanna Raybourn 9780778316213 Books

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City of Jasmine Deanna Raybourn 9780778316213 Books

I wanted to like this book, but to give it three stars is a stretch for me. As I've mentioned before, Deanna Raybourn's "Lady Julia Grey" series is among my favorite set of books. I also enjoyed the Veronica Speedwell books and look forward to more. However, the books written by Raybourn which are set in a more modern time simply don't do it for me.

We were introduced to our H/h - Gabriel Starke and Evie Merriweather in Whisper of Jasmine, the prequel to this book, which mostly dealt with their first meeting and impromptu marriage after knowing one another for less than one day. Four months into their marriage, they separate and it is believed that Gabriel drowned when the Lusitania went down. Not so - he's alive and well and doing his thing in the Mideast working for the Vespiary - a very specialized spy network, which uses a variety of young people, some of whom are related to the March family featured in the Lady Julia Grey series.

Evie has believed Gabriel to be dead for five years until she receives a photograph with his face on it which indicates he's still alive. She's made quite a name for herself as an aviatrix, flying the Jolly Roger, supporting herself through customer sponsorships. This go around will take her to the Middle East where she hopes to find Gabriel. When they meet up, it's nothing like one might suspect an encounter of this magnitude to be. In fact, it was a huge let down.

What follows is a thread of adventure that takes Gabriel and Evie into one troublesome spot after another with the two of them basically struggling to stay alive while attempting to hold onto an ancient, priceless relic. Since neither one of them gives a rip for money, it seemed ridiculous they would go to such extremes to hold onto this relic. Actually, it was mostly Gabriel trying to hold onto it while Evie kept saying she wanted nothing to do with Gabriel - yeah, sure! We certainly swallowed that bit of fiction.

This book had such a great premise - Vespiary doings, a handsome blue eyed man who had stayed celibate for five long years while working undercover and pretending to be dead. Evie, who was quite the little spitfire. But, believe me when I say, there is basically no romance to speak of. Lots about the "Lawrence of Arabia" period and what was going on in the Middle East in that time frame. Honestly, when I closed my Kindle, all I could think about which book I could read that would get this yucky feeling out of my soul. Barely three stars.


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City of Jasmine Deanna Raybourn 9780778316213 Books Reviews

This book, and "Night of a Thousand Stars" (same author) which one might view as a sort of companion piece, if not a sequel, are well & smoothly written for what they are - which is sort of "little golden books" for adults. These Raybourn novels are fun, entertaining, fairly quick reads. The author does give accurate summaries of some of the political issues, and cultural/ethnic considerations, which along with descriptions of Damascus & surrounds, are of interest in themselves. The plot is believable in context - but reality is "gentled down" considerably - which, perhaps, is a large part of what makes it appealing to those who have experienced decades of the real stuff, and wish to escape for a few hours. Suits me on occasion! A bit of romance (& can't feature men enjoying these reads), Characters developed to the extent required to be interesting enough in context, and support the intrigues & plot. One reviewer likened some of the dialogue between protagonists to dialogue in the old Nick & Nora Charles "Thin Man" movies. I think I'd agree, in both books there's a kind of snappy, flapper-ish, flirty banter, and 1920's-1930's feel...with maybe even a little covert bow to the Rudolf Valentino-Sheik-of-Araby craze. I found "City of Jasmine" enough fun to buy "Night of a Thousand Stars" - and I liked it even better.
This book was so disappointing! It started out well and had a sort of "Romancing the Stone" feel the feel of a fun romantic story which was going to require a bit of suspension of disbelief but would be amusing with a good romance. Unfortunately, it quickly went downhill and became a bit of an implausible hot mess. The romance of old Damascus and it's history was touched upon and there was so much potential in this great setting, but most of the book took place in the desert with implausible chases after implausible treasure and a strange and rather unpleasant dynamic between H/h. The fun quickly wore off and the whole story defied all efforts to suspend disbelief with little humor and chemistry between the characters. The whole thing felt like a cartoon with very little emotion and with a main obstacle in the relationship (the whys and wherefores are revealed near the end so I don't want to include spoilers here) that did not convince me and in fact just made me want to give up on the book altogether. This whole thing was a lost of opportunity and definitely compares very badly with a lot of Ms. Raybourn's earlier and more recent work. Sorry to be so critical about an author I admire but this one just doesn't meet the standard set by her other work. I should mention that I read this immediately after reading "A Spear of Summer Grass" which I loved and so this negative review is greatly impacted by the comparison.
I wanted to like this book, but to give it three stars is a stretch for me. As I've mentioned before, Deanna Raybourn's "Lady Julia Grey" series is among my favorite set of books. I also enjoyed the Veronica Speedwell books and look forward to more. However, the books written by Raybourn which are set in a more modern time simply don't do it for me.

We were introduced to our H/h - Gabriel Starke and Evie Merriweather in Whisper of Jasmine, the prequel to this book, which mostly dealt with their first meeting and impromptu marriage after knowing one another for less than one day. Four months into their marriage, they separate and it is believed that Gabriel drowned when the Lusitania went down. Not so - he's alive and well and doing his thing in the Mideast working for the Vespiary - a very specialized spy network, which uses a variety of young people, some of whom are related to the March family featured in the Lady Julia Grey series.

Evie has believed Gabriel to be dead for five years until she receives a photograph with his face on it which indicates he's still alive. She's made quite a name for herself as an aviatrix, flying the Jolly Roger, supporting herself through customer sponsorships. This go around will take her to the Middle East where she hopes to find Gabriel. When they meet up, it's nothing like one might suspect an encounter of this magnitude to be. In fact, it was a huge let down.

What follows is a thread of adventure that takes Gabriel and Evie into one troublesome spot after another with the two of them basically struggling to stay alive while attempting to hold onto an ancient, priceless relic. Since neither one of them gives a rip for money, it seemed ridiculous they would go to such extremes to hold onto this relic. Actually, it was mostly Gabriel trying to hold onto it while Evie kept saying she wanted nothing to do with Gabriel - yeah, sure! We certainly swallowed that bit of fiction.

This book had such a great premise - Vespiary doings, a handsome blue eyed man who had stayed celibate for five long years while working undercover and pretending to be dead. Evie, who was quite the little spitfire. But, believe me when I say, there is basically no romance to speak of. Lots about the "Lawrence of Arabia" period and what was going on in the Middle East in that time frame. Honestly, when I closed my , all I could think about which book I could read that would get this yucky feeling out of my soul. Barely three stars.