A bookish adventure...

"...it began in Rome, as all adventures should..."

Damascus
Aviatrix
Relic 

Those three words were all it took to make me want to read Deanna Raybourn's City of Jasmine. This is a fun adventure novel set in the 1920s, with just the right amount of romance. I really enjoyed it.

Aviatrix Evangeline Starke has embarked on a trip to fly across the Seven Seas with her Aunt Dove when she receives a photograph of her late husband, Gabriel Starke, who appears to be very much alive. She follows this clue to the ancient city of Damascus where she must not only track down her missing husband, but a priceless relic as well.

Smart, and a little bit headstrong, Evie Starke is a girl who can hold her own. She doesn't let any of the men in her life sway or control her, not even handsome and secretive Gabriel. I liked that about her. I also liked that she's not immune to love. In many ways, City of Jasmine, with its combination of mystery and romance, reminded me of my favorite M.M. Kaye novels. It's well-written, has some great dialogue, and is set in a fascinating time and place. In fact, it's the perfect summer adventure. 

Happy Reading!

An Inquiry Into Love and Death by Simone St. James

3 Reasons to Read This Book:
The Time Period: The 1920s
The Setting:  The secretive coastal village of Rothewell in Devonshire, England
The Characters:

• Jillian Leigh -- a smart and unconventional heroine who "did not believe in ghosts.  Of course I didn't - no sane person believed in ghosts.  I believed in Oxford, and cobblestoned squares, and old bricks thick with ivy, and rainy days curled up reading books."
• Drew Merriken -- the tall, dark and handsome Scotland Yard Inspector and former RAF pilot who is in Rothewell to investigate the death of Jillian's murdered ghost-hunter uncle.
• Walking John -- the ghost of John Barrow who has haunted the woods and residents of Rothewell for years.

This book is full of secrets, mystery and supernatural suspense, with just the right amount of romance; one of my definite must-reads for 2013!

(Simone St. James' first novel, The Haunting of Maddy Clare, is also a great read.)