Rating: 
Summary: Pales in comparison
Review: After reading Ms. Frank's Reflections in the Nile I was expecting a great book. However, I had a difficult time getting interested in the plot even though I loved the Cloe and Cheftu characters. I also had a difficult time keeping characters straight and was continually referring to the index at the front of the book. Additionally, I found the new characters boring and had a hard time relating to any of them. Perhaps my expectations were too high after being treated to the wonderful Reflections in the Nile (which, by the way, is my favorite book), but I feel that Ms. Frank could have done much more with the characters. During many points of the book it seemed to drag on for what felt like forever, but at other times I felt as if I was left standing alone at the starting line and wondering where everyone went. The book wasn't all bad though. I think that the plot idea was a good one, but I feel that with the talent that Ms. Frank has, she could have done much more with the story. I have also read Sunrise on the Mediterranean and it is much better, so if you read this book and you don't enjoy it, read her other two books, they are well worth your time.
Rating:
Summary: Pales in comparison
Review: After reading Ms. Frank's Reflections in the Nile I was expecting a great book. However, I had a difficult time getting interested in the plot even though I loved the Cloe and Cheftu characters. I also had a difficult time keeping characters straight and was continually referring to the index at the front of the book. Additionally, I found the new characters boring and had a hard time relating to any of them. Perhaps my expectations were too high after being treated to the wonderful Reflections in the Nile (which, by the way, is my favorite book), but I feel that Ms. Frank could have done much more with the characters. During many points of the book it seemed to drag on for what felt like forever, but at other times I felt as if I was left standing alone at the starting line and wondering where everyone went. The book wasn't all bad though. I think that the plot idea was a good one, but I feel that with the talent that Ms. Frank has, she could have done much more with the story. I have also read Sunrise on the Mediterranean and it is much better, so if you read this book and you don't enjoy it, read her other two books, they are well worth your time.
Rating: 
Summary: A 6! This book is pure magic
Review: After reflecting on the Nile during the Exodus, time traveler Chloe Kingsley is elated to be going back to the future accompanied by her Egyptian lover Cheftu. However, she quickly realizes that this is not Kansas, let alone Dallas, as she finds herself occupying the body of an Atlantis priestess at the Cybele Oracle in Crete with Cheftu nowhere in sight. Though she is not sure why she is here, Chloe knows that a catastrophe is soon going to destroy the most advanced civilization of the ancients. Cheftu arrives as an Egyptian emissary in what is either a cosmic joke or a great coincidence. However, unbeknownst to the chronological-crossed lovers, they are intimate players in what will ultimately become the world'd mythos. The second novel, SHADOWS ON THE AEGEAN, in J. Suzanne Franks' time travel trilogy is a great novel that brings to life the legend of Atlantis in a creditable and most logical manner. Like its predecessor, REFLECTIONS ON THE NILE, the story line is fast-paced, action-packed, and loaded with legendary prose that turns the book into a sure classic. Throw in two fabulous protagonists and a wealth of wonderful support players and readers of historical romance will frankly demand the final book in the trilogy see the sunrise in 1998 rather than wait another year. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: And they say the past comes alive on The History Channel... When I read Suzanne Frank's SHADOWS ON THE AEGEAN, the mysterious ancient cultures and peoples about which she writes almost literally jumped off the page. Books like this - so incredibly well-researched and evocative in detail and, well, seemingly realistic - make Richard Ellis' IMAGINING ATLANTIS interesting comparative reading. And then, like adding a jeweled capstone to the top of a beautifully crafted pyramid, Ms Frank weaves it all into a plot so astonishingly compelling that you won't be able to put it down. I lost a lot of sleep staying up late following Ms. Frank's beautiful, sweeping prose. And I, for one, thank her! Can we have the third installment of the adventures of Chloe and Cheftu any sooner than 1999?!
Rating:
Summary: Part 2 of the Trilogy
Review: Chloe and Cheftu leave ancient Egypt and are transported to an ancient island in the Aegean which they realize is the fabled Atlantis. Despite the fact that they are in different bodies, Chloe and Cheftu find each other and experience life in this ancient, Greek culture. Frank craftily blends Greek mythology with the characters of this story, showing how the legends might have been made. An exciting sequel that has left me yearning for the third in the trilogy.
Rating:
Summary: Part 2 of the Trilogy
Review: Chloe and Cheftu leave ancient Egypt and are transported to an ancient island in the Aegean which they realize is the fabled Atlantis. Despite the fact that they are in different bodies, Chloe and Cheftu find each other and experience life in this ancient, Greek culture. Frank craftily blends Greek mythology with the characters of this story, showing how the legends might have been made. An exciting sequel that has left me yearning for the third in the trilogy.
Rating:
Summary: WOW! Better than the first!
Review: Finally it is out :) Another well written, enthralling tale! Like "Reflections in the Nile" it starts off with a very thick read, but soon pulls you in so that you can't stop! Much darker at times than the first, and with a more psychological thriller feel, "Shadows..." was an eye-opener. And as a male reader, I appreciated the action involved too. Buy it, take the phone off the hook, and block out some time....
Rating: 
Summary: Great idea falls short
Review: Finding the lost civilization of Atlantis and actually becoming a part of its community should make for tantalizing reading, but somehow this is not the case for this book. Cheftu and Chloe are intersting characters, but you would have thought that after their adventure in the first book of this series that they had learned to trust one another. Not so--through a series of misunderstandings, the two characters continue to make faulty, illogical moves that, I suppose, enable the author to write extra steamy love scenes that detract rather than add to the plot. Otherwise, the ideas of connecting Atlantis with the Aztecs and Stoker's obscure Scholomance reference in Dracula, while having the pantheon of Greek gods and goddesses rely on an immortality elixir invoked by the Mormon Urim and Thummim are intriguing ones, but they are presented as almost asides, not the mind-boggling conundrums they should represent. The author does not flesh them out enough, but instead concentrates on exemplifying Chloe's running and emergency skills and Cheftu's prowess in bed. For me, the last straw was expecting me to think it was cute that Chloe, great artist that she is, was responsible for the famous boxer boy painting found by Marinatos in the tepha covered ruins of Akrotiri on Santorini. Come on, give me a break!
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I enjoyed reading Ms. Frank's Reflections in the Nile both for it's story and the accuracy of the setting. Ancient Egypt was described in such detail I had to assume that Frank had done a great deal of research in the process of writing her book. Shortly before I purchased Shadows on the Aegean my younger sister succumbed to Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD). This awful disease is an important plot device in Shadows on the Aegean. However, Ms. Frank does not portray the disease accurately and I found that I could not get past that. I developed a strong interest in the characters while reading Reflections in the Nile, and while Ms. Frank continued their story in Shadows on the Aegean I could not muster an interest in their fate in this sequel.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as the first
Review: I enjoyed this book but not as much as I expected to. Suzanne Frank does a wonderful job writing in historical context. She has an interesting premise but it almost seems to run away from her. She just seemed a bit lost in the vastness of her concept. I did enjoy reading this but my expectations had been raised by the first and this could hardly help being a bit of a disapointment. Still can't wait to get my hands on the next one.
|
