A review by literaryland_livin
Tomb of the Sun King by Jacquelyn Benson

5.0

ARC by NetGalley and the publisher. 

Activist and suffragette Ellie Mallory is off on another adventure to find and save precious and mysterious ancient artifacts from the hands of those who seek to exploit them. With the help of her charming and dashingly rouge friend Adam Bates they set out for the arid desert land of Egypt. As Ellie and Adam arrive in Egypt they are met with danger and adventure as they race against ruthless villains. The two-some is soon joined by Ellie’s best friend Constance as well as her step-brother and Adam’s best friend, Archeologists Dr. Neil Fairfax. Needless to say Neil is less than happy to see Ellie and Adam off gallivanting around the world unchaperoned. However they have more pressing matters to attend to like the search for another arcanum artifact. But as the group closes in on the three thousand year old clues left behind from the necropolis of Saqqara so to does their aggressive counterparts. With danger lurking at every corner how will the group manage to save history as well as their lives.

If I thought the first book in the Raiders of the Arcana series, Empire of Shadows reminded of my immense love for the 90’s film The Mummy then this book 100% transported me there! Tomb of the Sun King without a doubt brought an entire Egyptian world filled with action, adventure, wonder, mysteries, and magic to life. This sequel absolutely had everything I had hoped it would and then some! Following Ellie and Adam again on another adventure was highly satisfying. These two are just beyond perfect together, I loved watching their relationship progress farther and seeing Adam’s unwavering support of Ellie warmed my heart. The banter in this one is just as good if not better than the first, as we now are joined by Ellie’s step brother and her best friend who bring their own new level of tension to the group. One of the highlights is that while reading I found myself fully transported to this ancient world. As someone who once longed to be an archaeologist (specially an Egyptologist no less) I couldn’t help but smile the entire time while reading this. The amount of work and research Benson put into this sequel shines thru, which she even talks about in greater detail of the accuracy in her after-notes (which I highly suggest reading after completion.) This truly shows how dedicated an author she is to her work and I know moving forward in the series I can count on this accuracy to be a consistent theme as well as alittle magically spin on it of course. Bottom line I simply can not wait to see what book 3 has in store for these amazing characters and all the adventures they will continue to find themselves in.  

Tomb of the Sun King comes out October 1st, 2024. 

Thank you NetGalley and Crimson Fox Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.