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A review by hlizmarie
City of Jasmine by Deanna Raybourn
2.0
I recently read Night of a Thousand Stars, which is loosely linked to this book, and loved it. Despite being a Deanna Raybourn fan I really had no desire to pick this book up until I read Sebastian and Poppy's story and got won over by their chemistry and adventures. Unfortunately, there was little here that reminded me of them except for the geography.
Evie and Gabriel married the same day they met and then within months were in the midst of a divorce when Gabriel is killed. Evie has tried to go on with her life and become a bit of a sensation flying her small plane around the globe. Out of the blue someone sends her evidence that Gabriel might be alive and she treks off to find out if it's true. Of course, it is and the two get drawn into a search for a sacred relic and misadventures ensue.
It's hard not to compare the two books. The men know each other and both are part of the same super-secret spy agency and end up in this part of the world during the war. Both women are unconventional for the time period and have quite their own personalities. The backdrop of the Middle East and the geography is much the same. Unfortunately, however, the relationship between Evie and Gabriel is much more harsh and bitter than that of Sebastian and Poppy. There is history between them that wounded them both and instead of a slow warming we get a lot of conflict, name-calling, and coldness. They have walls up against each other for so long in the book that when they finally crumble it was too late for me. Evie seems to just harp at him endlessly and her constant wrong assumptions about Gabriel's character came off as condescending. Poppy did much the same with Sebastian in Night of a Thousand Stars but it came across as charmingly naive and done with a bit of a wink. In the end, there was simply not enough lightness and spark between the two to balance out their anger and disappointment in themselves and each other.
Evie and Gabriel married the same day they met and then within months were in the midst of a divorce when Gabriel is killed. Evie has tried to go on with her life and become a bit of a sensation flying her small plane around the globe. Out of the blue someone sends her evidence that Gabriel might be alive and she treks off to find out if it's true. Of course, it is and the two get drawn into a search for a sacred relic and misadventures ensue.
It's hard not to compare the two books. The men know each other and both are part of the same super-secret spy agency and end up in this part of the world during the war. Both women are unconventional for the time period and have quite their own personalities. The backdrop of the Middle East and the geography is much the same. Unfortunately, however, the relationship between Evie and Gabriel is much more harsh and bitter than that of Sebastian and Poppy. There is history between them that wounded them both and instead of a slow warming we get a lot of conflict, name-calling, and coldness. They have walls up against each other for so long in the book that when they finally crumble it was too late for me. Evie seems to just harp at him endlessly and her constant wrong assumptions about Gabriel's character came off as condescending. Poppy did much the same with Sebastian in Night of a Thousand Stars but it came across as charmingly naive and done with a bit of a wink. In the end, there was simply not enough lightness and spark between the two to balance out their anger and disappointment in themselves and each other.