Passion & Pyramids

by S.R. Thornton

Jasmine married her husband, Edward, shortly after college even though she loved another. Though she had spent four years studying archeology at the Cairo College, she ended up joining Edward in a political career. Now, six years later, she finds herself back in Egypt where Edward, an Ambassador for the United States, is kidnapped. Jasmine and the guard assigned to protect her family reach out to an expert in terrorism for help in recovering Edward. Jasmine never expected that the expert would be Rajah, the man she left to marry Edward. Now Jasmine must work with a man she still loves to rescue the man she married, and Rajah's demanding the answers he never got before: why did she end their relationship so abruptly and with no warning to marry Edward just weeks later? Jasmine must open up and confess what happened six years before that made her leave. She must also face the future once she learns that a rival terrorist faction killed Edward. Just as Jasmine finds the happiness she’d long ago abandoned, her husband is found alive.

Available in paperback, Kindle, Nook, and more. Check out the author's website for options.

328 pages, Paperback

First published October 16, 2013

About the author

S.R. Thornton currently lives in the Baltimore area with her three sons where she works a 9–5 job in the inner harbor of Baltimore.

It was a few years after moving to Baltimore that her eldest son and she were comparing unique dreams they’d had. As he had before, her son insisted she write her dream down and make a book. After insisting that, although great at writing poems and short stories in school, there was no way she could write an entire novel, she finally tried it and completed her first nearly 600-page novel in three weeks. She found the experience so relaxing and enjoyable that she kept going. In the last six years S.R. Thornton has finished over 30 novels in various genres, including vampire, werewolf, witches, contemporary and historical romance that she’s now ready to share with others.

Reviews

[Sophia · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was sheer good luck that led me to this book because I saw it posted as one of the GoodReads giveaways and I just had to try for it the second I saw it was a romance set in Egypt and involved Egyptology, characters from different culture and a splash of political intrigue. It was with a squee of pleasure that I actually won it and then recently had the opportunity to read it. My overall impression was that it was definitely as good as I expected and then some.

The story begins in the present with Jasmine arriving in Egypt to join her husband. He achieved his dreams of becoming a US Ambassador to a Middle Eastern country and has been installed for many months only now just sending for her and their daughter, Jada, after she was appointed as a minister on the ambassadorial staff. The return to Egypt floods Jasmine with good and bittersweet memories from the time she lived there before as she attended university there to study her heart's dream of archeology and fall in love with a man- whom she still loves- that is not her husband.

Jasmine's arrival in Egypt is not as welcoming as she anticipated. Her husband is more reserved than usual, he's withdrawn from her and Jada and he works long, extended hours. Her and Jada's pleas to spend time with them go unheard until one day he suddenly disappears. Jasmine receives the threatening notes that tell her that he is being held by a terrorist group. She might not be in love with Edward, but she does feel affection for him and he is a good man so it is with determination that she sets out to get him back through the help of someone she never expected to see again.

Rajah can't believe his eyes when he realizes who the woman is seeking his help to find her husband and get him back. So many emotions course through him. He loved Jasmine and she loved him, but then she walked away without a word and married Edward. Now here she is needing him to find the man she chose over him. He lashes her with his anger and pain and she gives as good as she gets, but in the end he helps her.

Along the way, the two recall and recount their past through flashbacks and stories so that Rajah finally learns what broke them apart. This leads them to the brink of 'What now?' since there is still Edward between them and there is still more of the story to unfold.

The plot was interesting and engaging from the beginning. I enjoyed Jasmine and Rajah's voices narrating the story and I loved them as characters. They are both so heartbroken and it was not long that I felt their love affair was a beautiful thing that needed repairing in the worst way. Their present circumstances and back story kept me turning pages as their second chance romance unfolded. I felt the backdrop of the country and customs was done well and even though I wanted to smack her for what spewed from her lips, Edward's sister Nancy also cracked me up. I guess there are people that are that insensitive and bigoted out there, but she was just so over the top that she was like a caricature of herself making me laugh at her. As to Edward in the middle, it might seem that this is a love triangle or a case of cheating, but for those who don't like those components, I'll just say that all is not as it seems.

I only really had two niggles about this one and neither have anything to do with the story line and are more afterwards things. First, the switches in perspectives happened sometimes so often and weren't delineated well enough for me to catch them so I was distracted. Secondly, this was rough in places and need more polishing. I am not a Grammar Nazi, Edna the Editor with the wicked red pen or anything close because that would just be a pot/kettle thing so I rarely point this sort of thing out, but the book didn't have a finished edition quality to it which again, was distracting. Now its possible that this book has been revised to a newer edition and the things I mentioned are a moot point right now. I'm also going to say that I call these 'niggles' for a reason. They are mildly distracting, but they are not a reason to pass on this engaging, heartwarming story.

This was very much a story that I would recommend highly to those who enjoy the idea of a contemporary second chance romance between people of different cultures set against the backdrop of Egypt and includes a splash of intrigue.

I'll leave you with a quote that made me sigh:
Six years. That's how long it had been since they had been together. That's how long he spent daydreaming about what it would be like to hold her and touch her again. That's how long he spent longing for the feel of her touching him in the loving way she used to... p. 287 Rajah, Passion & Pyramids

[Calley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining and adventurous love triangle. Loved the flashbacks to get the characters backstory. It has you longing to know why Rajah and Jasmine split up and wondering what made her marry Edward since she originally had no interest in him.