Nefertiti's Heart

Cara is a young woman who has returned to London after 7 years of exile, upon the death of her abusive father. As a child, Cara was given to a lord who beat and raped her,until she managed to escape his grasp. Cara returns with the intention of selling off her father's priceless artifacts, forcing her to enter into a business contract with Nathaniel, a rich and handsome underworld lord. In exchange for his help, she gives him the right to touch her ((wtf tho....? Really??)). In he meantime, gruesome murders shake the capital, sending Cara on a hunt for a missing artifact, and a killer.

Well now, this wasn't what I expected. At all. The premise said this would be a steampunk murder-mystery adventure.... and I got a vaguely steampunk romance/erotica with a tiny mystery in the background. I think the author was a little bit confused as to what the subject of her book was.

STEAMPUNK?
The steampunk elements were overused and unoriginal and didn't add to the story. I think it's rather unfair to put this book in the steampunk category. Also, can I take a moment to comment on how every new scene featuring Cara, described her clothing for the day? These descriptions weren't even clear early woven in the story, nope. The author just straight out wrote “today, she wore a corset that accentuated all of her curves” ((well yes, that's what corsets tend to do... just sayin')).

STRONG FEMALE COUGH
Apparently our protagonist is a “strong woman” and “kick-ass”, when in fact the only thing our young lady does is carry guns and knives, without ever using them (granted, she does once in the opening chapter). Oh and, she likes to box, and beats up a guy in a fight. I'm sorry, that doesn't make her a strong female character.

UNREALISTIC RECOVERY?
I'm sorry, I didn't believe Cara's emotional/physical recovery. I honestly don't believe that a woman, who spent her childhood being beaten and raped, would barter her body in a business proposition. Nate's stalking and physical advances would be too much to bear for an abused woman.

MURDER-MYSTERY
Predictable, mildly interesting. It could have been much better if it had been the central point in the story (rather than Cara's sex life). I liked the inspector, he was promising but sadly, didn't have much ‘screen time', in favour of our swoon pirate/lord/mobster male lead.

All in all, the premise was really interesting and promising but the book fell short. There were too many elements in the story that didn't blend in well together. The different elements weren't cohesive and had me wondering what the actual plot was. The relationship between Nate and Cara was weird and unrealistic, I didn't believe their (mostly Cara's) evolution.

2 stars, given for the few good moments in the story.

A breathless and exhilarating adventure inspired by Egyptian artifacts and legends.

There are few books that I am willing to spend an entire day reading, yet Nefertiti's Heart demanded my attention from the very first page and I couldn't put it down. Every time I thought I was coming up on a stopping point, something else happened and I was hooked all over again.

Cara is an instantly likable character and easy to sympathize with. Her story is rough but she handles it with a sort of fierce poise that makes her a unique main character. The additional characters are also incredibly developed and not just “page fillers”, they each have stories and are just as interesting as Cara is.

The story itself is just..Wow. Unpredictable, exciting, and perfectly paced. Every scene is significant to the ending and weaves in and out of each other until the final “aha!” moment, in which everything is pulled taut and perfectly connects all of the dots.

However, it pains me that there was so much other content thrown in that my rating will witness a several star reduction. There is a surprisingly low amount of cursing, however, the killing scenes are very high in detail and well described. There are mentions of abuse, rape (though not shown), and drinking. But the main reason for the star reduction is the sexual comments/thoughts, multiple extremely detailed kissing scenes, and three graphic sex scenes.

If the sexual content had been considerably reduced (not necessarily omitted because the romance is significant to the storyline; but we could have known what they were doing without such intricate details..) this book would have received a full 5 stars. However, because of the multiple sex scenes, I'm only inclined to give Nefertiti's Heart 2 out of 5 stars and only recommend it your own risk (because the story really is amazing!).

This is a LiteratureApproved.com Review.