Expected Publication: January 8th, 2013
Cleopatra Ascending (Shadow's Edge # 2)
By: Maureen Lipinski
Flux
ISBN-13: 9780738731933
Sweet Sixteen = You're a Queen
Despite living with a shaman, a witch, and a muse for sisters, Rhea Spencer feels like a normal teenager-even if she is the reincarnation of Cleopatra. But all that changes on Rhea's sixteenth birthday, when her visions of the Egyptian queen start unraveling a very different version of history, and Declan, a hot representative of the secret Order of Antony, shows up on the doorstep to keep her from being kidnapped. Together, Rhea and Declan travel to Egypt to stop the Octavians, a dark cabal trying to tap into Rhea's growing powers. The cabal seeks to access the magic deep below the desert sands, a potentially devastating force that only Rhea can protect.
Despite living with a shaman, a witch, and a muse for sisters, Rhea Spencer feels like a normal teenager-even if she is the reincarnation of Cleopatra. But all that changes on Rhea's sixteenth birthday, when her visions of the Egyptian queen start unraveling a very different version of history, and Declan, a hot representative of the secret Order of Antony, shows up on the doorstep to keep her from being kidnapped. Together, Rhea and Declan travel to Egypt to stop the Octavians, a dark cabal trying to tap into Rhea's growing powers. The cabal seeks to access the magic deep below the desert sands, a potentially devastating force that only Rhea can protect.
Review
Rhea Spencer had lived around the supernatural her whole life without any major problems. Her Mom is a psychic, and her sisters are a shaman, a witch and a muse. Oh yeah, and Rhea also just happens to be the reincarnation of Cleopatra! But on her sixteenth birthday, Rhea starts having visions of her life as the Egyptian queen and than the Order of Antony shows up to 'protect' her from another, darker order - the Octavians. The Octavians want to kidnap Rhea and use her to unleash an army of the undead and take over the world. Forced to leave behind her family and her boyfriend Slade (who was just made King of the Dark Creatuirs), Rhea and Declan (a member of Antony) travel to Egypt to take back the Book of the Dead and stop the Octavians for good. Will they be able to save the world or will everything be lost for good to an ancient evil? This book intrigued me from the start, seeing as I have always loved ancient Egyptian mythology and history. The idea of an American teenager being the reincarnation of Cleopatra was amusing. I liked Rhea's sarcastic, yet fairly happy existence. The dynamic of her family was a good change from all of the splintered ones I see in YA fic on a constant basis. I got the feeling while reading this book that I had missed something, from all the references to her sister Leah's role with the Dark Creatuirs, and I was right. I had read this without knowing it was number two in a series. I hate it when that happens, but for the most part it didn't affect my experience too much in this case. It was more of an annoyance than anything else. Rhea's romance with Slade, who is a different species, kind of squicked me out. And the whole Romeo & Juliet thing they have going on gets old really quick. Especially when Rhea is constantly and immaturely pining over him, whining about how much she misses him. Yuck, I hate gushy teen romance in YA books. Resolution came a little too quickly for my taste and I felt like the way the conflict ended was sloppy and lazy. Overall an interesting attempt, but not my favorite mythology rendering and I wouldn't recommend it to any of my friends.
VERDICT: 3/5 Stars
*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book's expected publication date is January 8th, 2013.*
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