The Amalfi Curse by Sarah Penner

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Haven’s father was a diver and a dreamer.  He never did quite get the big find he was always searching for, but he was close. His messages to Haven conveyed his excitement—but then he died suddenly.  Now Haven has come to Positano, an area known for its many shipwrecks, and the place where her father made his last dive. She’s working for a major company and has been allowed to assemble her own dive-team, all women. The goal is to map shipwrecks, but Haven is determined to find the treasure her father believed he had found.

Two hundred years earlier, Mari DeLuca is trying to escape Positano—not so much the village, but the sea that surrounds it.  Mari is one of the Strega del mare, sea witches who have have used their magic to keep Positano safe from invaders and prosperous enough to support their families. The sea is their ally, but because the sea took her mother and her sister, Mari learned to hate the sea.  And now she may have found a way to escape it.

Penner does a lovely job of mixing supernatural elements with the reality of diving and underwater research.  Haven and Mari are both strong, interesting characters who are motivated by love, both romantic and love of family.  When the storylines come together, it’s a beautiful thing.

I was especially intrigued by the descriptions of the Strega and the ocean; it’s a complex relationship, both beautiful and terrible as the sea gives and takes.  While I am not really a fan of dual timelines, it did work out in the end.

If you’re looking for a little light fantasy, romance, and an exotic location, give The Amalfi Curse a try. 

Artifact by Gigi Pandian

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Professor Jaya Jones has found her niche as a tenure-track history professor in California, but her life is about to get a bit more complicated.  Shaken by the news that former boyfriend Rupert has died in a car accident in Scotland, she arrives home to find a package containing a heavy gold anklet with a large ruby.  It’s obviously very old, and appears to be Indian.  But it’s the note that throws her for a loop:  it’s from Rupert.  He says that he’s sending her the item for safekeeping because there’s no one else he can trust.

The postmark is the same day as his fatal accident—if it was an accident.

The trouble is that Jaya’s expertise isn’t Indian history, but rather the East India Company and colonial India.  She’s going to have to find someone else who knows about Indian history, specifically jewelry, to figure out exactly what Rupert has sent her and if it got him killed.

With a possible killer on the loose, Jaya accepts the help of graduate student Lane Peters whose specialty is Indian art. But like Rupert, Jaya has to ask herself the question:  who can I trust?

I started reading Gigi Pandian with her delightful Secret Staircase Mystery series, and soon discovered that she had other books.   Jaya Jones was her first series and Artifact is the first book in that series.  Like some of her other heroines, Jaya is mixed race: part Asian Indian and part European as is Pandian herself.  It makes for an interesting cultural backdrop, which I enjoyed, and plays into the mystery too. Jaya is big-hearted, action-oriented, and deeply loyal, not to mention smart and brave.

The mystery is fast paced, with a lot of twists and turns as Jaya drops everything and heads to the UK to try to find out not only what happened to Rupert but how he came across such an unusual and valuable artifact.  It’s obvious that Pandian knows the territory well, both the historical and geographic.  While there were a few plot threads I may have had doubts about, it didn’t stop me from having a lot of fun with this book. I also was aware that this was not only a first in series book, but a debut novel.  With that in mind, I felt she handled a complex plot and characters quite well. It’s quite the page turner.

 I’ll be reading more of Jaya’s adventures as well as dipping into another of her series about an alchemist.