Empire of Shadows is compared to The Mummy and Romancing the Stone. I think it's more like The Mummy and The Lost City. Initially, it felt like a pure knockoff of The Mummy. Ellie (Evie in The Mummy) is a British scholar who is not taken seriously because she is a woman. She finds a map and decides to search for the ancient civilization. Of course, she needs help, and in walks Adam Bates (Rick), a rough-around-the-edges American who is out of place in British Honduras. Reluctantly, Ellie asks Adam for help, and they begin their adventure. At this point, I was debating whether to finish the book; it was too similar to The Mummy, and I wasn’t feeling it. I should point out that The Mummy is one of my favorite movies, so I wasn’t interested in a rip-off. Once they head out, the story becomes its own, and while I was enjoying it, I also started to get a little bored. Ellie was sometimes hard to like. She would automatically get mad at Adam for trying to help her when she clearly needed help. Adam was the more likable of the two. Then we reach the point where Jacobs catches up to the two of them, and there are some similarities to The Lost City. This is where the story finally picks up, and it's non-stop action until the end. Overall, I liked this, and I think the series has potential and I will eventually pick up the next one. 

 

Side note: Chapters are from Ellie and Adam’s POV. Alex Picard did a fantastic job with the narration, but it would have been even better if Adam’s chapters had a male narrator.  I know it's not always possible, but just saying it would have made a difference. 

 

Stars: 3⭐️⭐️⭐️ 

Spice: .5 🌶️ 

Eyeroll: 2 🙄 🙄 

Genre: Fantasy/Historical Fiction 

Series: Yes 

Format: Audiobook 

Narrator: Alex Picard 

Narrator Rating: 4.5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 

Cliffhanger: Yes and no. This story had an ending, but it set up for the next one