11 Jul 2010

The Rose Labyrinth by Titania Hardie

The Rose Labyrinth

From bestselling British author Titania Hardie comes a mystical fiction debut that takes readers on a romantic journey from Elizabethan England to modern-day London where a centuries-old secret awaits.
 
Before his death in 1609, Queen Elizabeth's spiritual consultant, astrologer, and scientific advisor John Dee hid many of his most astonishing written works, believing that the world was not yet prepared to face the shocking truths that they revealed. For seventeen generations, his female descendants have carefully guarded the secret of his hiding place, waiting for the right moment to bring Dee's ideas to light. That time is now.

In The Rose Labyrinth, Titania Hardie masterfully blends historical fact and fiction as she introduces readers to Lucy King, a beautiful, young documentary producer based in London. With the help of a brilliant group of friends, Lucy races through London, France, and New York to decipher the clues that will eventually lead her to the hidden treasure of the Rose Labyrinth. Along the way she finds true love with Alex Stafford, the doctor who saw her through a life-threatening heart condition and transplant.

A sweeping adventure for readers who loved The Da Vinci Code and The Expected One, The Rose Labyrinth is a decadent, romantic novel with a historical twist. It features a wonderful mix of literary references, from Shakespeare, to the Romantic poets, to Gabriel Garcia Marquez; the folklore and history of Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Paganism; and of course, astrology and numerology, of which Hardie is an expert. As the Rose Labyrinth tells us, the world we think we know is not all that it appears to be. 


This was a very good book, although the copy I have is 531 pages long and the print is very small - so this was a bit of a haul but definitely worth the effort.  The only bit that put me off this book a bit is the fact that there is a lot of description in it.  For those who have read my other blogs, you will know that a lot of description in books is one of my pet dislikes...   If the description is too long, I tend to lose interest and then start to skip paragraphs, sometimes even missing important bits in the story because I have skipped too far ahead and have to go back and re-read, which I find annoying too!  Apart from that, this is a great story and well worth a read if you liked the Da Vinci Code or something like that...

7 out of 10

 

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