Review: City of Jasmine by Deanna Raybourn

Title: City of Jasmine
Author: Deanna Raybourn
Series: Stand Alone (although there is a prequel novella)
Published By: Harlequin (February 25, 2014)
Source: ARC Copy Provided by the Publisher (in exchange for an honest review)
Genre: Historical Romance/Mystery
My Rating: 4 Stars!

Book Description:
Set against the lush, exotic European colonial outposts of the 1920s, New York Times bestselling author Deanna Raybourn delivers the captivating tale of one woman who embarks upon a journey to see the world—and ends up finding intrigue, danger and a love beyond all reason. 

Famed aviatrix Evangeline Starke never expected to see her husband, adventurer Gabriel Starke, ever again. They had been a golden couple, enjoying a whirlwind courtship amid the backdrop of a glittering social set in prewar London until his sudden death with the sinking of the Lusitania. Five years later, beginning to embrace life again, Evie embarks upon a flight around the world, collecting fame and admirers along the way. In the midst of her triumphant tour, she is shocked to receive a mysterious—and recent—photograph of Gabriel, which brings her ambitious stunt to a screeching halt. 

With her eccentric aunt Dove in tow, Evie tracks the source of the photo to the ancient City of Jasmine, Damascus. There she discovers that nothing is as it seems. Danger lurks at every turn, and at stake is a priceless relic, an artifact once lost to time and so valuable that criminals will stop at nothing to acquire it—even murder. Leaving the jewelled city behind, Evie sets off across the punishing sands of the desert to unearth the truth of Gabriel's disappearance and retrieve a relic straight from the pages of history. 

Along the way, Evie must come to terms with the deception that parted her from Gabriel and the passion that will change her destiny forever...

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Raybourn is one of my most favorite authors of historical, well, anything and when I saw that her latest book was going to be set in the 1920's (another favorite for me) I knew it was going to be a must read.

I started with the prequel and instantly fell in love with the characters, setting and of course Raybourn's writing. She truly is a genius with description, mystery and most of all a sweet endearing romance that isn't the main focus of the story. She lets the mystery and characters take over and the beautiful world she has created even more so. With just enough rich detail to transport you right into the story and enough mystery and intrigue to keep you eagerly turning the pages. 

This story did not disappoint. Evie and Gabriel did not disappoint. 

Once again we not only get great characters like we have come to expect from Raybourn but some pretty amazing secondary characters as well. Aunt Dove and her crazy parrot (yeah for crazy birds in Raybourn's stories) were so much fun and added some seriously good feisty humorous moments in the story, not that Evie wasn't feisty because let me tell you, this is one heroine you are going to love. 

Unlike in the prequel she is not naïve anymore nor is she completely innocent. She has grown up to be quite the strong capable woman and she doesn't let anyone push her around, not even Gabriel. 

I don't want to say too much more about this other than there is lots of action, humor, romance and mystery. Like all of Raybourn's work this is just something you need to pick up for yourself and read because you are going to love it. Her work always transports you back in time, into another place, another world and another lifetime. 


Her rich detail to historical events, her action packed scenes, her sweet romance and her feisty heroines will be bound to suck you in and refuse to let you go and the best part about it all is that you won't want it to. 

*All thoughts and opinions are my own and were not influenced by an outside source, I was not compensated for this review.*