Review: review of valley of the shadow
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 14, 2012
What an entertaining novel!  I really enjoyed reading this first book of the series written by Ms. Kathryn Le Veque.  I usually think she is going to start with the hero and the heroine falling in love at first sight but she wrote very differently than what I expected and I appreciated that!  In fact, the hero Marcus Burton and the heroine Kathlyn Trent can't stand each other when they first meet.  As the story progressed they developed admiration, trust, respect, like and lastly a deep abiding love for each other.  It just makes me admire and respect her writing style so much in fact I haven't read a book of Ms. Le Veque that I didn't love and praise in all the reviews I have written.Our prologue starts off the story in Egypt 1319 B.C. with a beautiful Egyptian woman who is a Queen.  She is either being forced to marry a man to make him king or die with her choosing the latter.  In the next chapter you are taken to present day Egypt; we meet our hero Dr. Marcus Burton and his team of archeologists from a university looking for 3 years for Ramses VIII tomb.  His boss tells him since he has been unsuccessful in finding it they are sending our heroine in Dr. Kathlyn Trent from a rival university.  Marcus fights this but to no avail she comes anyway.  Even though Marcus is very handsome and Kathlyn is beautiful, plus both of them are very intelligent in their fields Marcus is an Egyptologist and Kathlyn is a biblical archeologist they don't like and can't even stand each other.  Kathlyn has a very strong intuition which disrupts and annoys Marcus at every turn but she is bound and determined to find his tomb for him.  Eventually she finds a tomb Ay's tomb.  The tomb seems cursed danger faces them while they discover more and more about the tomb.  Just as they are getting started on excavating the tomb Kathlyn hears that she must leave on another assignment.  Marcus who is attached and likes her already doesn't want to let her go.  Kathlyn decides she also likes Marcus too and quits the new assignment and her job causing conflict.  The ones who told her to go to this new assignment decide to kill her, Marcus and their friends by forcing them into the tomb and making it collapse.  They all survive and get out of the tomb alive trying to explain this to everyone and no one believes them.  So a couple of other plans take place for Kathlyn to stay.  Marcus by this time really loves Kathlyn and asks her to marry him which she agrees to do.  Kathlyn still find trouble no matter what she almost gets herself killed but in the end with Marcus's help she defeats the killer.Marcus is really this churlish bully that I at first could not stand and despised him like Kathlyn.  When he made her cry I felt very sympathetic and probably would have not only yelled at him but probably would have attempted to deck and fight him anyway. Yeah, I would lose but it still would make me feel better to at least punch the guy.  Of course I eventually warmed up to him but it wasn't until later.  Kathlyn was just a fantastic heroine not only is she a very smart woman but had a big compassionate heart in order to fall in love with someone like Marcus.  I have started reading the next of the series the Eden factor and so far am not disappointed!  I will definitely get more in the series and will read another of Ms. Le Veque's work!