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Title: ASP of Ascension
Series: A Nefertari Hughes Mystery #1
Author: BR Myers
Publisher: Fierce Ink Books
Publication Date: July 21, 2015
Genres: Mystery, Young Adult
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Purchase Links:
Barnes & Noble // iTunes // Kobo // Amazon
Indiebound // Chapters/Indigo
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ASP of Ascension
A Nefertari Hughes Mystery #1
BR Myers
Fierce Ink Books, July 2015
ISBN 978-1-927746-62-2
Trade Paperback
From the publisher—
Nefertari “Terry” Hughes has three rules for surviving high school:
#1 Don’t attract attention.
#2 Don’t get involved.
#3 Don’t make trouble.
A year after the accident that left her crippled and took her mother’s life, sixteen-year-old Terry just wants to keep her head down and survive her new high school. When she catches the eye of cute basketball star Zach — who happens to be the boyfriend of mean girl Allison — all hopes of flying under the radar are gone.
She is thrust even further in the spotlight when Fraser, the editor of the school newspaper, learns Mr. Hughes is the renowned archaeologist overseeing the new Egyptian display at the museum, which is rumoured to include Cleopatra’s sarcophagus. Fraser’s research leads to the fifty-year-old mystery of a girl who vanished while on a school trip to to the museum along with an artifact that may be Cleopatra’s asp.
When Mr. Hughes falls into a coma and his co-worker claims it’s the curse of Cleopatra, the stakes become too high for Terry to ignore. Terry must work with Fraser and her new candy loving friend Maude to find out what happened fifty years ago in hopes of saving her father before time runs out.
When I was a kid, I spent years dreaming of being an archaeologist. Much later, I had the chance to do some traveling and the time I spent in Greece, and especially Egypt, made me wish I’d followed through on those dreams and, to this date, Egypt is still my favorite place to visit. Because of my fondness for the place, the people and the history, I’m always drawn to books featuring Egypt in one way or another (and, yes, I’ve consumed the Amelia Peabody series more than once).
ASP of Ascension offers all that and, as a bonus, takes the older reader like me back to high school days while it’s also a window on those halls of angst and joy and so many other emotions for the readers who are still there. Terry herself is really appealing, and very believable, as a girl who has suffered much damage, physically and emotionally, and just wants to slide through school as unobtrusively as possible. I felt for this girl. Add to that a perfectly wonderful pink-haired sidekick/BFF named Maude and an energetic school newspaper editor named Fraser and the sleuthing team is complete. Oh, and let’s not forget Zach, the hunky jock who’s atypically a pretty nice guy and is just as appealing as the rest of the crew.
Solving the mystery of what happened 50 years ago and what’s happening with her dad now is a fun and slightly fluffy read with a bit of supernatural stuff going on and I thoroughly enjoyed this first in what I hope will be a long-running series. If not, that’s OK since things are resolved quite nicely and I think readers from middle grade to old age will enjoy Nefertari’s adventure.
Reviewed by Lelia Taylor, June 2016.
About the Author
I write YA, appreciate a design in my cappuccino, love shopping for vintage jewelry and dream in color. Coming from Nimbus Publishing, my contemporary coming of age novels, BUTTERFLIES DON’T LIE (SEPTEMBER 15,2014) and GIRL ON THE RUN (Fall 2015). from Fierce Ink Press, ASP OF ASCENSION (July 2015).
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