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Treasures of the Lochs

Hunter H. White

Why we're reading this: YA, Suspenseful #1 New Release for Christian Fiction, wrapped in a modern-day treasure hunt in Scotland.
[close] YA, Suspenseful #1 New Release for Christian Fiction, wrapped in a modern-day treasure hunt in Scotland.

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Oct 04, 2023 Colleen Chi-Girl rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobooks, netgalley, contemporary, historical-fiction, thrillers, crime-mysteries, scotland, fairytales-fantasy, sci-fi-dystop-utopian, 2023

GOOD READS LIBRARIANS: This one needs to be added as an audiobook edition - thanks: https://www.amazon.com/Audible-Treasu...

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and Hunter White, the author, for the audiobook ARC. The following exciting introduction by the publisher (and my love of Scotland) is what drew me to requesting this audiobook ARC. Please see my honest review below it.

"For almost three hundred years, people have searched for one of the greatest treasures in history—the lost gold of the GOOD READS LIBRARIANS: This one needs to be added as an audiobook edition - thanks: https://www.amazon.com/Audible-Treasu...

Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and Hunter White, the author, for the audiobook ARC. The following exciting introduction by the publisher (and my love of Scotland) is what drew me to requesting this audiobook ARC. Please see my honest review below it.

"For almost three hundred years, people have searched for one of the greatest treasures in history—the lost gold of the Scottish Jacobites. Following his father’s death and a brazen late-night break-in at the United States Naval Academy, Lieutenant Carter Porter, his life and career in tatters, unwittingly joins the quest. In Scotland, Hassie Douglass, a spirited young employee of a luxury inn situated on the picturesque shores of Loch Ness, thinks her prayers have been answered when she stumbles across four old gold coins that may be part of the Jacobite treasure. But she can’t tell anybody how she really found them; they would think she had lost her mind. Who would believe she followed a strange, ethereal voice emanating from the loch? No sooner does Carter receive a strange bequest from his late father and Hassie’s find is publicized than a shadowy, well-armed group of mercenaries attacks each of them. Soon, Carter’s and Hassie’s fates are joined, and their survival depends on solving more than one ancient mystery while facing their worst nightmares."

My review: I like thrillers - maybe love thrillers - and Scotland - so what could be better. I also love audiobooks and enjoyed the narrator, Laura Darrell's Scottish brogue. What I thought would be an espionage thriller or spy novel, turned into half thriller and half sci-fi/fantasy, with a mythical creature (wuhh?). If sci-fi/fantasy are what you love, you should absolutely get this one fast. It isn't my fave genre, but I'm glad I finished it. Note: This also reads more like a "Young-Adult" novel and perhaps should be categorized as such. Also, I think the publishing blurb should be edited to include the fantasy genre or it's misleading. The secondary characters like Porter's wife and a lad named Royce, who likes Hassie, added a lot to the story and they became part of the team fighting the Russians. Yes, bad-buy Russians.

Pros: Scottish setting, history and legend; strongly researched; strong female characters (Hassie and Porter's soon-to-be-ex-wife); US Naval base crime (would have enjoyed more focus on this); a down-on-his-luck lead character Carter Porter; a bonnie Scottish lass employed at a posh hotel; a secret-hidden journal; jet skis; more....

Cons: In parts, the Russians felt farcical. More of a Young-Adult, fantasy novel. ...more

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Nov 09, 2023 Viviana Martinez marked it as to-read

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