I received a free e-copy of Propinquity from the author for my honest review.
About the Book:
A 2013 Amazon sensation, Propinquity is about the relationship between the “engagingly dangerous” Clive and the ethereal Samantha – a medievalist who discovers a secret tomb deep under Westminster Abbey, and isn’t sure what to do about it.
The tomb contains Richard the Lionheart’s queen, reputedly a carrier of the same gnostic illumination dispensed by Christ. Samantha and her lover begin unwinding its 800-year-old enigmas.
Propinquity is quite a page-turner (see Chapter 13’s ritual sex among the tombs at the heart of Christendom), and contains some unexpected plot twists. Most strikingly, our heroic couple discover that the entombed queen may not actually be dead, but in a coma induced by herbs. So there’s an international chase to find the antidote, lost for centuries, and bring her back to life: To watch those blue, medieval Saxon eyes open, and behold the modern world…
About the Author:
My Opinion:
Propinquity starts off as a tale of young men in boarding school in Australia. I must admit it took me a bit to get used to both the writing style and the locale. There are some things that just don’t make sense to an American audience unless you have some knowledge of Australia. It’s also good I have a decent vocabulary…
The main characters are introduced and they are young men who just don’t know where they are going in life. They seem to be meandering along. They graduate and seem to float into medical school as if it’s “the thing to do.” All except one – he goes off to “find himself.” The main character Clive, suddenly finds himself at the head of the family corporation when his father dies unexpectedly. Problems ensue and he soon finds himself heading to England to finish his medical degree. There he meets a lovely young mother who decides to share a burning secret that she has kept for the longest time. This is where the supposed Dan Brown similarities pop in. But to me it really wasn’t anything like a Dan Brown novel and that is both good and bad. It had the silliness of plot at the core of the whole “the Catholic Church has been lying to us for millenia” aspect but the characters were a touch more developed and interesting and to be honest had the book just followed these gentlemen to some sort of conclusion I think I would have enjoyed the book more.
It really seemed like two different books squished together for lack of complete definition of either one. The first one about the coming of age of young men in Australia had more promise – at least in my opinion. The second one about resurrecting a medieval queen was like a Keystone Cops adventure. I don’t know – I am not one to shy away from the impossible in my reading; I do love a good time travel novel but it has to be presented with some semblance of plausibility and this just didn’t have that to me. It just fell short in too many ways. I found it hard to believe that this young woman would give up her secret so easily. I found it hard to believe she would accept Clive sharing it so cavalierly and I found it hard to believe that this body would remain in stasis for 800 years and just arise. The plot needed more development to make me believe. I suspect I could have been made that believer but the start of the book had been written in such a way as to hold me as a reader at a remove. Perhaps it’s an American vs. Australian way of looking at things. I don’t know. But I just couldn’t invest in the second plot and gnosis wasn’t mine.
Rating:
2.5
You can purchase Propinquity on Amazon.com
