I think this is the fifth to the last blog tour I have for this first half of the year! In this new book, Byzantine Gold by author Chris Karlsen, the characters from Golden Chariot (book #1), Charlotte and Atakan, go on another exciting and dangerous treasure dive. Check out the book and enter the blog tour giveaway for a chance to win a $50 Amazon GC, ebooks, and t-shirts!
Byzantine Gold
A sunken warship from the Byzantine Era carrying an unusual cargo of gold has been found off the coast of Northern Cyprus. News of the valuable cache has attracted the attention of a terrorist cell. They plan to attack the recovery team’s campsite and steal the artifacts. On the Black Market, the sale of the relics will buy them additional weapons.
Charlotte Dashiell, an American archaeologist, and her lover, Atakan Vadim, a Turkish government agent, are scheduled to be part of the recovery team that brings up the artifacts. While en route to Cyprus, they find themselves caught in the crosshairs of Maksym Tischenko, a Ukrainian contract killer bent on revenge. Charlotte, Atakan and Tischenko share a grim history. As a result, Tischenko is a man who will stop at nothing to achieve his goal—seeing them both dead. — Goodreads
This book continued from where the first one left off–well, months after what happened in Golden Chariot. Charlotte and Atakan are very much together and having lots of sexy times. I’m not kidding. There were more than a couple of sex scenes in this book. I actually thought there were too many for a supposedly suspense thriller slash sunken treasure story, in my opinion, but at least they weren’t too graphic.
Like the first book, Byzantine Gold didn’t really hold any surprises when it comes to twists and turns. All the players were already revealed and you just had to follow where the little storylines went. I say, storylines (plural) because there were a lot of things going on–the terrorist group, Tischenko, Charlotte and Atakan’s relationship, the journalist covering the archaeological dive (that last part was left hanging, by the way). Not a lot of descriptions or discussions about the treasure though. There was a mention of ancient pirates (arr!!), but, sadly, the book didn’t really delve into what the sunken ship was all about. I was hoping for more of that.
For me the ending was a little ‘meh’ and lacked excitement and fireworks. I was hoping for something with more action and explosions or whatever. Overall, the book was okay, nothing crazy mind-blowing. I don’t know. I read some of the reviews on Goodreads and a lot of people liked it.
Maybeee if there were more geeky sunken ship history stuff.. hmm…
Note: I received a review copy of this book as part of my participation in the tour. All opinions and views expressed here are my own.
Check out my review of Golden Chariot here.
About the Author
Chris is a retired police detective. She spent twenty-five years in the law enforcement with two different agencies.
The daughter of a history professor and a voracious reader, she grew up with a love for history and books.
She has traveled extensively throughout Europe, the Near East, and Northern Africa satisfying her passion for seeing the places she read about.
A Chicago native, Chris has lived in Paris, Los Angeles, and now resides with her husband, and five rescue dogs in the Pacific Northwest.
Thank you for the giveaway.
howdy…thx u for this awesome giveaway :)
Hi Leah,
Thank you for taking the time to read and review Byzantine Gold. I appreciate that you came back to read this sequel to Golden Chariot.
Best regards,
Chris Karlsen
Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this book.