Nefertiti's Heart

By: A. W. Exley

Narrated by: Gemma Dawson

Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

A steampunk adventure with a serial killer, romance, and a few broken hearts.

Cara Devon has always suffered curiosity and impetuousness, but tangling with a serial killer might cure that. Permanently.

London, 1861: Impoverished noble Cara has a simple mission after the strange death of her father - sell off his damned collection of priceless artifacts. Her plan goes awry when aristocratic beauties start dying of broken hearts, an eight-inch-long brass key hammered through their chests. A killer hunts amongst the nobility, searching for a regal beauty and an ancient Egyptian relic rumored to hold the key to immortality.

Her Majesty's Enforcers are in pursuit of the murderer and they see a connection between the gruesome deaths and Cara. So does she - somewhere in London her father hid Nefertiti's Heart, a fist-sized diamond with strange mechanical workings. Adding further complication to her life, notorious crime lord Viscount Nathaniel Lyons is relentless in his desire to lay his hands on Cara and the priceless artifact. If only she could figure out his motive.

Self-preservation fuels Cara's search for the gem. In a society where everyone wears a mask to hide their true intent, she needs to figure out who to trust, before she makes a fatal mistake.

©2013 A. W. Exley (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Excellent

Exley did a wonderful job bringing Cara's fierce spirit and undaunting courage to her readers. As this is the first book in the series I am intrigued to read the rest and see what adventures await and love bloom between Cara and Nate. They certainly have chemistry ablazing and I love how smitten Nate is with her.

Gemma is fantastic narrating. It is really easy to imagine the events with her smooth intricate dictation as the story unfolds. Very enjoyable ☺

Nefertiti's Heart was an arousing romp

This was was good story and I strongly suggest reading while listening to Gamma Dawson. She brings the characters to life and is to be commended on her portrayal of events and accents.

The romance and sex detract from the story

The story and the mystery are really very interesting and the performance is fantastic so I really want to give this a five but the romance just isn’t believable and I found myself just so disinterested with the sex scenes I just kept forwarding through it to get back to the larger story. However I really like the main character and as stated above the overall mystery was really great so I am going to try the other books in the series.

1861 London, Strange Tale of a Strong Woman

The tale of young Cara Devon in this weird and magical tale of a London with mechanical horses is the first in this genre for me. Way too heavy on the sexual content for my taste (although I have to say it was well done), I hope the next in the series dials that down a bit. The search for the missing artifacts and for the killer of the young women is what interested me the most. That and seeing how independent Cara made her way in London after seven years away, after suffering at the hands of her father and her attackers. I like Cara. A lot. That's what kept me listening. I had my doubts about Lord Viscount Nathaniel Lyons. I wasn't sure that he wasn't up to no good. I did not figure out who the killer was until it was almost too late for Cara. Great mystery.

Enjoyable romance with very lite steampunk.

This romance reminded me a bit of Amanda Quick's writing, with a little steampunk thrown in it for crunch. As a romance I enjoyed this story but the mystery was very easy to figure out and the steampunk was almost like an afterthought to the story. I would definitely read the next story if it is on sale. I really like the heroine with her feistiness and how she didn't let past horrors ruin her life. I also like how Nate never gave up on what he wanted without pushing too much. I would like to have seen more of how the artifacts were "more than they seem" in the story line. I felt that part was a little underdeveloped and had the potential to be really intriguing and could have utilized the steampunk aspect more. Of course the next books will have more. Narrator was good.

Feminist Success, Steampunk Fail

Any additional comments?

The artifact plotline is a distant second to the personal plotline, and that's for the best. This book is about a rape survivor falling in love and learning to be safe in her body. On that count, this book is AWESOME. The sex scenes are explicit and plentiful in a way that I felt detracted from the story, but it may be a bonus for other readers. However. The fact that Exley decided to make this a steampunk novel set in Victorian England was a poor choice. All steampunk fiction requires a strong stomach for anachronism, but I spent so much time cringing at the ultra modern and non-British references that I nearly had to stop listening. It was really jarring, and made it hard to get into the story. The artifact plotline could have been excellent, if Exley spent more time developing it. It serves its purpose as a catalyst for the love story, but is otherwise superfluous. I think this novel would be spectacular under the firm hand of an editor. The artifact plotline needs to be developed, and every single page needs a Victorian makeover. As thrilled as I was to see a rape survivor's story told with so much compassion and care, the sloppy disregard for period and genre, and lack of development of the action plot were really irritating and made this a hard listen. I won't be reading anything else from Exley.

Cute starter book for the series

Inexpensive book with a good story line. I am hoping the next books have more action and less about the emotion growth of the main character but it sets up the series to become even better.

Did not finish

The recording was terrible. It sounded like the reader was in a can. The writing was...OK but not to my taste.

Exciting but too wordy

The storyline is exciting and great but too wordy on descriptions to the point of being boring

Excellent

This is a steampunk novel and I really enjoyed it. Cara is not your average heroine. A victim of child sex abuse in the Victorian era, she grows up and beats the odds and the social norms. This is Adventure, mystery, fantasy and fun rolled into a good old fashioned story. I'm looking forward to the rest of this series.