This was a brilliant read. As soon as I started reading this book I just knew I was going to love it. Highly recommended

I really like Jenny Ashcrofts books - a lot like Dinah Jeffries, they always make me want to visit the places they are set. The story didn’t follow the expected path from the start and I thoroughly enjoyed the ride.

I really enjoy spending summer days getting lost in a good book. If it is set in a faraway country it is even better because I won't be travelling to any exotic or far flung countries this year and, instead of spending my money on holiday travel, I enjoy spending it on books where I, the reader, am able to explore countries from the comfortable setting of my, new, garden chair.
In 'Beneath a Burning Sky' the reader is transported to Egypt and I really enjoyed exploring the markets and cities throughout the story. I really enjoyed the writing style and I could picture the scene, along with the smells and sights, but also the blistering heat as the sun reached its midday heat. The story is surrounded in a veil of mystery and this all adds to the intrigue of the setting. i really enjoyed the whole story and I found myself reading just a little more each day, not wanting to leave behind the characters or the setting.
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a good summer read, and wanting to be transported away to someone hot with a story which will keep you enthralled until the very end.
Thank you to the publishers, Little Brown. for sending me the book to reivew.

Brief synopsis from the book cover:

Central Alexandria, June 1891 When twenty-two-year-old Olivia is coerced into marriage by the cruel Alistair Sheldon she leaves England for Egypt, his home and the land of her own childhood. Reluctant as she is to go with Alistair, it's in her new home that she finds happiness in surprising places: she is reunited with her long-estranged sister, Clara, and falls - impossibly and illicitly - in love with her husband's boarder, Captain Edward Bertram. Then Clara is abducted from one of the busiest streets in the city. Olivia is told it's thieves after ransom money, but she's convinced there's more to it. As she sets out to discover what's happened to the sister she's only just begun to know, she falls deeper into the shadowy underworld of Alexandria, putting her own life, and her chance at a future with Edward, the only man she's ever loved, at risk. Because, determined as Olivia is to find Clara, there are others who will stop at nothing to conceal what's become of her.

Story: 3 out of 5 stars
Writing: 3 out of 5 stars
Character development: 3 out of 5 stars
Overall 3 out of 5 stars

Review:
I was attracted to the story by its setting in colonial Egypt. However I don’t feel it was described as well as it could have been. The story was interesting enough and easy enough to follow, the characters were portrait realistic and true enough to life but I found it difficult to really connect with them or get swept up in the story. This book is ok if you looking for an easy summer read.

I enjoyed Beneath a Burning Sky immensely. It has all the elements of a great read: lush exotic setting, compelling characters, forbidden romance, mortal danger and nefarious villians. I liked everything about this book and was invested in the story and the characters from the first page. I highly recommend Beneath a Burning Sky for historical fiction and historical mystery lovers.

I enjoyed Beneath a Burning Sky by Jenny Ashcroft. This was a romantic story with plenty of mystery and suspense, set in Egypt in the late 1800s.
I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for my e-copy in exchange for an honest review

Thanks Little, Brown Book Group UK and netgalley for this ARC.

Too much sad terrible situations for me to finish

I was initially interested in this book because it takes place in Egypt, and I'm a huge fan of all things Egypt! It takes place in Alexandria, during the end of the 19th century, when Egypt was still under British rule.

I had no expectations going in, and I was pleasantly surprised to find a beautiful, rich, historical mystery and love story. The writing is beautiful, giving lush, detailed descriptions of the beauty of Egypt. I felt transported to the setting.

The characters and their relationships are what drive this story forward (I did, for some reason, keep switching Olivia and Clara in my head. For me, for some reason, the name Clara seemed more suited for the main character! But that's just me). Olivia really grows as a character. After a lifetime of abuse and neglect, she finally starts to heal, only to be rocked by more tragedy. Her determination in the face of such great challenges is inspiring and you find yourself rooting for her from page one.

The romance between Edward and Olivia is heartbreaking. Yes, it's literally love at first sight, which usually I'm like, blergh. But it works here. And knowing that they can't be together because she's married to Alistair is tragic and agonizing, especially as Olivia really blossoms under Edward's attention, and he also grows by being with her. This tension also drives the story forward.

I really liked seeing the perspective from Nailah, a native Egyptian woman who gets caught up in the mess. We don't just see Egypt from a white, British perspective, but also through the eyes of the people who are from there. The contrast is stark and sharp. I also liked Nailah's character--She's a good woman who is trying to help those around her the best she can.

Alistair is evil but in a believable way. I would have liked to know a little more of his background to find out why he became so petty, jealous, and cruel, but it was sufficient to know he is sadistic and vengeful.

There are three or four storylines running side by side: the romance, the mystery, and a couple other side ones. After several twists and turns all the pieces finally come together in the end. I didn't see the ending coming, though that was more because the reader isn't given key information until the very end. I think some people could maybe have guessed it, but I didn't! The ending is realistic, even though I love happily ever afters, I also don't love when everything works out perfectly just because. This book finds a great balance between the two.

Over all, a lovely historical romance set against the backdrop of a mystery in beautiful Egypt.

I have been immersed in this fabulous story of mystery, intrigue and romance. I can thoroughly recommend this book. I felt like I was there in 1891 Alexandria watching the story unfold. Excellent!

Olivia and Clara two sisters, separated at a very young age due to the death of their parents. One brought up by a grandmother determined to keep the two girls apart. It was a maneuvered coincidence that brought them together in colonial Egypt, both brought to this country of their birth by marriage. One marriage seemingly happy, the other brutal, painful and abusive of the most horrific.

The setting for the story was excellent. England again in colonizing mode trying to hold this disparate country together in the face of many odds. A hostile people who did not take easily to these foreign masters and people like Olivia's husband who were the lowest of the low, exploiting everyone and treating every person he met so badly that you wondered how he was not done away with before now.

The story reaches a climax with Clara's abduction and the entire facade of both sisters lives begins to slowly unravel as actions of their respective husbands play out on a new scenario which places both sisters in grave danger. The romantic element of Olivia finding love in her own house with a lodger brought by her own husband adds another element to this tense story.

The historical setting of the story added a lot to the story which was one of betrayal and love. Alexandria at the time was colorful enough but with villains, heroes and heroines also thrown into the mix, the story was intriguing.

Goodreads and Amazon reviews posted on 4/5/2017. Review on my blog mid July 2017.

Beneath a Burning Sky, Jenny Ashcroft

Review from Jeannie Zelos book reviews

Genre:   Historical Fiction

This read reminded me very much of Dinah Jeffries - Before the Rains, a story I really enjoyed. Jenny writes the same vivid scenes of life in the past, in a searingly hot country, at the time of the British Empire.
Its an era when many of the men posted there from Britain saw themselves as of major importance, thought they were like little kings. So many treated the natives as simply lesser, disposable almost, and every time I read things like this I marvel at the arrogance that allowed this to happen.
But it did, its not fiction, things that happen in these stories really could have occurred then, events played out like this. 

I so felt for Olivia, she's had an awful childhood and now forced into marriage to a cruel and vindictive man. She doesn't expect to fall in love with Edward, doesn't expect to get embroiled in a dangerous mystery, a search for her abducted sister that has deep roots and from which the ripples flow out involving more and more people and putting her life in real danger. 

Its a fabulous read, I could feel her despair, feel her anger, and the tenderness that grew between her and Edward - oh, I so wanted them to find a way to be together , they were just perfect for each other. 

I thought I'd worked out a bit of what happened but it was far more involved and complex, and there's no way I could have worked it all out. I did find the large cast of characters meant i had to keep checking back on exactly where each fitted in, and how they were placed in relation to others.
There were some parts where the mystery got so complex, involved so many characters, that I had to stop and work it all out. That spoiled the flow a bit but I can't see any other way of writing it without dumbing it down, and I'd rather take time to recoup that that. So many books seem to be written for simplicity and speed reading :-(  so its a treat to get more convoluted ones that tax the brain, make me work for the story! 

Stars: Four, a solid story, beautiful romance and a real feeling of history. 

ARC supplied for review purposes by Netgalley and Publishers

Every once in a while a book comes along that is so good you wonder how you will ever read anything else again. You question the quality of your own books. You get shivers every time you think about it. You can't drag yourself out of that world. You are good for nothing until you finish it. This is one of those books.

Jenny Ashcroft writes exquisitely, evoking every possible emotion and transporting you to late Victorian Egypt. This is so much more than historical fiction though; there's mystery, adventure, harsh brutality and ultimately love - oh the things we do for love.

The characters will stay with you long after the last page - I wanted to kill Alistair, shake Jeremy, be best friends forever with Olivia. And then there's Edward. From the first moment he walked on to the page I was undone. I think he might be the greatest Romantic Hero since Rochester.

This book broke me, in the best possible way. When I finished I was bereft. All I wanted to do was turn to page one and start again.

I love historical novels written about exotic places, and in this one Olivia is forced into an arranged marriage with Alistair Sheldon, a right rotter who takes her to live In Egypt. Trapped in a loveless marriage, Olivia falls in love with her new homeland, and soon, her husband’s boarder Captain Edward Bertram. She also gets a chance to get reacquainted with her estranged sister Clara. When Clara is kidnapped, it seems to be about ransom, but Olivia believes there is something more sister at work. Traveling the back streets and seedy alleys of Alexandria. Olivia hopes to be reunited with her sister and procure a fate with the man she loves. Lush and exotic