Casual Egyptology buffs looking for a page-turning dramatization of the discovery of Tut's tomb will want to give this one a try. If you don't mind the detours into British family drama that have been rightly compared to Downton Abbey, there is still an abundance of archaeological details, political history, and immersive sensory description to make this an engaging read. I will leave historical accuracy nitpicking to the experts in the field, but I felt informed despite the fictionalization, and appreciated the author's notes at the end.

The story centers around Lady Eve(lyn), Lord Carnarvon's daughter, who was present during some of the first explorations of the tomb. This magical experience is certainly the high point of the novel, and Kirkpatrick's passion for the subject is palpable. Building off of this is an ill-advised romance between Lady Eve and Howard Carter, inspired by real-life correspondence of Evelyn's into which some read a romantic relationship.

As a matter of personal preference, I don't find this sort of over-fictionalization of relatively modern historical people to be in the best of taste. It's not my thing, but it was interesting. I appreciated the attempt to parallel the love story with the experience of the tomb discovery--both are brief, otherworldly, and tenuous--however, not being a foolish twenty-one-year-old, it was much harder to buy into the magic of the former than the latter. While I enjoyed Kirkpatrick's magnetic, driven Carter for the first half of the novel, I found Eve self-centered and naive. The two of them are painfully mismatched, the affair obviously doomed from the outset. Of course some of this was dictated by historical fact, but that didn't make it any less uncomfortable to watch unfold. Later, as Eve evolves, Carter devolves; the more we get to know him, the more we're disappointed. Real life at its realest, no doubt--but sadly, kind of a bummer.

After Lord Carnarvon's death, the story moves to Highclere and fully embraces the Downton Abbey vibe, where for me it becomes less of a page-turner and more of a page-flipper. Eve's coming-of-age, though sorely needed, felt like the "settling for less" and "accepting life is miserable" type. For some, that's a definition of maturity, but for me it felt like ending on a downbeat; though the epilogue does alleviate it somewhat.

As for the prose, I wasn't a particular fan of the use of the present tense, though the sensory descriptions were rich and easy to visualize. The dialogue, on the other hand, was awkward and occasionally read like narration.

Overall, if you're here for a love story, this isn't it. In fact, the book would have been better without it. The real love affair of To Chase the Glowing Hours is with Egyptology, and for that I give it credit.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!