I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the CURSE OF THE SPECTER QUEEN by Jenny Elder Moke Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!
About the Book:
I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Published by Disney-Hyperion on June 1, 2021
Genres: YA Historical Fiction, YA Paranormal
Pages: 352
Source: the publisher
Format: ARC
My Rating:

Goodreads
Formats: Hardcover, eBook, audiobook
Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, Audible, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD, Bookshop.org
A female Indiana Jones meets Tomb Raider when Samantha Knox receives a mysterious field diary and finds herself thrust into a treacherous plot. After stealing a car and jumping on a train, chased by a group of dangerous pursuers, Sam finds out what’s so special about this book: it contains a cipher that leads to a cursed jade statue that could put an end to all mankind.
MAY THE HAZEL BRING YOU WISDOM AND THE ASPEN GUIDE AND PROTECT YOU…
Samantha Knox put away her childish fantasies of archaeological adventure
the day her father didn’t return home from the Great War, retreating to the
safety of the antique bookshop where she works. But when a mysterious package
arrives with a damaged diary inside, Sam’s peaceful life is obliterated.
Ruthless men intent on reclaiming the diary are after Sam, setting her and her
best friend, along with her childhood crush, on a high-stakes adventure that
lands them in the green hills outside Dublin, Ireland. Here they discover an
ancient order with a dark purpose – to perform an occult ritual that will raise
the Specter Queen, the Celtic goddess of vengeance and death, to bring about a
war unlike any the world has ever seen. To stop them, Sam must solve a
deviously complex cipher – one that will lead her on a treasure hunt to
discover the ancient relic at the heart of the ritual: a bowl carved from the
tree of life. Will she find the bowl and stop the curse of the Specter Queen,
or will the ancient order bring about the end of the world?
Indiana Jones gets a refresh with this female-driven mystery adventure, set in the 1920s, full of ciphers, ancient relics, and heart-stopping action – the first in a brand-new series!
Advance praise for CURSE OF THE
SPECTER QUEEN:
“Pure fun from start to finish. Curse of the Specter Queen is
a delightful historical romp, riddled with cryptic puzzles, hints of romance,
and an adventurous cast of characters. An ideal escape for fans of curses,
magic, and mystery.”—Stephanie Garber, #1 New York Times best-selling
author of the Caravel series
“This lush, high-stakes, adventure tale has it all—a rollicking plot, a sweet
slow burn of a romance, and a heroine on an epic journey filled with ciphers,
curses, and twists that kept me guessing at every turn. A delightful read from
start to finish, Curse of the Specter Queen is one of my new
favorites.”—Alyson Noël, #1 New York Times bestselling author
of The Immortals
“Apocalyptic curses, blood-chilling demons, and a centuries-old treasure hunt
with a brilliant bookish heroine. Curse of the Spector Queen had me feverishly
turning pages until I finally arrived at the epic conclusion.”—Livia Blackburne, New
York Times best-selling author of Rosemarked and Midnight
Thief
My Review:
What a fun adventure of a story, set in the 1920s with lots of fun tidbits and details from that time period. It definitely had the feel of an Indiana Jones tale with the searching for a missing artifact, one that had an evil use for it. I loved the way we got switched around with who might actually be the bad guy, and the twists and turns that kept me guessing all the way through.
There was a fun bit of romance, and even some deeper parts of the story with Sam’s past, and also friendship woes between her and her best friend, Joana. I had been drawn to the archaeology aspect with it being set for most of the book in Ireland for one thing. That mythology was very interesting and new to me. Growing up, archaeology was one of the careers that interested me. Of course it was more specifically Egyptology, and so with the little bit of talk about King Tut’s tomb at the end of the book, I am hoping that if/when there is a sequel to this, since it does say something about being a “Samantha Knox” novel on the cover, that it will be maybe a trip into some ancient Egyptian mythology with a missing or stolen artifact that the characters must go on an adventure for.
I did like the characters as well! Not only did I enjoy Sam, loved a female being the star, always being the one to actually get the clues figured out, but I liked Bennett and his sister Joana as well. Both added their own perfect part of the story, and both were needed in the end to get the mystery solved and get all of them in and out of danger.
About Jenny Elder Moke:
Jenny Elder Moke writes young
adult fiction in an attempt to recapture the shining infinity of youth. She
worked for several years at an independent publisher in Austin, TX before
realizing she would rather write the manuscripts than read them. She is a
member of the Texas Writer’s League and has studied children’s writing with Liz
Garton Scanlon. She was a finalist in the Austin Film Festival Fiction Podcast
Competition in 2017 for her podcast script, Target. When she is not writing,
she’s gathering story ideas from her daily adventures with her two irredeemable
rapscallions and honing her ninja skills as a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Jenny
lives in Denver, CO with her husband and two children.
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon
Giveaway Details:
3 winners will receive a finished copy of CURSE OF THE SPECTER QUEEN, US Only.
a Rafflecopter giveawayTour Schedule:
Week One:
6/1/2021 |
Excerpt |
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6/2/2021 |
Review |
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6/3/2021 |
Excerpt |
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6/4/2021 |
Excerpt |
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6/5/2021 |
Review |
Week Two:
6/6/2021 |
Review |
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6/7/2021 |
Excerpt |
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6/8/2021 |
Review |
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6/9/2021 |
Review |
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6/10/2021 |
Review |
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6/11/2021 |
Review |
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6/12/2021 |
Review |
Week Three:
6/13/2021 |
Review |
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6/14/2021 |
Review |
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6/15/2021 |
Review |
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6/16/2021 |
Review |
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6/17/2021 |
Review |
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6/18/2021 |
Review |
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6/19/2021 |
Review |
Week Four:
6/20/2021 |
Review |
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6/21/2021 |
Review |
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6/22/2021 |
Review |
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6/23/2021 |
Review |
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6/24/2021 |
Review |
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6/25/2021 |
Review |
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6/26/2021 |
Review |
Week Five:
6/27/2021 |
Review |
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6/28/2021 |
Review |
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6/29/2021 |
Review |
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6/30/2021 |
Review |
Sounds like an awesome book
It was a fun story! Thanks for stopping by!
[…] Tour Review with Giveaway: Curse of the Specter Queen by Jenny Elder […]
[…] really enjoyed the book that started this series off, Curse of the Specter Queen. And so I was excited to see where the author would take our characters. As I mentioned in my […]