Love You Forever - Book Review

Award-winning author, Sharon K. Middleton, has exceeded expectations in her new novel, Love You Forever. In Middleton’s new tale, we find her protagonist, Elizabeth Winslow, in a whirlwind adventure that takes her from Texas to Egypt and then from the present back to the 18^th Egyptian Dynasty. How easily can a woman from the 21^st century adapt to the customs and life 3,500 years in the past? That is the dilemma that Elizabeth Winslow finds herself in after a mysterious time travel encounter, or was it something else?

In addition to time travel, this quirky tale involves the antics of a ghost. The heroine, Elizabeth, is the owner of Nefertiti’s Bone Yard, a supper club in contemporary Galveston.   A strikingly beautiful young woman who many think resembles the sculptures of Egyptian Queen Nefertiti,  Elizabeth, however, has a major health issue, she is slowly going blind due to a genetic abnormality.

Through the intervention of her extended family, Elizabeth is reunited with the love of her life, Ari, an Egyptian doctor. She had refused to marry Ari four years previously because of her impending blindness. Time has changed her heart, and they marry. Ari and Elizabeth travel to his ancestral home in Egypt. Here among the archeological wonders, a wonderous and mythical circumstance sends Elizabeth into the 18^th Dynasty. Through a coma, madness, or a fantastical dream, Elizabeth’s soul unites with Queen Nefertiti.

Through meticulously researched Egyptian history, the author has placed Elizabeth into an unfamiliar era that is fantasized by many readers. The novel is fiction, however, most of the historical and archeological depictions are accurate. The author uses Egyptian and archeological terms that may be unfamiliar to the reader but is fully understood within the context of the story.

Fancy, the main character of the series, believes it was a curse associated with Nefertiti that swallowed up the spiritual part of her adopted daughter, Elizabeth. Fancy believes Nefertiti needed Elizabeth’s KA –  which is the spiritual part of an individual that lives on with the soul. Was that what happened?

The plot develops as Elizabeth faces a conundrum. Should she stay in ancient Egypt with Nefertiti’s child, with whom she shared a major responsibility with its birth? A child she has learned to love or return to the 21st century and the man she loves? Her decision is made for her by the spirits and her personal ghost. Has her involvement in ancient Egypt also changed the course of history?

The satisfying conclusion ties together the many mysterious strings of Middleton’s complex plot. The persistent presence of the ghost and other spirits tantalizes the reader to discover more. You probably will find yourself Googling the 18^th Dynasty’s history and the life of Nefertiti – I know I did. . I am always amazed at the degree of research that Middleton puts into her stories.

Middleton entices the reader with promises that she is working on another book, a mystery, involving Sara, Elizabeth’s sibling.

Love You Forever is a beautiful story that spans eons full of romance, mystery, and intrigue. I will be looking forward to her next novel.