Before he died from a sudden and mysterious illness in the Himalayas, her father asked Jones to try her hand for a while at being a proper lady in England. Though definitely not a lady, Jones kept her promise and suffered through the English good society of the 1780s until she got the opportunity to go back to exploring little known places and studying civilizations on the other side of the planet.
The only really good thing that came from her trip to Europe was meeting Henry and Edith Merton and their friend Bennett Carruthers. The brother and sister pair were about to travel to the Himalaya for botanical studies on behalf of the new Kew Gardens with Carruthers mapping ancient routes for the East India Company. When the trio meets with Jones in Srinagar, she’s not wearing dresses anymore but seems so comfortable in her breeches that they quickly get used to her true persona. Little do they know, however, that the explorer is trying to decipher her father’s journals and that what she’ll find will put them all in danger.
I’m not as happy as I’d like reviewing this. While I rather enjoyed the story, which got my heart rate to rush at times, I cannot get over the disappointing narration. I’ve become used to narrators performing the stories I listen to whereas this one is merely reading it, with all sorts of parasite noises.
Despite this book being part of the Lost in Time series, there’s no time travel in it and it can be read as a standalone. The paranormal and magical aspects blend well with the reality, the pace is appropriately slow and the romance, while light and very slow-burn (and fade to black) is sweet and plausible.
Jude in the Stars 