The Lost Sisterhood by Anne Fortier: A Book Review

The Lost Sisterhood
Author: Anne Fortier
Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Adventure, Thriller
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Release Date: 2014
Pages: 608
Source: Netgalley/Publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Synopsis: From the author of the New York Times bestseller Juliet comes a mesmerizing novel about a young scholar who risks her reputation—and her life—on a thrilling journey to prove that the legendary warrior women known as the Amazons actually existed.

     Oxford lecturer Diana Morgan is an expert on Greek mythology. Her obsession with the Amazons started in childhood when her eccentric grandmother claimed to be one herself—before vanishing without a trace. Diana’s colleagues shake their heads at her Amazon fixation. But then a mysterious, well-financed foundation makes Diana an offer she cannot refuse.

     Traveling to North Africa, Diana teams up with Nick Barran, an enigmatic Middle Eastern guide, and begins deciphering an unusual inscription on the wall of a recently unearthed temple. There she discovers the name of the first Amazon queen, Myrina, who crossed the Mediterranean in a heroic attempt to liberate her kidnapped sisters from Greek pirates, only to become embroiled in the most famous conflict of the ancient world—the Trojan War. Taking their cue from the inscription, Diana and Nick set out to find the fabled treasure that Myrina and her Amazon sisters salvaged from the embattled city of Troy so long ago. Diana doesn’t know the nature of the treasure, but she does know that someone is shadowing her, and that Nick has a sinister agenda of his own. With danger lurking at every turn, and unsure of whom to trust, Diana finds herself on a daring and dangerous quest for truth that will forever change her world.

     Sweeping from England to North Africa to Greece and the ruins of ancient Troy, and navigating between present and past, The Lost Sisterhood is a breathtaking, passionate adventure of two women on parallel journeys, separated by time, who must fight to keep the lives and legacy of the Amazons from being lost forever.

     My Review: The Lost Sisterhood tells the tale of a modern woman and another woman who lived three thousand years ago. Even though these women lived thousands of years apart, they are still interlinked with each other. The women are Diana Morgan, an Oxford professor, and Myrina, an Amazon that plays a big part in the Trojan War. In this tale, there is a secret code and a treasure hunt.

This book took me months to get through, far longer than I anticipated. I felt that reading this novel was a chore, and I didn’t like it because reading shouldn’t feel so burdensome. This is also the reason why I haven’t updated my blog for so long because I was trying my best to finish it. I trudged through it because the author wrote Juliet, which is one of my favorite books, but by the end, I found that I still didn’t like it, and this book was a major disappointment.

      I did not like the main character, Diana Morgan. She is an academic, yet she made stupid choices. One stupid choice she made is that a stranger comes up to her on the street, and gives her a ticket to Amsterdam. She ignores her colleagues warnings about not going, and meets up with the stranger who doesn’t take her to Amsterdam but to Djerba, where he hands her over to another shady man, Nick Barran, and leaves. Anyone who has common sense would not go out of the country with a stranger they just met on the street. Diana doesn’t even bother looking up Nick Barran or the foundation he is working for. She just takes him at his word. Again, if she was a woman of common sense, she should check his background and the organization to see if it is a scam. Throughout the whole book, Diana Morgan is a weak character. She does not act like a smart academic. She does not know how to take care of ancient manuscripts properly. Rather, she acts like a teenager. She pays more attention to boys than to her situations. She lets people walk all over her. She also does not worry about her job. She leisurely travels the Middle East and Europe knowing that her job may be in jeopardy. For any sensible person, if your job is on the line, you would get back to your job. 

     As for Myrina, I found that she was a stronger character than Diana. However, I found her one-dimensional. She is mostly described as a hunter. Her story is more interesting than Diana’s. Still, I felt like she too was also walked on by her love interest. She also made impulsive actions without realizing the consequences. It is because of her impulsive nature that could have prevented much tragedy.

     Overall, this book is filled with family, love, and friendship. It is a mystery, romance, and an adventure. The plot is slow-paced, and there is a lot of trudging through to get to the climax. The setting is well-developed, but the characters are not likeable and forgettable. I have to say that this book with a treasure hunt and a secret code has been done before with the Da Vinci Code and Juliet. There is nothing new to this story, and I have to say that this book was not Anne Fortier’s best. In fact, I think she didn’t even try her best in this novel. Her novel, Juliet, was the book she put all her effort into. Therefore, read this book if you must, but I believe you should skip it and read Juliet instead.

Rating 2 ½ out of 5 stars

This is the author's official book trailer for The Lost Sisterhood: