Review: The Riddle of Prague by Laura DeBruce

The Riddle of Prague

by Laura DeBruce

Publication Date: September 17^th 2013

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Source: Author

Find This Book: The Riddle of Prague  

Rating: 5/5

This book was provided to me by the author in exchange for an honest review.

So my first introduction to this series was by giving the author my opinion of book 2’s cover options. That book clearly seems to be set in Paris with the sun as a big deal. In contrast to this book being set in Prague and with the moon. This was completely a ‘judge a book by its cover’ moment and I’m happy I liked the cover because I loved this book!

I don’t know much about Prague, but the book seemed very well researched and believable. I love fantasy books, but my favorite is when the author can take the fantastical and turn it into something completely feasible, and I think that was done incredibly well in The Riddle of Prague. Prague’s history, architecture, museums, and paintings are taken into account throughout the book. It felt like I could really be there experiencing some of these scenes.

Anyways, these people didn’t just magically become immortal, it was scientifically explained, and quite accurately so. When DNA replicates itself it gets worn down, so it can only replicate itself so many times before it’s destroyed and the person dies. Which, as far as my scientific knowledge goes, is completely true. So if one were to mutate him/herself to protect the replication process from destroying itself they could live indefinitely. They should still be susceptible to sickness; injuries, etc. so could die other ways, but could not die of old age.

The characters were well done, especially the immortal character’s pasts; my favorite being David and his affinity with poetry. I thought that right from the beginning Nadja wasn't all that she seemed, but could never be 100% sure. There were also plenty of other secrets to keep the book suspenseful and the pages turning. Hana came from America to reclaim her family’s house after the soviet’s iron curtain came down. She meets all these people at once and knows as much about them as the reader does, which was a nice change. The reader could discover and learn alongside Hana instead of Hana telling the reader information she already knows. Hana came to her conclusions, and I came to mine. Of course Hana made some stupid decisions, but they weren’t overboard and made the book seem more realistic. She met all of these people around the same time, so who should she trust?

When she goes to get documents signed to make The Rockery officially her property, she meets Alex and his little sister Thalia, children of a U.S. diplomat. He is a piece of familiarity in a foreign house/city/country/continent. Alex and Hana are so cute together and his little sister is so spunky!

The plot of this book is that Hana (with mainly help from Alex) acquires a notebook that contains a riddle to find a flask. This flask contains the key to immortality and too many people are looking for it. Don Julius and his goonies have Hana’s grandmother hostage and are willing to kill anyone to posses the flask. Simona and Michal seemed like a really cute couple and they want the flask to help humanity. David seems to just want to help Hana find it for the sake of Julius NOT having it. There are plenty of lies and deception, making The Riddle of Prague a page-turner. This book was an intense fantasy history mystery, and I loved every page of it. To the point where I was putting off everything I could to find time to read!