Hey everyone,

I have been feeling a bit ruff in the past week and I needed a little blog break. I hope you are well and that you’ve had a good week.

Pandora by Susan Stokes-Chapman

A pure pleasure of a novel set in Georgian London, where the discovery of a mysterious ancient Greek vase sets in motion conspiracies, revelations and romance.

London, 1799. Dora Blake is an aspiring jewellery artist who lives with her uncle in what used to be her parents’ famed shop of antiquities. When a mysterious Greek vase is delivered, Dora is intrigued by her uncle’s suspicious behaviour and enlists the help of Edward Lawrence, a young antiquarian scholar. Edward sees the ancient vase as key to unlocking his academic future. Dora sees it as a chance to restore the shop to its former glory, and to escape her nefarious uncle.

But what Edward discovers about the vase has Dora questioning everything she has believed about her life, her family, and the world as she knows it. As Dora uncovers the truth she starts to realise that some mysteries are buried, and some doors are locked, for a reason.

Gorgeously atmospheric and deliciously page-turning, Pandora is a story of secrets and deception, love and fulfilment, fate and hope.

Published: 27th January 2022

Publishers: Harvill Secker

Pages: 432

Genre: Historical Fiction, Greek Mythology, Fiction

Goodreads Star Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

thoughts

When I pre-ordered this book, I had a incling about the theme being Greek Mythology and about the story about Pandora’s box. I knew very little of the tale but I found myself really intrigued while reading this book. This book gave me vibes of The Diamond of Dury Lane by Julia Golding, if you have ever read this middle grade book then we can be friends, but also a hint of Indiana Jones.

I love the character of Dora, so willing to do anything to get away from her uncle but also wanting to keep the memory of her parents by staying there. While she overlooks her Uncle’s dodgy dealings, she can’t hide away her curiousity of the vase and her determination to become a jewellery designer. I would love to see an illustration of her jewllery pieces because the descriptions were so lovely that I even wanted to buy one for myself. I really like Edward, he seemed like the most gentle male interest and very protective towards Dora, he reminded me of the Twekesbury character in Enola Holmes, so innocent but very caring. I was surprised to see the lovely moment they had later into the book, it was sweet but also a passionate moment.

Dora’s Uncle, whos name is difficult to remember and also spell, was very suspicious from the very beginning. Now we all know that he is a bad guy for ALL the dirty things he did, it was his drive to get the thing he wanted made me more curious about when reading the chapters that followed him. He is basically a money thieving, woman beater, selfish dick of the centery because through all warnings by other people, he pushes them all away and doesn’t care until he got what he wanted.

I found myself very drawn to the book from the moment I added it into my basket on the Waterstones app, I knew based from the title that this book was going to be revolving around the Pandora’s Box story but somehow it wasn’t actually a retelling of the tale more of a book about how the creation of the world was made and how the author has woven it in by an interpretation that has not been looked at before. I really liked Stokes-Chapman’s writing style and I am looking forward to her next work because I feel that she should be talked about more. The cover is so beautiful and I highly suggest you buy this book right now!

Happy Reading xx