Book Review: Chasing Cleopatra

Today’s book review is on Tina Sloan’s novel, Chasing Cleopatra and I have to say it is such a fun read! It’s hard to describe the book without giving anything away because there are quite a few twists and reveals in the novel, but I’ll try to tell you a little about it without spoilers!

Okay, this is going to sound like a crazy, absurd storyline, but just bear with me. The story takes place mostly in 2011 and is told from various points of view. Cleopatra, or Cleo, is a 44 year old woman with a very interesting upbringing. She was raised by a socialite mother who loved love and loved moving from man to man. Her father was French-Algerian and a descendent of french aristocracy and a spy. Well, more than a spy really. He is like the person who gives spies orders.

Anyway, the other part of the story is the Regan family. The Regans consist of matriarch Miranda, patriarch Tripp, and their 3 adult sons (in their 20s). The Regans, along with the eldest son, Jake’s, girlfriend Julia, are on vacation for Christmas in Hawaii. I know, it’s a lot of people to keep track of, but I promise the book is not hard to follow when you’re reading. Okay, so what does the Regan family have to do with Cleo? Cleo lives in Hawaii now and after a little fender bender with Jake, gets entwined with the Regans and enters in a passionate love affair with Jake. But wait, Jake has a girlfriend! The whole thing is very soap opera-y, so some things just seem far fetched and you want to say things like “She did not just do that!” or “I can’t believe him!”. There are twists to the story and once I got a feel for how the author thinks and the kind of twists she does I liked to guess what the ending would be and I was right about one and the other I did not see coming.

On top of all this spying, love affair thing, there is also another character’s perspective we read from and he is an Al Qaeda terrorist. Even more soap opera-like! This guy has ties to more than one character in the book. Hmmm…

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the novel reminds me of a soap opera because I looked up the author and she was a long time actress on Guiding Light so this is right in her wheelhouse. My mom used to watch Guiding Light before it went off the air so I’m familiar! Anyway, I highly recommend this book if you’re looking for a fun read with love affairs, spies, twists, and turns!