Hello to all of my beautiful nerds and welcome back from traveling the vast universe! I am back with a new book review!

The Riddle of the Sphinx by. Alexander Montague

Disclaimer: This review is based on thoughts of the lead writer of this blog. Please respect her thoughts and opinions on this literary work.

Synopsis: This book gives off three perspectives with one boy escaping Tyran on horseback to a student in Princeton going through a love affair that leads to trouble, and finally ends a lawyer trying to find out about himself at his job and how he fits in.

Thoughts: I know that was a short description of the book but it was pretty much written like that on the NetGalley page for it. This book was an interesting read. Even though it says it’s a psychological drama but I didn’t see much in the first part of the book since it deals with a shah losing power in 1970s Tiran and yes it does lead with the seeing how a boy kind of has a sexual relationship with a boy and then ends with a so-called death and goes to Princeton. Apparently this book follows a boy named Kavan in the beginning and I think his name gets changed to Eric from what I’m seeing and it shows how he has a thing for men since we see it early on in the book with a friend that ended up going missing and was tricked in going with a teacher to be in a radical group. Then we go to many years later where Eric is a college student and meets a guy named Mark who ends up dating each other and this causes some complications when he meets up with the shah prince Ali and somehow they were seen to be connected and an article kind of makes things more complicated. This book was pretty complicated even though when it got to Princeton I felt the story was more cohesive due to how it is a young man exploring his gay side and able to love himself and his partner. I wished the Princeton stuff was the entire story since the older Eric was him in the start of the book where he has a wife and two daughters. I wonder if this book is supposed to do three stories with different possibilities.

I did find it strange is that I was wondering why did this book had the title The Riddle of the Sphinx and it did get revealed towards the end where Eric has a dream seeing himself in Princeton and him as a boy and he wonders why is he seeing these two versions of himself where the Princeton one fell ill with AIDS while the kid him was trying to head home when he remembered being brought to Paris. I just wondered is that did he get found with the group of boys in the desert somehow and was rescued with the rest of them? I would like to know. I have a feeling the riddle deals with how different lives can be experienced by the same person but the outcome is always survival since the boy version was that he survived the desert trying to find his friend but got tricked, his Princeton version was in a great relationship until a guy he spent a night with screwed it up and causes a break up and leading to his contraction with AIDS with a stranger even though he thought it wasn’t real but survived potential suicide, and now his adult version where he wonders if being a lawyer was what he really wants and his daily life is his survival? That is what I can tell from what I read.

Rating: 3 Star Paw Prints Out of 5! I found that this book should have just stuck with Princeton instead of having the other two parts to it. I found it more intriguing since it did show the drama of college life and how someone can get into a homosexual relationship depending on who you are with easily. Well, love is love and can’t judge it. I did find it funny that the wife in the end of the book did figure out that Eric was into men but didn’t want to leave him because it would look bad since they are a couple that is seen out in public a lot. Even though this was an interesting read but it was kind of confusing and the title for it was hard to fit in my mind. Doesn’t mean I can’t leave the link in case you guys want to read.

Well guys that is it for this post! I hope I won’t take too long with any of the other books since I have so many to read. Now hoping my Ipsy does come soon since I still need to post that! So stay tuned!
The Riddle of the Sphinx Book Link