REAWAKENED

A reanimated mummy has an important mission and needs 17-year-old Lily in order to succeed.

Lily is astonished to find a living pre-Pharaonic Egyptian king named Amon behind the scenes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Nothing in her privileged life has prepared Lily for what comes next as Amon takes her on one cyclone of an adventure. Amon rises from his sarcophagus every 1,000 years to protect the world from the destructive chaos of Seth, the Dark One. However, this time something has gone disastrously wrong, so Amon needs to borrow Lily’s life force. Pragmatic Lily is no fragile bloom, but when Amon says things like, “You are as fresh and as lovely as a budding flower kissed by the dew of a golden morning,” she can’t help but notice his “physical splendor.” But Amon, charming and kind though he may be, is harboring secrets that keep him from reciprocating Lily’s growing love. The author weaves her story out of Egyptian lore, cinematic magic, selfless love, and cheesy dialogue, threading it with such oddities as a half-man, half-crocodile monster, massive biting worms, and rickety zombies. The tale feels occasionally overstuffed with mythology but is clever enough to remain surprising even to the last sentence.

Happily, this paranormal romance has enough humor to keep the pages flipping, though it’s unlikely to attract fans not already devoted to the genre.