#TuesdayBookBlog #bookreview – Amie: African Adventure

What Amazon says

FOR FANS OF WILBUR SMITH.
Would you follow your husband to start a new life in Africa? Amie did and lived to regret it.

As the last plane evacuating the expatriates takes off at the outbreak of a civil war, Amie is left behind. She’s just an ordinary housewife never expecting her husband’s work would take them to live in an African country she’d never heard of. Now, she is on her own with no one to help her. 

She’d worked for the government so by chance she was allied to the losing side and the new regime believes she has information she doesn’t have.

Her husband has not told her his secret which puts her life further in danger.

As she fights to survive she has only her wits to protect her against the men who would use her and the predatory wild animals in the African bush.

Amie African Adventure is the first book of the Amie series by award-winning writer Lucinda E Clarke. We meet Amie when she first arrives in Africa with no idea of how it will change her life and the challenges she will face in this page-turning, fast-moving, thrilling action adventure series.

My review

I was slightly apprehensive about reading this book as I have traveled to a number of African countries for leisure and work purposes. I have also written a series of non-fiction publications about investment in Africa. I was worried that this book would not jell with my knowledge and experience of Africa. That turned out to be an unnecessary concern. Lucinda E Clarke has a sound knowledge of life for expatriates and the locals in certain war-torn, “least developed” African countries and does an excellent job of setting the scene for this story.

I enjoyed her balanced approach to describing the life styles of both the expatriate community and the locals and the detail that was provided about the schooling, hospitalisation, politics, corruption and difficulties with business dealings in this fictional country of Togodo. The descriptions of Aime and her husband’s visit to a game farm and the African countryside are beautiful and the author shares some interesting facts about survival in the bush.

The story of Aime’s adventure is fast paced and entertaining. My only criticism is that there were to many fortunate coincident and lucky breaks for Aime and her husband that were a bit unbelievable but this did not detract overly from a jolly good story.

I would recommend this book for people who like the idea of an entertaining adventure in a realistic African setting.

I rated this book four out of five stars.

Purchase Aime: Africa Adventure