The Lost Portal coming October 8th, 2024 from Sparkpress; 344 pages
Content Warning: Animal death, violence, bullying.
About the Author: “I love a good love story. From slow burn to first sight, it doesn’t matter. Add in paranormal, fantasy, or dystopian elements, and I’m all in. These are the stories I crave, so naturally, they are the stories I write!
“[…] While I might gravitate toward a specific genre, I’ll read anything that engages and captivates me. Historical, Thrillers, Rom-Coms, Post-Apocalyptic, Sci-Fi, Memoirs, Young Adult, I’ll devour them all! (Okay, maybe not cookbooks. I’m useless in the kitchen – ask my husband).
“The point is, I love reading. I love immersing myself in another world for a while. Writing takes this one step further; it gives me the privilege of creating that world. And to be able to SHARE that world with you, the reader? That might be my favorite love story of all” (Bio from author’s website).
Find Lenore Borja on the following platforms:
After saving the human race from certain doom and preventing Alice’s soul from being claimed by Hades in The Last Huntress, Alice, Soxie, Hadley, and Olivia thought their dealings with the supernatural were over. The Mirror Realm was destroyed and Hades defeated, but Zeus’s parting gift of Cithaeron’s soul has left them feeling as if a debt is waiting to be paid. The huntresses are now also visited by the gods in their dreams, tormented every night as they are given a new task: find the Portal of Osiris and save the connection between their world and the land of the gods. With pressure from restless deities and threats of torture beyond the grave, the huntresses must travel to Egypt to find the lost portal before their timer runs out.
The Lost Portal, compared to its precursory novel The Last Huntress, sustained a more practical sequence of events that added a level of maturity to the tone of the story. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect out of this book, but I was pleasantly surprised by Borja’s inclusion of Egyptian mythology alongside her traditional Greek mythology. As someone who was once dead-set on becoming an Egyptologist, I find that most books that attempt to incorporate Egyptian culture and mythology fail at making it seem authentic. Borja, however, was able to seamlessly weave together both fact and fiction and blur the lines of reality for the reader. There was a remarkable cinematic feeling to The Lost Portal, making the novel hard to put down as I traveled through time with the huntresses. I enjoyed seeing into Hadley’s mind as opposed to Alice’s, and I appreciated the closure Borja included for the reader regarding both Alice’s relationship with David and Hadley’s relationship with her brother. As for the ending, I found the conclusion to be a bit unrealistic. The sudden change in the role of the gods left the story feeling a bit incomplete, almost as if the resolution was too simple. Despite that, I truly enjoyed the blend of fantasy and historical fiction in The Lost Portal, and it certainly earned its spot on my bookshelf.
The Lost Portal releases on October 8th, 2024.
Pine Reads Review would like to thank Lenore Borja and Sparkpress for sending us an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Any quotes are taken from an advanced copy and may be subject to change before final publication.
Callie Andrews, Pine Reads Review Writer, Social Media, and Web