Jiayi is a servant to the Empress. She possesses the clairvoyant gift of retrocognition. By touching an object, she can see its past- who owned it, who handled it, etc. She never knows when along the timeline of the object she will end up though. The Empress has her using her gift to attempt to find the missing Imperial Seal, which gives true legitimacy to the ruler. When Jiayi located a possible area to search, Zhihao is brought in to do the grunt work. As a fledgling archaeologist, he understands the mechanics behind searching.

But their trip is fraught with problems from the get-go. A cave-in kills one of their group, they must contend with tomb raiders pilfering China’s cultural heritage (asshats), and Jiayi herself almost ends up a captive to be sold abroad as a ‘bride’. Success with the Seal is one thing, but can Jiayi and Zhihao work together to make a greater difference in preserving their country’s remaining treasures and sites?

Overall, I enjoyed the storyline. I did feel that they found the Seal too quickly. That revelation was… far tamer than expected. I really enjoyed the cultural insights into this time period in China. The author did a great job with that. I loved the scenes where Jiayi jumps into the past. She becomes a ‘passenger’ in a woman relevant to the flashback. While she can’t control the person in question, she does retain a measure of skill her hosts have, such as language facility, fighting proficiency, and riding. I’m interested to see the limits of her ability.

Another good proofing wouldn’t be amiss. There were a few spelling errors, and more grammar errors. I didn’t necessarily have an issue reading it, but that is part of what lowered my rating. A pronunciation guide would be nice. I have a vague idea of how some letter clusters are pronounced in Chinese, but there were words and names I stumbled over. Especially Jiayi. For those I just settled on a pronunciation and stuck with it. I have no idea how correct I am. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series, to see how the pair continue to work together, and what they search for. I hope they get a proper excavation team. I love when books feature archaeology!

***Many thanks to Silver Dagger Tours and the author for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.