Treasure of the Amazon

Marisa Elliott has come down to Brazil to find her relatives who left Virginia at the start of the Civil War taking the money from the Elliott town bank with them. Marisa’s father’s dream is to be able to return this money and clear his family name. Marisa must find Sara, the matriarch of the Brazilian clan and claim the treasure. To do this she hires Scott Dunbar to guide her into the jungle.

Scott has lived in Brazil for a number of years. He knows the dangers, but his warnings have fallen the deaf years of a stubborn woman. Will Scott and Marisa find the mysterious missing money, or something else in the Amazon?

TREASURE OF THE AMAZON has a wonderful storyline that grabs the reader’s interest from the very first page. Here we have a young woman who has led a sheltered and quiet life in a small town in Virginia who now finds herself on a mission in the Brazilian jungles. She has no idea how things work in this very different world than she is used to. She has so many endearing qualities that she will draw the reader to her.

Scott is rich. But he doesn’t like to flaunt it. He tries to be the good guy and warn this pampered yellowhair from the states the dangers of her mission. Not that she ever listens. This makes for some humorous repartee between our leading characters. And some hair-brained schemes from Marisa that puts her in danger. Of course, our leading man must come to the rescue. Author Pinkie Paranya’s prose is so interesting and intriguing that this reviewer was enthralled.

The ending of TREASURE OF THE AMAZON came as a bit of a disappointment. It seemed to this reviewer that Ms Paranya was in a hurry to end the book, almost as if she had a maximum word count she had to maintain. And this reviewer would have liked to see things wrapped up a little differently. However, the details of the jungle and the dangers therein along with the two leading characters made TREASURE OF THE AMAZON a worthwhile read that this reader is glad she didn’t miss out on.

January 2007