This is very funny, very charming and a great read. It's not very deep but it's a story that dragged me in, had me grinning and giggling at parts and I found it thoroughly enjoyable. Now don't get me wrong, it's not really realistic, along the same lines as The Mummy, and I liked it as much.

Abigail Merchant works in the British Museum and is certain that she has a hope of finding a famous but missing manuscript. She heads off to the middle east with knowledge from old guide books and a fist full of slightly moronic optimism. She meets up with Apollo Smith who decides to take her under his wing and keep her from harm. The two of them spark and a relationship ensues.

Now it sounds not so good but I have to admit that several weeks later I still have a smile on my face from remembering it. ( )

We've got romance, mystery, and a page-turner of an adventure. We've got appealing characters in an exotic setting. We've got humor and witty yet realistic dialogue.

Librarian Abigail Merchant discovers a journal detailing an aborted search for the lost Library of Alexandria, and decides to complete the quest, thus impressing her scholar father and following her mother's request that she do something exciting with her life.

She travels to Casablanca, and meets Apollo Smith, who reluctantly takes her under his wing. Apollo is trying to stay one step ahead of the men who are trying to kill him and to discover who's behind the plot.

I'm not going to go into any more detail than that, because it's so much more fun to see all the twists for yourself. And, okay, because the dozen or so summaries I wrote and deleted didn't do the book justice.

There's much to enjoy about The Book of the Seven Delights. I've seen it compared to the movie The Mummy, which is a fair comparison, though being a book, The Book of the Seven Delights could include more character development (and does). Abigail in particular grows from a young woman who's a bit naive (she gets all her travel information from books, a very funny thread running through the story), and who wants nothing more than to please her parents. By the end of the book, she's become her own person. ( )