Sphinx and The Map- T.S Learner review

Hey guys! I wanted to do a little double book review today. A few months ago my boyfriend's parents were taking a load of books to the charity shop and i went through and picked out ones I wanted to keep ( 2 bags full!) These two I choose and thought they looked quite intriguing. I have never heard of this author before and thought I'd give them a go. These two books are two separate novels but they're by the same author and they're very similar in many ways. They claim to be exciting mystery books, along the lines of  Dan Brown and Kate Mosse. Unfortunately, I did not on the whole enjoy these books, and I did not think the writing was as good as Kate Mosse books.

Both books have a similar main protagonist, an atheist male who the author describes as being very good looking and a "hero" in some sort of way, amazing at what they do. The description of the main character honestly annoys me so much it's like Learner just can't help herself but include all these details about the protagonist, it's so contrived and irritating, they seem to have no faults or the faults they do have are endearing and honestly for a reader I just found it insufferable.

Out of both books, I preferred Sphinx, both books are historical mystery books and with Sphinx I was genuinely quite driven and excited to see how it ended, it definitely kept me somewhat hooked when I got past the irritating main character or at least the irritating descriptions of the main character. The main fault for me for this book was that it just ended in the strangest of ways. The ending suddenly went very fantasy-ish and the rest of the book wasn't particularly like this, it didn't seem to fit in and seemed quite rushed. It's a fairly average book, nothing amazing and had some cringy sex scenes but if you're into historical mysteries it would be quite a good beach read.

The Map was the book I read second and I honestly really disliked it. It's a bit unusual for me to hate  a book so much, I like most books and I know I can be quite a harsh critic but I normally find good in most books. I just found it boring, at least with Sphinx I could look past some of the bad writing as the story line was quite hooking but The Map was so slow. I was disappointed as I thought I'd enjoy this more. The blurb says it's going to be about witches and covens but it had so many different lines none were taken to their full advantage and it ended up being less of an exciting adventure book and just a long boring book filled with how amazing the main protagonist is and some more cringy sex scenes. It was so slow and I felt as if nothing happened. There was nothing exciting until right at the end and then it was over so quickly. I honestly would not recommend this book.

I don't think I would read any more of T.S Learner's books, I wanted to like these so much but I am not a fan of her writing style, both books were very similar and I think I'll give her other books a miss. As harsh as it is I'm looking forward to not having to read this anymore!

Have you read these books? What did you think?
I'll be back with another book review very soon! If there are any books you want me to read and review or have any recommendations for me let me know!
Lots of love,
Eleanor x