From Publishers Weekly
When the murder of an Ethiopian man covered with enigmatic tattoos roils the upper echelons of the Roman Catholic Church, Sister Ottavia Salina, head of the Restoration and Paleography Laboratory of the Vatican's Classified Archives, is called to interpret the symbolism of his "scarifications." Church officials inform Dr. Salina that the Ethiopian was but one of many who are stealing Ligna Crucis, relics of the original cross upon which Christ was crucified, from church reliquaries around the globe. The church charges her and two men—a captain of the pope's Swiss Guard, Kaspar Glauser-Roïst, and an Egyptian archeologist, Farag Boswell (whom she later falls for after 39 years of celibacy)—to retrieve the relics. Before you can say Da Vinci Code, the trio plunge into an eddy of intrigue and danger as they encounter a mysterious secret brotherhood and wend their way along a labyrinthine journey of initiation rituals—with clues provided by Dante's Divine Comedy. Asensi's first novel to be translated into English is formulaic, but readers with insatiable appetites for church history, secret societies and weird initiation rituals will find some delights. (Apr.)
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From Booklist
*Starred Review* Asensi's first novel to be published in English features a clandestine religious organization, a code contained in the work of a long-dead genius, a plucky heroine, and just the right combination of obscure history and plausible conjecture. Sound familiar? The Last Cato will inevitably draw comparisons to The Da Vinci Code, but this book is in many ways more compelling, if a bit less accessible. After Dr. Ottavia Salina, a nun working as a paleographer at the Vatican, is asked to decipher tattoos on the dead body of an "enemy of the Church" from Ethiopia, she soon discovers the deceased was tied up with the Staurofilakes, an ancient order who have sought to protect the True Cross and now seem to be stealing slivers of it from around the world. The key to tracking them down? Dante's Divine Comedy. Turns out that Dante was a member of the order himself, and that the notoriously dense Divine Comedy is a kind of coded guidebook to the order's rituals. Salina and a couple companions set off, with Dante as their guide, on a rollicking, round-the-world adventure. Some of the conjecture seems far-fetched, but the research is impeccable, and the behind-the-scenes Vatican life feels utterly authentic. As engrossing as it is intelligent, this just might be the next big book in the burgeoning religious thriller subgenre.
John Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
A lighthearted, exciting read, May 8, 2006
Four Things My Geeky Jock Of A Best Friend Must Do In Europe is a young adult novel about a girl and her somewhat eccentric mother out on a Mediterranean cruise. Told in first person from the point of view of the daughter, who maintains her sanity by writing to her best friend Delia (who wrote the titular phrase on the daughter's hand, in permanent marker no less, as a reminder of a certain promise), Four Things My Geeky Jock Of A Best Friend Must Do In Europe is filled with riotous adventures ranging from a "bikini malfunction" on the French Riviera to the curse of the terrible plastic monkey. A lighthearted, exciting read.

Amazon Customer Reviews:

Four Things... Is A-W-E-S-O-M-E!, May 16, 2006
A Kid's Review
I recently read this book and I LOVED it. The only problems were 1. I couldn't put it down so I was done with it pretty quickly. 2. It had a cliffhanger ending. I think that Jane Harrington should DEFINATLY write a sequel. Girls every where should read Four Things My Geeky Jock Of A Best Friend Must Do In Europe!

Four Things My Geeky-Jock-of-a-Best Friend Must Do in Europe, May 16, 2006
A Kid's Review
This book is great! In this book there are two girls who are best friends. They are named Delia and Brady. Brady is going to Europe with her mom and Delia stays. Brady writes a letter to Delia every day telling her about her adventures in Europe. This book is written in diary form and is Realistic Fiction.
In some of brady's letters to Delia she writes some words in a foreign language. Brady tells Delia what the words mean so you will know too. You actually get to learn a little bit of a foreign language.
Delia writes a list on Brady's hand. The list is titled: Four Things My Geeky-Jock-of-a-Best Friend Must Do in Europe. She writes four things and tells her that she has to do them. It is very interesting.
I don't want to give you much about the book and Brady's time in Europe but, she has some good, bad, embarrassing, and funny moments mainly in trying to complete the four things.
I thought that this book was really fun to read. I recommend it to anyone who has a best friend or not, ages 8-13. Read the book and find out if Brady completes the list!
Jane Francisco, 11

A Great Mother-Daughter Read!, April 24, 2006
Reviewer: Jill M. Eichner (VA United States)

This book is perfect for middle-school-aged girls, but as a mother I found it very funny and enjoyable also. Like a children's movie that has some jokes at which the kids laugh, and others which only the parents laugh at, this book will find you chuckling at things the characters do and say. There are a lot of good topics raised involving dating and parties that can be discussed between a mother and daughter in the context of the book much more easily than in a direct "real-life" conversation. Mother-daughter book clubs should put this on their list.