Reviews with content warning for Colonisation - Raiders of the Lost Heart

I was expecting to really enjoy this book from the premise, I was a big archaeology fan as a kid/teen, and a romance also centering an archaeological expedition sounds right up my alley. However, I knew from pretty much the first time we're viewing the MMC's (Ford's) inner monologue that I was not going to support the resulting romance. I also found myself really disappointed in the level of archaeology in this book, it really was treated just as the back drop for this romance rather than it's own story element for the majority of this book.

Alright, so my biggest issue with this book is I personally think from Ford's inner monologue that he does not respect women in general and only respects very specific women after they've proven themselves to him, which is not a man that should end this story in a relationship. In the first quarter-ish of this book, Ford questions literally everything Corrie says to him even though he manipulated her into coming to this dig because HE KNOWS she's the most renowned expert on this particular artifact and it's story in the whole world. Also, I find the disrespect he has for the way Corrie does her job and practices archaeology as a woman of color unforgivable, and he does nothing to redeem himself and does not change his mind or say anything good about it by the end of the book. I think this book would have been infinitely more tolerable/better for me if we stayed only focused on Corrie and her inner monologue for the whole book and cut all of Ford's focused chapters because from Corrie's POV and inner monologue, Ford is a fine MMC who isn't full of internalized misogyny and bigotry.

Also, why are all the sex scene's from Ford's POV??? Confusing.

My big issue with this book is the writing and plot outline. The writing is pretty cheesy through the whole thing (and I'm fine with a good amount of cheesy writing in my romance books, but this is over the top cheesy and always veering into straight up cringe worthy). There were so many times that I highlighted a passage in my e-book just because I couldn't believe that actually got written. And then the plot of the story was kind of a complete mess at the end; there were so many plot points that just got thrown straight into the reader's face out of no where instead of being integrated into the story and woven in until the reveals happened.

ALSO, there was literally no resolution to third act breakup? Like Ford is still an awful person who did awful shit to Corrie, didn't ever respond to her questions of being like you wouldn't have done this to me if I was a man, but he gets injured SAVING THE ARTIFACT (and Corrie on the side) and fade to black, a year later, all is forgiven. I'm seriously so confused why the author decided to completely cut out any resolution or emotional growth these characters could have gone through at the end of the book in favor of a cheap pseudo cliff hanger that lasted for half a chapter.

I did really like the archaeological aspects of this, I just wish there was more of that as it felt more like a plot device to get the characters together than its own story element. I also like the FMC most of the time although there were times that there seemed like a little internalized misogyny creeping through and some of the stuff she thought in her inner monologue was really cringe.

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