A review by alisonalisonalison
Dash and Dingo: In Search of the Tasmanian Tiger by Catt Ford, Sean Kennedy

2.0

Pleasant enough, but could have been lots better. I wanted to like this more because it's a neat idea and it's a unconventional story and could have been really fun. I am a huge fan of the historical queer adventure romance genre, but this book just didn't do it for me. I thought the first half was pretty good, but it lost its head of steam in the second half and I was skimming by the end. I really enjoyed the setting and whole idea of this story simply because it's different and it's an uncommon historical setting in romance. Though, for a historical, these people felt quite modern. It didn't "feel" particularly like the 1930s to me, but maybe that's just me. The main characters were pretty interesting (a stereotypical loud Aussie bloke and a stereotypical prim Englishman), but I wasn't super engaged by them and didn't really connect with either. The villain was quite cardboard and almost cartoonish in his evilness, which made the ending pretty over-the-top, though the melodrama was already rising with each passing chapter. There's a lot of sex in this book and I didn't think it added anything. I liked that there were Indigenous Australian secondary characters. There are some strong messages in this story, and while their delivery verged on heavy-handed, they're good, worthy messages--look after the environment, respect wildlife and don't kill animals for no reason, don't be racist, colonialism is super problematic, etc. Most people on GR really like this, but, unfortunately, it was not for me.