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A review by intotheheartwyld
The Jewel and Her Lapidary by Fran Wilde

3.0

I have never been more annoyed by the words Jewel and Lapidary then I am now after reading this. I understand that they are titles but holy moly were they used a lot. At one point I got Sima and Lin confused because I couldn’t tell which father was being referred too since apparently their fathers were Jewel/Lapidary partners as well.

The world building was meh for me, we got a small glimpse into this world protected by Jewels and Lapidaries but it didn’t really explain the point of a Jewel, unless I missed it. Lapidaries could speak to gems which was really neat and I loved that part, and you could tell some research was done in regards to what gems match what emotions.

It jumped straight into the story which was a plus and in a novella is needed for their length but it still somehow fell slightly flat. A whole type of people completely wiped out expect for 2 and then bam kid from other area has he same abilities. And I feel like the story behind him was kind of an after thought, and the villain was just your typical power hungry villain with no real back story.

It was mildly paced, confusing at times, and a bit on the annoying side with the title references and rules referenced to the lapidaries to follow (which some just didn’t feel like they connected when Sima referenced them at some points)
It’s a 3.5 for me just because I like the idea behind the Lapidaries and had this been more fleshed out it could have been really great.