A review by aromanticreadsromance
Raiders of the Lost Heart by Jo Segura

adventurous emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
okay, hear me out, i know romance sells in the book world, but this totally should have been the first book of an adventure series with corrie as the sole and primary lead. in each book, she goes on a different archaeological dig, and she is met with different challenges and light mysteries. remove ford entirely from the equation. that man is like the bran flakes or shredded wheat of men. corrie is like the frosted flakes or lucky charms of women. she's a total badass, and i LOVED her character (she only annoyed me once... or possibly twice... in the entire book). i want every woman lead to be as strong and independent as her.

the romance in this was... senseless and kinda awful??? trust me, i know romance is MY genre, but i could have done without the romance. the third act conflict was TOO big to be resolved in the five remaining chapters. ford did not do much, if any, groveling. he just didn't understand how hard it was to be a woman, especially a woman of color, in academia broadly and archaeology specifically, and that's my least favorite brand of white man. i just don't think his character was developed enough. several parts of his storyline felt unresolved or unanswered, like his feelings about his dad. did i understand ford's motives? sure. were his motives enough to absolve him? absolutely not.

i still enjoyed this book, for the most part. the writing was solid, and the adventure was fun.
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