Enjoyed:
- Continuation of story from second book
- Good character development of adults- male and female, protagonists and secondary
- obvious research into how diamonds are mined
- clear consent requested during sex scene!
Not for me:
- Expected the romance to be a little more central due to genre
- Most of plot is about safety and mining, not relationship development
- Children are most “plot moppets” (thank you, SBTB)
- The “bad guys” are fairly two-dimensional. Given that this book is more of a novel with romantic elements than a romance, space given to their character development would not have been wasted.
I give this three stars in that it wasn’t terrible, but I wouldn’t read it again. I will, however, read the last book in the quartet, eventually, to know how the story turns out.
All that being said, I do give two BIG thumbs up for a clear check for consent during the sex scene. Granted, the male protagonist does say, “Please say yes,” but his action in this scene and his character development through out the book lets the reader know that he would stop if she said, “No, I can’t do this.” She was the initiator of their consummation, but this line still matters. Consent does go both ways and her confirmation of his desire matters as well. As in a previous post, normalizing consent is as easy as mentioning birth control in contemporaries or talking about any number of other issues. This very small detail makes me a continued fan of this author and gives this book a boost in my esteem.
Reads All The Things 