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I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. No outside considerations went into this review.

I really, really wanted to enjoy this book, and not just because, as a queer woman, I feel bad on principle for knocking a lesbian romance story. The thing is, I also wanted to enjoy it because the synopsis promised an exciting, tension-filled adventure and that... just isn't what I got.

The history between Claire and Sochi should be the heart of it all. The synopsis certainly promises something dynamic between them - a cat-and-mouse game, or a race to the treasure, or bitterness slowly becoming reconciliation. In actuality, though, they don't even see each other for over half the book, and it takes them several more chapters to exchange words; when they do, despite each woman being bitter about the break-up for her own reasons, there's hardly any recrimination. After half a book of build-up, the way they rebuild their relationship is laughably easy. (view spoiler)[Notably, this is because their break-up was engineered by a man angling for Claire's job who wanted her out of Peru - a twist which is incredibly easy to predict after seeing the break-up from both women's points of view. Not... that there's really any reflection on what he did, what kind of a betrayal that is of Claire, his supposed friend. He also never faces consequences; the closest to confrontation between him and Claire/Sochi is over the phone, as he's leaving the country. It's all resolved in the most boring, passive manner possible. (hide spoiler)]

I understand the desire to write about relationships between women that aren't angsty, truly. But the danger there for an author is that the relationship ends up falling flat instead. Claire and Sochi have no major ideological disagreements, or really arguments of any kind; the one time one of them gets angry at the other, it's illogical, manufactured to delay their relationship within the book. They are not, as the synopsis, suggests, on different sides of the conflict over looting Peruvian artifacts; everything is misunderstandings, easily resolved and forgiven. There's no negotiation, no tension, no battle of head over heart.

The non-romantic plot is much the same: slow in pace, without much draw or a sense of stakes. The antagonist is almost cartoonish - he literally refers to his machinations as his "Plan of Ultimate Retribution". (view spoiler)[This plan, by the way, seems to have already been set in motion by the time he's defeated, but there's absolutely zero mention of whether or not it actually destroyed the Peruvian economy as intended. This seems like something worth addressing? (hide spoiler)] The treasure hunt relies almost entirely on Claire's supernatural visions, not her actual skill - I'm not an archaeologist, but I was left with the feeling that she hadn't really displayed the skills of her profession at all in the book. Everything she needs is (eventually) handed to her.

Overall - perhaps the problem here is the misleading blurb, which promises a far more exciting story than what's actually inside. A resounding disappointment.