Raiders of the Lost Heart by Jo Segura
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Unfortunately, this Adult Romance was way more ewww than awww for me. As in, complete cringefest.
I am sooooo glad it’s over!!!
Let’s start with what I liked. The cover is adorable. It immediately made me what to pick this one up. I love the colors and how cute both of the characters look. It’s also giving strong adventure vibes.
I also enjoyed the very beginning of this story. I appreciated how quickly it kicked off. The author didn’t waste any time with filler stuff. We’re immediately swept away with Corrie as she’s pulled into an expedition in Mexico.
Also, I do tend to really enjoy the academic rivals-to-lovers trope and it seemed obvious that’s where this was going, which I was excited to see play out.
Very sadly, this is where my likes end. I won’t give you the full list of dislikes. I’m not here to be salty looking to turn anyone off from giving this book a shot, but I do like to keep it real with my personal reading experiences in my reviews.
After the successful set-up, nothing really happens. I was waiting for something to happen, something more than pointless bickering between our mains. Then they started hooking up and I WISHED WITH ALL MY HEART we could go back to nothing happening.
The steamy bits are soooo not to my tastes. I was legit yelling, ewwwwwww, at my audiobook and I’m not even joking. I wish I was. Descriptors like ‘lapping’ — just don’t and I def don’t want to hear about smooth, VEINY skin.
Before y’all come at me, it wasn’t just the steamy bits though, although that was huge part of it. I also hated both of the main characters.
Corrie was so annoying and I was beyond sick of hearing about how hot her body was and what horrible problems that caused for her. Her stunningly jaw-dropping double-Ds and taut ass had plagued her her whole life. Poor thing.
Ford was a jerk, who would fly off the handle over nothing and I detested the way they interacted with one another, both when they were fighting and then when they were all over each other. It was completely cringe. There’s honestly not a better way to describe it.
Uneventful, lackluster, boring, icky and disappointing. Clearly, not a new favorite, but alas, I am moving on and will wrap this up with the same thing I say every time I write a not so positive review:
Just because this didn’t work for me, doesn’t mean it won’t work for you. There’s a Reader for every book and book for every Reader. If this sounds good to you, check it out. If you love it, please come back and tell me how wrong I am!
Thank you to the publisher, Berkley, for providing me with a copy to read and review. I never give up on an author after one try, so would consider picking up more from Segura.