Review: Raiders of the Lost Heart by Jo Segura

Raiders of the Lost Heart by Jo Segura
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I was provided an ARC of this book via Netgalley and the Berkley Besties program, all opinions are my own.

I love a good Indiana Jones type of story with a little mythology, archeology, and adventure.  I was so excited that this had a female lead, but I was a little let down by this.  The story was a bit hard to take seriously when the two main characters were constantly thinking about how hot each other are and lusting after one another.  It was lacking the adventure plotline that I was expecting from this book.   Our female lead continuously wants to be taken seriously for her work, yet her mind is constantly in the gutter and despite how capable she is as an archeologist she doesn't think through her actions.  I think the book's message really got lost along the way.  If the author's goal was to write a steamy rom-com, she did so, however I wanted more of the dig and science behind it.  

This follows Corrie and Ford, two archeologists who have been rivals since their days as students.  Both great at what they do for a living, but very different in their methods.  Corrie has always been fascinated by the ancient Aztec warrior Chimalli, especially since her grandfather claims they are his descendants.  She even wrote her thesis on Chimalli and her dream is to lead an expedition to find his remains.  Unbeknownst to Corrie, Ford has been handed her dream expedition and he needs her help when the dig has come to a standstill.  Corrie has been angry with Ford since their days as students and she has never confronted him about it.  Ford knows he needs to come clean about what really happened all those years ago and the dig is just another reason for her to hate him.  As Ford and Corrie form a truce to make the most of the dig, the truth slowly comes out and the spark between them is reignited.  The dig isn't going as planned, but with Corrie's help and expertise on the subject and history, things slowly turn around.  

Like I said I was expecting more of an adventure book with a romance.  I felt mislead by the premise of this book.  If you are expecting something like The Mummy, Lara Croft, or Indiana Jones which this was compared to several times it is lacking that type of humorous adventure.  There is a bit of action that occurs toward the end, but overall the action and adventure I was looking for was lacking.  Perhaps this is more realistic of how an actual dig really works, but I was expecting something a bit more fantastical and less realistic.  At it's core this a romance novel, and I didn't feel the chemistry between the two main characters.  There is alot of lust between them for much of the book, and there are some spicy bits, so depending on what you are looking for this may or may not be the book for you.  They fight alot, and I wasn't a fan of the conflict resolution overall.  Their communication skills need some work and something I look for between adult characters is great banter and good communication.   

Overall, this was fun but not what I was looking for.

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