I straight up DEVOURED this book. I started reading Tuesday night and finished it Wednesday afternoon!

Though, to be fair, this is a Once Upon a Book Club (OUAB) book, so I had gifties I was really looking forward to getting to! I am not a monthly subscriber, but I do pay attention to their warehouse sales, though I certainly would like to when I get another 9-5 and have a steady income stream again. I purchased three boxes at the last sale, and even though I’m excited for all of them, having this one come in a poly mailer as well as the box, made it a top contender. I strongly theorized the gift that necessitated the poly mailer was a bag of some kind because it didn’t fit in the box.

This was the Valentine’s Day 2024 special box, and for 18+ only. If you don’t want to have spoilers for those gifts, stop reading now. If you already read it or don’t mind spoilers, venture on my friend!

This is a delightful romp. Jo Segura hit the mark in her attempt to bring the adventure movies of my childhood *cough* The Mummy *cough cough* and add extra romance and comedy to the page. I snorted out loud numerous times reading this book. The build up of the snarky tension came across beautifully. I wanted to jump both of them by the time they got it together. Which, in holding with The Mummy, is an accurate description of any time I watch that movie.

Jo states in her Author’s Note that she hopes we are able to suspend disbelief enough to believe that Corrie is just that amazing of an archeologist. And, yes, yes, I could. I really enjoyed Corrie’s smarts, and appreciated yet again how much I identified with her experience as a woman in STEM. It would be really nice if some day, women didn’t have to justify being curvy and smart or justify interest in any STEM field, or anything that men have any interest in.

Aaaaaaaanyway, the gifts in this box were a signed book plate, purple sucking vibrator named Barney, a thermos with two mugs, a purple backpack with a black scrunchie (super score, as purple is my favorite color!), and a green flashlight that allows you to focus the light how you like. I am writing this up at my daughter’s tennis lesson, where I used the backpack to bring stuff, am wearing my scrunchie, and the flashlight is in the bag too! All in all, incredibly useful and amazing gifts!

There definitely left room for another book with the same characters, and so I hope that if she writes another one we learn move about Eric and Sunny, or Joe, or Memo. Either way, I will be watching for more from Jo, and look forward to Miri’s story in Temple of Swoon in 2025.