I snagged this from a Little Free Library because the blurb sounded interesting. I had no idea it was part of a series; the plot and characters are strong enough to stand on their own. Cathbad and Kate are probably my favorite characters, although the rest are also well-fleshed-out.

However, I had a couple nitpicky gripes:
1. It seemed like a leap to me that an academic automatically assumed that "North African" meant "Black." Um, Carthage was in what's currently Tunisia now, and usually people from North Africa are of Arab heritage.
2. There are numerous instances of self-shaming and/or internalized misogyny/fatphobia that went hand-in-hand with skinny shaming—Ruth assumes that thin people starve themselves and that fat people eat too much.