I loved this book (with a few minor issues). The characters were great, strong female lead, but Hawk also held his own and was so masculine that it truly worked. I loved how she was educated and headstrong but also very aware of her station in this world. She was hopeful and eager for love that she was never granted prior. The spice was great, and I loved how there was an actual countdown to the spiciest spice. I wanted to scream at Aspeth so many times for not being truthful to the one whom she should have trusted the most. But I think that added to the suspense and kept me eagerly reading and wanting more.


Issues:
-I don't understand how they got out of the tunnel collapse. Something about the chalk being the reason. It didn't make sense. I reread it. It did not click for me. I just ignored it and moved on.

-The ring was not glowing when Gwenna took it, when they left the tunnels with it originally in Gwenna's possession, or anytime in the dark at the nest. It suddenly glowed in the tunnel after the collapse. Not during their entrapment. Maybe it needed to be within a certain distance of the other matching ring? But even that has issues.

-The ending was not to my liking. I know Ruby Dixon for Ice Planet Barbarians, where those stories end in pregnancies. I wanted a Taurian-Human baby. While I didn't like the ending in that aspect, I did like the path that Aspeth chose in the end. But still, I wanted a baby. I'm a bit disappointed in that.

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