I liked the Lady Astronaut series, and this promised to be like that with a little less hard science, so I was eager to pick it up. But I didn’t like it at all.

It’s a “cozy mystery”. Kind of like Death on the Nile or some other old-timey Sam Spade detective novel. Reading was frustrating because I kept waiting for them to get to the next uncovered clue. It always seemed like the story was padding itself in-between plot points, which was frustrating. Like the book itself was practicing delayed gratification. And in the last chapter, it’s like the characters don’t even care that they went through all this trauma. They’re not changed.

The text. Is. Repetitive. And it’s repetitive over two things. One is that the main character has a back injury and she’s constantly talking about her chronic pain. Every page she’s turning up or down the “pain management system” she’s got implanted. By the end, she must look like all the Rolling Stones AND Motley Crue put together.

The other thing is that she is on a honeymoon cruise with her husband (who’s an actual detective but he’s the suspect). And they are so lovey-dovey with each other I think I got a cavity. It’s obnoxious. This girl is high maintenance. She always needs her dog with her, she’s always suffering from PTSD. But I’m not the audience for this book. I almost stopped reading a few times, but I kept going because I thought it might be like Terraforming Romance. I was very glad when it was done. At least, I don’t have to like it to use it as a comp.