Lizards Hold the Sun, a contemporary romance by Dani Trujillo, celebrates indigenous ancestry and belonging through its central love story between Xiomara and Calehan and through their work together to relocate and preserve sacred remains and artifacts from an island burial mound. Our FMC Xiomara is Apache; originally from Mexico, she is now an archaeologist working on an at-risk site on a reservation in Bunchberry, Canada, where she meets local Cree dreamboat and architect, Calehan Yellowbird. While Xiomara leads the excavation and relocation, Calehan is building the museum that will house the artifacts from the site, and the two are immediately drawn to each other through their shared passion for the work. This is a heartbreakingly tender romance between two people who have both suffered big losses and have consistently prioritized the needs of others over themselves. Their love story is earnest and flirtatious and gentle and consuming, and its pacing felt so real to me that when the inevitable blowup hit in the third act, it felt... right. The withheld information felt so understandable (who doesn't fear those big conversations early in a whirlwind romance?) that I never felt frustrated with either character, even as I was weepy through the final 20%. There were a few times I was momentarily pulled out of the story simply due to editing slips (dropped words or awkward transitions in action, repeated details - ultimately, small stuff), but the imagery was so sensory and the world so well-built that I was always pulled right back in. This is a story that wraps around you.

I can't wait to read more from Trujillo - this is an exciting debut, and I would highly recommend it to all romance readers.