The irony is delicious

Loses a star for the way our protagonist literally got possessed by an exposition dump unrelated to anything else in the story.

Cute time loop romance! The heroine is somewhat abrasive, it took me a while to warm up to her.

Fun, fast, high stakes, and romantic.

Kind of bothers me how much this book overplays its hand in giving clues.

To be honest, where this book first went wrong for me was with the audiobook narrators. There are two narrators (one for the heroine, one for the love interest's chapters). The heroine's narrator was way over the top, giving the voice a cartoonish quality. The main character is already kind of obnoxious, and this only intensified it. Our protagonist is of the Chaotic&Quirky variety, with the banter that never stops and is never really clever either. The chapters narrated by the love interest were also terrible, as they were given in a report-format. This led to a very dry recitation, constantly interrupted by footnotes that were called out by the narrator saying "Footnote: ..." If you are going to read this book, don't listen to the audiobook.

The next thing that bothered me was the technobabble. I do not expect perfect science in my scifi, and I think scifi can be more fun when it doesn't get hung up on what is currently proven. However, if a science fact is presented it should at least not be blatantly wrong. Even in just the first few chapters, this book was already riddled with characters confidently saying "facts" about physics that are in direct contradiction to how physics actually works (yes, mass still matters, even in outer space).

Also, a romance needs to be more than characters ogling each other, which is what this one felt like. Of course, with our heroine annoyingly yammering the whole time.

Thanks to Netgalley and Dreamscape Lore for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

The protagonist of the book is annoying, frustratingly stupid, and passive. I love the vibe of the setting, exploring the Harlem Renaissance in 1920s New York, especially the jazz and queer communities. However, my love for the vibrant setting could not overpower the dull narrator. I hated this book.

This book also has disappointingly little Nightingale content. Heartbreaking for me.

Thanks to Netgalley and Subterranean Press for a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

I love our new narrator. I love the mystery plot of this one. I love the slow romance.

I also want to praise the technobabble in this novel. Yes, it's taking about 5-D wormholes. But (and I'm saying this as an engineer), the engineers talk like engineers, and the words they say make sense and convey the concepts clearly. Honestly, the technobabble in this series is the best I've ever encountered. Not too much or too technical for someone who doesn't care. But also accurate and enlightening enough to explain it to someone who does care, like me. Obviously some research and actual science went into it.

I love the way this blends military action and building friendships and camaraderie

Let's start with the good things, then the bad.

THE GOOD:
- I love the setting and genre mashup of this book! It's a Fantasy Western and it's done so well. It's positioned in a frontier town and the nearby magic creepy cave system
- The characters come from diverse backgrounds, helping each feel distinct and interesting

THE BAD:
- This book is very boring. The scenes/lines/character reactions are highly repetitive, making them quickly get bland even if the setting is very cool
- Some of the twists of this book are intriguing, but they come too late (yes, even the ones only a few chapters in). If the information had been shared earlier, maybe I would have cared more
- All the protagonists are painfully stupid. I am all for the OCCASIONAL entertainingly poor decision to up the stakes. However, this constant foolishness all the time made our heroes a chore to follow
- Nearly every meeting between our protagonists feels like a meet-cute. And then? Nothing happens? No romance? No further flirting? I felt consistently gaslit by this book

One of the most disappointing things is that I adore this author's work generally, just not this novel specifically. And I was so looking forward to it