Digging Up Love by Chandra Blumberg

Welcome Back, Booklovers! I was in the mood for romance this week and I'd been hype about Digging Up Love since the cover reveal. That cover design with the cake with the bones in it is perfection along with the muscular heroine depicted. And a paleontologist male main character is very different. And I was able to receive a copy from Amazon Publishing for review!

Digging Up Love follows Alisha Blake a baker who works in her grandfather's rural Illinois BBQ restaurant. Quentin Harris is a paleontologist and a professor in Chicago. Their paths cross when dinosaur bones are discovered in Alisha's grandparent's backyard during renovations. 

Alisha and Quentin do have great chemistry and at first I was enjoying this story. I found their meet cute to be really cute. I liked how they interacted with each other through text messages. I actually wish the book was steamy though their were little moments of teasing and clear sexual attraction. Quentin's job as a paleontologist was fascinating and I enjoyed learning about it the same way I enjoyed reading about the delicious treats Alisha baked. Alisha is also a power lifter which was cool though not much was done with it but Quentin liked how strong and powerful she was. And their museum date was swoon!

I'll admit I went in thinking it would be one thing and got something else. The cover was giving me Black love but when I was reading Alisha's POV she was giving me old white woman with the expressions she used. Then shortly into the book we find out she's biracial and was raised by her white grandparents. Okay makes sense. 

Quentin was also biracial though I'm not sure if it was actually acknowledged. The cover has a dark skinned man but Alisha's friend describes him as a Steph Curry look alike. And then later down the line in the book his mother calls him mijo and cooks Mexican dishes for a family dinner. But I can't recall it being brought up even when they were discussing race. Which was odd. I would've actually them to actually discuss that because this story was padded enough with more mundane details. As much as I talk about I don't like solely focusing marketing a book by the identities of it's characters I do like knowing their identities going in. And I'm sure people who are of similar backgrounds to the characters in this story would've liked to know this book has that representation.

Race did play a factor in this story which I wish I would've been prepared for. The town is lily white with Alisha and her sister Simone being the only non white people in town. And one of the reasons why Alisha is desperate to leave is because she's so ostracized. Even though she and her sister have lived there for years some folks still don't know how to act around them. I don't even understand why her sister misses the small town life since per Alisha it sounds awful! Those sections were particularly painful after awhile because it was clear Alisha had a lot of issues that she didn't even discuss with her sister let alone grandparents. And then there were all the feelings she had bottled up over her parents. 

The biggest downfall for this book to me was that it had too much miscommunication drama. All the problems in this book could've easily been solved if everyone sat down and had an actual conversation. But Quentin and Alisha don't know how to effectively communicate with their parents or each other. It was so frustrating to me how Alisha has these dreams of being a baker and wants to move to Chicago and has for 7 years but won't talk to her grandparents about it. She and her grandmother seem quite close to so it didn't make sense. Quentin spends the entire book whining about how his father doesn't respect his job even though it's a damn good job when he could just actually have a conversation with him while having his siblings and mother back him up. 

This book also could've been much shorter because it just didn't feel like enough plot to have it go on for so many pages and their relationship started being overshadowed by the cyclical conflict which really wasn't enough to sustain the story. There is a sequel with the sister, Simone releasing later this year but this town also wasn't charming enough for me to want to return to it. I do think the author has potential with a tighter plot and less purple prose.