Book: Dirty Gems by Anastasiya Serada
Reviewed by Nacole
Rating: 4/5
I want to give a big thank you to the author for gifting me this ARC copy of Dirty Gems! The following is my unbiased opinion.
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5
🔥🔥/5
No worries about waiting for a slow build up, this one kicks on the intensity in less than 5 pages! I do wish we could've gotten a bit more detail about Ada and Nick to make me feel more initially connected to them, since I didn’t quite feel invested in Ada or her story this early on. It did not take long for that to change, as the story built on itself very well. Despite being only 150 pages, this story has complexity that keeps developing until the end, with the layers upon layers of mystery and suspense (plus romantic tension obviously 😏). The stakes have never been higher for Ada, and not everyone is who she thinks they are.
Ada and Rafe are a great pairing, and they have more in common than they realize (which isn’t necessarily a good thing in this case). Ada’s character development is just so incredibly written. Her dilemma of whether to get justice for her brother or save the life of someone she barely knows is a great ending to her story. I love the side characters, and I would absolutely read a novella about a certain two (the year between ending and epilogue 👀?)
TLDR; Want to be thrown head-first into the deep end of a gem smuggling ring while trying to catch the man who killed your brother? Then this one is for you 💎