The Spice King {Book Review}

Gray Delacroix has dedicated his life to building a successful global spice empire, but it has come at a cost. Tasked with gaining access to the private Delacroix plant collection, Smithsonian botanist Annabelle Larkin unwittingly steps into a web of dangerous political intrigue and will be forced to choose between her heart and her loyalty to her country.

Liked: I really thought that the idea behind this book was really cool. You had a little bit of everything. Political intrigue. Check. Trying to expose the food industry. Check. Romance. Check. (I'll talk about this a little later). I really enjoyed how there were little all these miny sub-plots going on at the same time and they all flowed seamlessly into each other which was very nice.

Liked: I thought that all those informational tidbits we were given about the food industry a couple years after the Civil War was really interesting! Like, at that time, they were already substituting real ingredients for artificial. And while it wasn't like today, that was really cool to find out about.

Disliked: So, *hem* y'all know that I am a HUGE romance lover. You say romance, I'm there. Unfortunately, this romance has to get a pass from me. Annabelle and Gray meet ONCE (they do exchange a couple letters first but STILL), and then Gray is like, "Hm, I should get married. That one chick that I met that one team really seems cool. TIME TO INVITE HER TO MY PRIVATE ISLAND AND SHOW HER STUFF I DON'T NORMALLY SHOW STRANGERS CAUSE SHE WORKS FOR SOMETHING I DONT LIKE BUT OH WELL SHE WAS PWETTY". That really just was like, eh, no thanks. The beginning of their romance feels really forced? Like, sure, at their initial meeting there are those sparks but they should be developed further before you decide TO COURT HER. I didn't root for the romance till the end and usually they make eye contact and I'm like, "Y'all are gonna have beautiful children someday".

Disliked: The characters in this book were a little iffy for me. For example, I felt like Gray had two emotions: Softy and vulnerable, or judgy and angry. I kinda liked Annabelle, but sometimes I was like, "Sweetie no". I think Camden was trying to make Maude that character that is really down to earth and relatable, and she was at some points, but the whole thing with Elaine's wedding didn't really strike me as something a mother would do? And then I had a bunch of problems with other characters. I kinda liked Luke though.

Liked: I liked the ending haha. That might have been because I get really invested in books whether I liked them or not but THAT ENDING WAS GOOOD. I was gonna give this book two stars but that ending saved it.

So I had a really hard time getting into this one. If you follow me on Goodreads (which you should :P), you might have seen some of my updates where I said how I was enjoying the writing, but having a hard time getting into it. I was on page 292 of a 344-page book before I was really like, "Now I'm into it". I might have DNFed it if I didn't have to give a review and the fact that I like to finish all books I start unless I really HATE them or they have content that I really disagree with.

But to be honest, the fact that I struggled to get really invested in this book isn't really surprising? I've read two other books by Camden and one I was really meh on and the other one I hateddddd. So Camden's books are kinda a hit or miss for me. This one was a meh.

I can't remember the exact wording, but there is a mention of a guy playing around with girls skirts in the sense that he well....yeah.

A character goes to prison.

This is going to have to be a 3 stars from me. Like I said earlier, it was going to be 2 because I just could not get into it, but that ending saved it.

I would recommend this to people maybe 12+

I received a free copy of this book from Bethany House in exchange for my honest opinion.

Have you read anything by Camden? Are you interested in this book? What was the last book that was a 'meh' for you?