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