i thought the bits with roger and bree were good, after that it gets very bad. her pacing is generally awful, but it hits a new low in this book. you could cut 300 pages at least. the weird possessiveness between jaime and claire is weird and uncomfortable. but the biggest problem by far is how she uses the slave trade as part of the plot.

And yet I could not stand here, consenting by silence. It was not for the branded girls, the man on the block, nor for any of them that I did it; it was for myself.

like she's acting as if fighting the auctioneer is like her personal journey. sometimes... it's not about you!
and then in the next chapter:

The house had an actual bathtub in a small porch; wooden, but filled — mirabile dictu! — with hot water, by the good offices of two black slave women who heated kettles over a fire in the yard and carried them in. I should have felt much too guilty at this exploitation to enjoy my bath, but I didn’t.

BRUH WTF