content warnings: infant death, grief

For me, though again Dixon manages to write a different trope or situation than we've seen so far in the series, this one wasn't my jam. For the first time we get the romance of two aliens, no humans involved in the relationship--but this is a 'second chance' romance, and that's not a trope I enjoy.
I'm glad we got Asha's story, since she's been around and not particularly well-liked by previous main characters. For me personally, I had a hard time connecting to both/either Asha or Hemalo--the previous and ongoing miscommunication was annoying, and I've not experienced any level of parenting, and so could only sympathize with their grief.
I could really see how Asha not receiving the support she needed from either her partner nor her tribe lead to the behavioral changes of her "becoming prickly" and angry.
Hemalo didn't have much personality, so it was hard to root for him.
The subplot with the metlaks and taking care of that young one was interesting, but I'm still wondering what role the metlaks will play going forward, and especially in conjunction with the tribe of people we know and love.
The friendship that developed with Claire was nice, I was kinda bummed that Asha and Hemalo missed most of the hard work that Claire put in--especially since Claire's inclusion of Asha was to help Claire with the workload and to help Asha have a friend... so for Asha to not be around was a bummer. Plus, I think the celebratory environment would have been fun setting for a romance to develop, and have plenty of opportunities to easily world/culture build and insert humor too.