Rachel Grant (1)

This romantic suspense title is the ninth in the Evidence series. Hazel MacLeod is a forensic anthropologist who is suffering from PTSD after working in Europe uncovering evidence of genocide. She is back in the States and living temporarily with her cousin who is a US Senator.

When her cousin's wife discovers a bone dump in the bed of a man-made lake that has been drawn down for some dam repair, she calls in Hazel who agrees to take the new case despite her PTSD.

Unknown to her, her cousin has been receiving threats and one looks like it is aimed at Hazel. So her cousin assigns Sean Logan to be Hazel's bodyguard not knowing that Hazel has a major crush on him and bad memories from his rejection of her advances the last time they met.

Sean his issues too. He has always lusted after Hazel but the fact that she's his boss's cousin and that he's always been working when they met has kept him from pursuing any sort of relationship. Add in that he's black and she's white just to complicate things further.

When the threat looks like it is going to last for a while, Sean needs to bring Hazel along to a wedding where he's best man and they need convince everyone in attendance that they have begun a new romance. Since those in attendance are either his close friends or her close friends and family, this need to lie and pretend puts a lot of pressure on both of them.

This was an engaging story with lots of danger and some really spicy love scenes. I enjoyed it. And, even though I haven't read the whole series, I had no trouble catching on to the various characters and their relationships. It stood alone quite well for me.… (altro)

Isabel Dawson is working on her Ph.D. in Archaeology and also working on trying to find out about Raptor, a military training center in Alaska, because her only family, her brother Vin died there in what was said to be an accident.

Isabel isn't buying their explanations. She has managed to get the training center shut down temporarily for safety violations which is really irritating to Raptor CEI Alec Ravissant. They multimillionaire is running for the Senate for the state of Maryland and doesn't need the bad publicity.

When Isabel stumbles upon an injured Alec while exploring Raptor land - despite a restraining order against her - she manages to save his life. However, when he comes to, he attacks her and has her arrested. But when they finally get a chance to talk, Isabel manages to convince Alec that there is something hinky going on at Raptor and the two begin to investigate.

They also fall in love which might be an even bigger problem than dealing with a secret weapon with considerable power and appeal to any third world dictator with dreams of conquest. After being orphaned at fourteen, Isabel was taken in by her older brother Vin who joined the service to support them both. She hasn't lived anywhere for more than six months and has long ago given up any thought of making friends. Alec was born rich, graduated from Harvard, and was on track for a career in politics before he joined the Army and became a Ranger out of a strong desire to serve.

Alec is out of the military and beginning his political career which seems to leave no place for a nomad like Isabel. But the problems at Raptor in Alaska could derail his political hopes even if they do find answers for Isabel about her brother Vin's death.

The story was filled with action - and some quite steamy love scenes. Nicol Zanzarella did a great job narrating the story.… (altro)