Virtual Review Tour & Giveaway - Concrete Evidence by Rachel Grant

Welcome to my stop on the Review Tour for Concrete Evidence by Rachel Grant.  Please leave a comment or question for Rachel below to let her know you stopped by.  Rachel will be awarding a special deck of cards issued by the Department of Defense to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour. You can follow her tour here, the more often you comment, the better your odds of winning.  

CONCRETE EVIDENCE

By Rachel Grant

Publisher:  Rachel Grant

Release Date: April 11, 2013

Genre:  Romantic Suspense

Buy Links:  Amazon │B&N │Kobo

Book Description: 

A year ago she lost everything.  Now she wants revenge…

Accused of stealing artifacts from a five-hundred-year-old shipwreck, underwater archaeologist Erica Kesling is determined to clear her name. She’s concealed her past and taken a job certain to give her access to the buyer of the missing antiquities. She's finally closing in on her goal when she's distracted by a sexy, charismatic intern who makes her want something other than revenge. 

But Lee Scott is no intern. He's looking for the lead conspirator in an international artifact smuggling scheme, and Erica is his prime suspect.  He’ll do whatever it takes to win her trust and get her to reveal her secrets, even seduce her. 

As Erica and Lee struggle to conceal their real agendas, the one thing they can’t hide is the attraction that burns hot between them.  When Erica’s quest puts her life in jeopardy, Lee must choose between old loyalties and a woman he never expected to fall for.

EXCERPT

In the corridor heading toward their office, anxiety slowed Erica’s pace. She wasn’t sure if she was nervous about her upcoming confession to Janice or what she wanted to ask Lee, but she brushed her fear aside. “You know JT Talon,” she said, keeping her voice casual.

“We’ve met.”

“You know him better than that.”

He shrugged.

Dammit, she wanted to know how well he knew the man. “Do we have more nepotism?”

“Is it really nepotism when you’re given the lowest job with the lowest pay?” he asked.

“It is when you’re getting paid to play Tetris.”

“The Thermo-Con searches were boring.”

She turned on her heel to face him. He stopped just short of crashing into her, and she patted his cheek. “Poor baby,” she said in a sarcastic imitation of a motherly voice. “I’m sorry your work was so taxing. Maybe after you finish your computer game, you should take a nap.”

He covered her hand with his own, rubbing her palm against the stubble he hadn’t bothered to shave. His green eyes fixed on hers, and his mouth curved in an alluring half smile. “Only if you take one with me.”

She rolled her eyes. She’d give him grief for hitting on her again, but she was the one who’d stepped close and touched him. The air thickened as his intense gaze ensnared her. Gone was the feckless intern; in his place was a compelling man she wanted to know.

She heard footsteps, breaking the spell. She tried to pull her hand away, but Lee gripped her fingers tighter.

“Well, well, well,” a familiar voice said. “If it isn’t my favorite…Cream Puff.”

She ripped her hand from Lee’s and whipped around. The last time she’d seen Jake, she’d been locked in a stinking Mexican jail cell.

AUTHOR INFORMATION:

Rachel Grant worked for over a decade as a professional archaeologist and mines her experiences for storylines and settings, which are as diverse as excavating a cemetery underneath an historic art museum in San Francisco; surveying a coal mining town in Kentucky; and mapping a seventeenth century Spanish and Dutch fort on the island of Sint Maarten in the Netherlands Antilles. Rachel is a four-time Golden Heart® finalist and can be found on the web at Rachel-Grant.net.

Links:

Web | Blog | Twitter | Facebook

My Review

Betrayal, blackmail and deception take center stage in Rachel Grant’s romantic suspense, Concrete Evidence. Well developed characters, good dialogue, and just the right amount of romance kept me turning the pages to discover what was going to happen next. Employing a contemporary setting, Ms. Grant showcases her knowledge and research about today’s techniques and challenges facing archaeological digs.

Trying to restore her professional reputation, archaeologist Erica Kesling is currently working at Talon and Drake conducting environmental studies. Talking her boss into letting her work on a new project that will get her closer to the evidence she seeks, Erica is saddled with a brand new intern. Adding additional stress, Erica finds herself dealing with family issues and receives threatening emails from the person who damaged her reputation.

Going undercover to help his family by capturing a smuggler using Talon and Drake as a cover, Lee Scott has to pretend he’s rich, spoiled, and a professional student. Suspicious of Erica from the start, Lee manages to get assigned as her new intern. Determined to learn all of her secrets, Lee is surprised to discover she’s not exactly what he expected.

The scenes between Erica and Lee are well written and a lot of fun; full of sharp dialogue, physical chemistry and sexual attraction, both Erica and Lee know they shouldn’t get involved outside of their work. Unfortunately, they just can’t seem to avoid the attraction. Ms. Grant does a good job developing both Erica and Lee’s characters throughout all of their scenes. While we know all the secrets about who they are and what they’re doing; the emotional and romantic payoff when their secrets are revealed is well worth the wait.

Will Erica’s past come back to haunt her in ways she didn’t expect? Will she ever be able to clear her name? And will Lee discover the real identity of the smuggler and be able to save his family’s business reputation? You’ll have to read Concrete Evidence to find out. I really enjoyed it and look forward to reading more of Ms. Grant’s work.


My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Stars

FTC Disclosure:  I received a complimentary copy of this book as a part of a book tour in exchange for a fair and honest review.  I did not receive any additional compensation for my opinion of the material I was provided.

Don't forget to leave a comment or question for Rachel below to let her know you stopped by.  Rachel will be awarding a special deck of cards issued by the Department of Defense to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour. You can follow her tour here, the more often you comment, the better your odds of winning.