Review & Giveaway ~*~ Concrete Evidence by Rachel Grant

Blurb ~*~

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 ~*~

Lee smiled. The man had completely ignored him. It was as if the title “intern” was an invisibility cloak. Maybe he could actually pull this off. He poured the freshly brewed coffee into two mugs and handed her one. “Who was that?”

“He’s an engineer. He manages our Iraq projects.”

Just the segue he was aiming for. “Talon & Drake has projects in Iraq?”

Erica looked at him quizzically. “Don’t you read the paper?”

“I’m a student. I don’t have time to read.”

“Didn’t you even Google Talon & Drake before you accepted the internship?”

Excellent. Nothing said incompetent quite like the inability to use Google. “It didn’t occur to me.”

She rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Talon & Drake has been in the news a lot lately. For several reasons, but mostly because Senator Joseph Talon—you do know who Senator Talon is, don’t you?”

Better than you’d imagine. “Yes.” He put insult and exasperation into the single word.

“Then you know he’s all but announced he’s running for president.”

“Is he a Democrat or a Republican?” Playing dumb was easy. Too easy.

“And to think your uninformed vote is worth the same as mine,” she muttered.

He wondered how she’d react if she knew he could recite the senator’s voting record.

She took a sip of coffee, then cradled her mug in her hands and stared at him over the rim. “If you’re going to work here, there are a few basic facts you should know. Starting with, one: Senator Talon owns Talon & Drake.”

The exact ownership and management of Talon & Drake had been combed through and nitpicked in the papers for weeks, and her one-sentence summation was vastly inadequate. “What about Drake?” he asked, just to needle her.

Her brow furrowed in exasperation. Mission accomplished.

3 Star Review ~*~

Concrete Evidence is a well done story that while I would recommend to anyone interested in a contemporary romantic suspense with a bit of history, it just didn't strike the wow cord for me to rate it higher. 

Erica is a woman who has faced her share of trouble in the past with a few bad decisions on who to work with.  These decisions have haunted her and could still possibly destroy her career. Still wanting to do what she loves, she has concealed her past to an extent, taken a new job, and trying to clear her name while doing what she loves.  She is frustrated when saddled with an intern who is too good looking and lazy for her tastes.  But, in all reality Lee is there for other purposes that are not on the up and up. 

Lee & Erica are good together.  They are both very intelligent and driven individuals that are strong and independent.  They come together with sparks that make them each reevaluate their lives and thoughts on various situations.  Concrete Evidence has romance, suspense, and a lot of plot twists.  I think some are too contrived and feel forced in the story, and at times it feels like just too many twists and turns.  I do recommend it and I am looking forward to see what else Rachel Grant has coming out in the future.  She shows a lot of promise as a new author and is one to watch. 

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

Buy Links:

Amazon | Kobo |


Giveaway ~*~

Rachel will be awarding a very special deck of cards issued by the Department of Defense to one randomly drawn commenter. Information on the cards is on her website: http://rachel-grant.net.

  

Follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here: http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2013/04/review-tour-concrete-evidence-by-rachel.html