False Flag

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review

Jake stood at the foot of his bed, a bemused look on his face. “Please tell me you aren’t armed this time.” She hesitated for just a moment, then dropped the towel, raising her hands high. “As you can see, no weapons.” “That’s debatable.” Jake’s voice came out hoarse.

Rachel Grant is back with book four in the Evidence: Under Fire series and it contained all the action, history, and hotness that I've discovered are hallmarks of her storytelling. If you've been reading the series you'll remember Staci, this starts off with her having a sparking moment with a guy named Jake she meets at a pseudo-archaeology podcaster's dinner that she's semi-undercover at, she shuts down anything before it can really get started. Jake's there to try and repair a very strained relationship with his older brother and not an active listener, so he crashes and burns when he tries to impress, the unbeknownst to him, phd student working to show how and why pseudoscientists spread disinformation. When they meet again five months later, the attraction is still there and they'll get an opportunity to explore it when Staci gets picked to join the podcaster's archaeological expedition team and Jake, a Navy SEAL, gets sent in undercover to discover how a billionaire, podcaster, and the Vice President of the United States are entwined.

While exposing him was a goal and even the main benefit, she was also doing it for science.

You could easily pick this up without reading the series, you'd miss some friendship connections and maybe start off a little confused how Navy SEALS and a group called the Friday Morning Valkyries, archaeologists and intelligence agents working to covertly protect archaeological sites and stop artifact looting and trafficking, are all connected but there's just enough rehashing to get new readers caught up. The secondary characters work great as emotional touchstones and series baiting, I need Vickie and Teague's book now. As with most of Grant's stories, there's intricate and complex suspense story weaving; sometimes I think there are too many moving parts but I'm not sure what I could say to take out, you just need to be ready to lock-in when your're reading.

She could hear him whispering her name now, feel his lips trailing on her skin.

This had open-door hotness and I liked the chemistry between Staci and Jake. I thought it took a little while to get Jake's character going because of the front heavy story setting up but Staci was an interesting enough character to carry the load and then with Jake's familial drama coming in, we get good emotional investment from him. The villains were timely with their evilness, making it easy to root for Staci to give readers a living vicariously through her to enjoy some joy revenge. I just really enjoy this series' world Grant has created, for romantic suspense, it's one of the best going right now. I mean, where else can you get believable danger, Pig War(!!!)mention, citogenesis explaining, and a devious paintball war kiss.