Review: CRASH SITE, by Rachel Grant

When I finished the first book in this series I wondered why was I left with a great thriller but an unsolved romantic theme. I needed Dean and Fiona to have their happy ending, now! So although I've never asked for a book in NetGalley, I took this one, as it was in Read Now.

Archaeologist Fiona Carver has returned to her job for the Navy. But, nine months after what happened in Alaska, she seizes the opportunity to do a private job on a Caribbean island. Her task is part of a larger project that includes making a documentary. There's a whole lot of characters related to that filming, in addition to others more focused on historical analysis.

Unbeknownst to Fiona, Dean Slater is also hired, the rich and handsome wildlife photographer she fell in love with and hasn't seen in all these months.

This is a novel of "second chances." They could not be together because Dean didn’t want to have a relationship. They have not seen each other for nearly a year. But now they are together in this Caribbean job. They renew the physical and emotional attraction between them. This is a romance novel, so you have to see how their happy ending is posible, Dean has to change for that.

I think the relationship between them is what I liked the most of this book. And it was quite interesting the final part of the suspense. I wouldn’t say that there is much intrigue or surprises, or unexpected twists, but there’s a lot of action, and it’s quite clever the way she gets out of the mess they are in.

It is one of those novels that I call ‘catenary type’: strong at the beginning and at the end, but tracing a downward curve from the beginning to the middle, and then going back up from that midpoint, which is the one with the lowest interest.

I think it is because of the many secondary characters, and they have to be presented, who they are, so that you understand later the role of each one when the action arrives in the second part.

The setting in a tropical island is less interesting than the frigid Aleutians on Dangerous ground. For instance, the first two novels of the anthology Dangerous as sin –Poison evidence and Colder than sin- have precisely that kind of environment.

In short: Dangerous ground was a three stars novel, 4 the suspense and 2 the romance. Crash site is also three stars but for the opposite reasons: 4 the romance and 2 the suspense.

I think it could be a standalone, but it’s better if you read both novels. I wish she had written just one book, with the suspenseful part of the first one and the romance of the second.

Personal rating: good, 3 stars