In Badlands Bride, Adrianne Wood (Mind Tricks) takes readers off the beaten path and on an entertaining romantic adventure.
Mason Donnelly is the best journalist on the frontier, but he hasn't landed a scoop in months and hopes his investigation of a Badlands fossil dig will help. His reporter's instinct tells Mason there's more to the dig than dinosaurs, but no one is talking, not even gorgeous and demanding heiress Lily Highfill.
Lily's spent several years exiled to Denver by her mother, who finds Lily's spirit embarrassing. With a return to Boston looming, Lily joins her grandfather and almost-fiancé on a fossil dig as a sketch artist. Rakish Mason initially piques her temper, but soon he's indulging her in a put-on flirtation to rouse her aloof beau's jealousy. As their flirtation turns serious, the paleontologists strike sapphires, and Lily knows she must convince Mason to leave before he learns of the find. A newspaper article about a cache of gemstones would ruin the dino dig altogether. But how can she turn him away when he's captured her heart?
The out-of-the-ordinary setting adds an extra dimension to Wood's traditional strife-turns-to-passion plot. Although the lovers' initial meeting is explosively snarky, Wood builds their relationship in a wholly believable fashion, and her decision to pair Lily with the penniless but gallant journalist rather than attempting to find redemption for the rich but unworthy suitor is endearing. Western romance fans should give this change of pace a try. --Jaclyn Fulwood, youth services manager at Latah County Library District and blogger at Infinite Reads