Book Review: Fossil Feud
Fossil Feud
By Maggie North
If you are a fan of the romantic tension in Jurassic Park or The X-Files, I bet you will love the smoldering, slow-burn romance in Fossil Feud as the hot summer days in Montana on a paleontology dig get even hotter when two rival paleontologists finally decide to team up and uncover a fossil fraud.
Expert paleontologist Ripley Adams made the best of a bad situation when she had to leave academia, She became a citizen scientist, but she does have to sell the fossils she finds to the highest bidder. She doesn’t want anything to do with the men of academia who betrayed her, like Will Cole, the ex who stole her work, and her dissertation advisor, who didn’t trust her. In the past, as a last-ditch effort, she asked British heartthrob and Oxford professor James Smithson for a role in his research lab and he turned her down. Therefore, the last person she expects to see riding a white horse toward her on a dusty Montana afternoon is Smithson.
Ripley and her team at Clever Girl fossils are working under the radar and that is exactly how Ripley likes it. She doesn’t need anyone else trying to steal her ideas OR her fossils. She’s working on an awesome discovery of a potential bird fossil, which might be the link between the last dinosaur on the ground and the first dino who flew, with feathers, as a bird.
Yellowtail Ranch is indigenous-owned, and Ripley has built trust and partnerships with her mentee Cara and the matriarch of the ranch. She only wants to do things the ethical way, unlike some of her colleagues. Cara and her family are depending on her to help them make their ranch and fossil museum profitable. Ripley is also trying to sell the coracoid wing/bird fossil to a billionaire so she can help with her dad’s cancer treatment and medical bills. The stakes are high by the time Smithson enters the picture.
James Smithson is the academic rival who Ripley loves to hate, but she must admit she still has a crush on him, even though they’ve only met once. When James finds her fossil excavation site, he needs her help and seems to respect her expertise. Ripley’s ex-boyfriend Will is up to no good again. Trying to steal authorship of her groundbreaking Nature article wasn’t enough; now he is shopping around and writing abstracts about a bird-like skeleton that is eerily similar to her unique find. If Will’s fossils are authentic, her skeleton might be worthless.
A Rivals-to-Lovers, Slow-Burn Romance
At first, Ripley isn’t willing to work with James, but once she finds out that her funder has pulled out in favor of Will’s fossil, she realizes that she too needs James’ Smithson’s help. James is in charge of the funding, and Ripley is in charge of the digging. But the more she gets to know him, the more he realizes that James is not just a standoffish, coldhearted professor. He kept his distance because of how much he cared about her, and now he’s determined to do anything he can to make things right.
My Thoughts
If Henry Cavill were a British paleontologist, he would probably look at lot like Smithson. I liked how the romance unfurled over several weeks, not just insta-love. James shares his love of artwork, and Ripley shares why her work matters so much to her. Over the course of several weeks of working together, road trips, forced proximity, and even spending a night in the museum together, the sparks fly.
The banter was elite. The spice was spicy yet romantic. Dear Reader, you should pick up Fossil Feud if you want to read a rivals-to-lovers romance that has realistic stakes and two protagonists who respect each other’s expertise, who are also falling in love in a sweet, smart, sexy way.
Thank you to Ballantine, Dell, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
