Digging Up Love (Taste of Love)

Alisha gets stuck in small town Illinois looking after her grandparents, when all she really wants to do is move to Chicago and open her own bakery. Quentin is a paleontologist and university professor whose family doesn’t respect his career. The two intersect when Alisha’s grandparents unearth a gigantic bone on their property while digging out a pool. It’s attraction at first sight, but the road to true love never did run smooth.

The premise of this book is fantastic. The romance genre is sorely lacking in paleontologist love interests, so this had new and fresh written all over it. Plus BIPOC characters? Even better!

Unfortunately, that awesome setup was quickly mired in abundant awkward details in the prose. For example, “He pulled his full lips to the side, gaze unfocused, clearly deep in thought. Then he dropped those striking eyes to the ground and stood up, rubbing a hand absently along his chiseled jaw.” There are many other longer descriptions of the character’s movements that really slowed down the narrative and made it hard to stay focused on the action.

If you’re a fan of a lot of description in your reading, this may very well be the romance novel for you. If you prefer a fast pace and less detail of how people are moving in every interaction, you may be disappointed by this one.