Deception Island Futuristic Fantasy, Romance
The Wild Rose Press, Inc.
March 25, 2015
302
While at an archaeology dig in Afghanistan, evolutionary anthropologist Rachel St. Claire discovers a pendant with strange shifting symbols. Not long after, she receives an urgent call from her colleague, Dr. Grace McAllister, insisting Rachel come to Antarctica to examine an unusual body with ethereal properties found in an ice cave.
Before Rachel can respond, bandits storm the desert dig site. Just as they are about to seize Rachel, a helicopter appears with Trevor Brookenridge, a handsome polar geophysicist sent by his Aunt Grace to bring Rachel to Antarctica. Sparks fly, but Rachel already has a fiancé. Rachel must decide who she can trust when a group of bioterrorists engaged in secret genetic experiments in an abandoned World War II Nazi base under the Antarctic ice sheet come after the pendant--and her.
For it seems everyone knows a secret Rachel does not, one which will change her life forever.
Available at Amazon.
Reviewed by Sylvia Reddom
Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team
The first ten pages had me a bit spellbound! It kept drawing me in further and further until the International settings, history and the hint of travel trapped me there. The heroine Rachel and her professional work drag us from Afghanistan to the deep Antarctic. Now I was hooked, having travelled there myself. The descriptions are fantastic, based on nature and the futurist development there.
Throw in magical pendants, frozen bodies, navy and wild seals, scientists and locals and you will get a feel for some of the characters in the book. Rachel gets involved in a romantic triangle but her curiosity and her potential new love of her life Trevor (and his Aunt Grace) keep drawing her further into a deep mystery she has no way of knowing if she will come through or not. The romance side gives way to historical secrets, some sci-fi thrown in for good measure and Nazis influences all over the place. The humanness of the trails of Rachel, natural conflicts between professionalism and personal needs come forward.
I felt at times this book is a bit like a Nancy Drew mystery for grown-ups (I loved the Nancy Drew mysteries coincidentally as a kid). At times Rachel seemed a bit too self-centred, I would relish more in-depth parts on her supposed world renowned techniques in her work as scientist and the SCI-FI parts were a bit too far reaching for my personal taste.
The ending was a bit of a surprise, but the book is full of twist and turns to help get you there. I liked the Canadian connection too! At the best of times, it is a tough job to weld together present times with history, true deep romance with professionalism, suspense and Sci-Fi, but this author does a pretty credible job.
Be prepared to throw your own limitations out the window and allow your heart to go all in and call on your deepest imagination to go wild. Deception Island awaits and I am hoping there will be a sequel set in equally wonderful places!