Superstition Shadows

Rating:
Summary: More adventures for modern amazons
Review: PJ Curtis, educated as an archeologist but with a larger reputation in the wealthy jet set crowd, seeks to improve her professional standing by joining a dig that her father is financing. The chief archeologist Dr. Kim Blair has been on the trail of a lost tribe of Amazons for most of her professional life and feels on the verge of a big discovery. The last thing she needs is a playgirl disrupting the smooth operations of her dig. Set in the Superstition Mountains of Arizona, this story ranges from the meticulous work of an archeological site to hunches inspired by dreams and some surprising connections to an ancient past. Sparks fly when Kim and PJ meet but soon they are working together at a professional level, and then caring for each other in a surprisingly personal way. In fact PJ would like to get even more personal, but Kim's obsession with her Amazons, and then her reluctance to take on the risks of intimacy make this more challenging than expected. And frustrating to one so used to immediate gratification...

All the while, the Superstition Mountains hide and reveal their secrets in their own time.

This story gave me a good feel for working in a small archeological dig in a hot climate! Some nitty gritty detail to go with the excitement of discovery.

Rating:
Summary: Love among the ruins?
Review: There's love, but not many ruins, at least at the beginning of the story. There's plenty of dust at times, and some lust, too, but not enough to qualify as the theme of the story. Instead there are two people, both women archaeologists as it happens, who come together under somewhat pressured circumstances. Dr. Kimberly Blair, well known and respected in her field, has taken the chance offered by the sponsorship of a wealthy eastern businessman to pursue what seems to be an impossible dream.
Dr. Priscilla Josephine Curtis is the beautiful daughter of the wealthy businessman ,and has her own PhD in archaeology, but is far better known for following a flamboyant jet setter lifestyle of conspicuous consumption and casual affairs.
The serious inspired academic vs the dilletant? The story is more than that as the characters are richer than the above brief characterizations. The setting of the story, too, in the Superstition Mountains of Arizona makes an especially effective background. Humans are but shadows on the land compared to mountain ranges, yet the shadows within ourselves can have powerful effects on the way we lead our lives.
Looming mountains, shadows, academics....sounds grim. The story is far from that! A wonderful sense of humor shows itself throughout the story rounding out the characters making them people you can care about and wonder about, too.