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Genre: Inspirational, Romantic Suspense, Romance

This RITA® Reader Challenge 2015 review was written by Tealadytoo. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Romantic Suspense category.

The summary:

BONES OF CONTENTION

When skeletal remains are found on a small Maine island, forensic anthropologist Lydia Muir is sent to investigate. It’s Lydia’s job to determine whether the homicide happened long ago—or more recently. Island sheriff Wesley Grant seems sure the murder didn’t happen on his watch. But when Lydia uncovers the victim’s identity, someone goes to great lengths to get Lydia off the island. Wes vows to protect her, but is the handsome lawman holding something back? To help catch a killer, she’ll have to trust him—or become the next victim.

Here is Tealadytoo's review:

Grave Danger is the second book in Katy Lee’s Stepping Stones Island series, set one an island off the coast of Maine. The hero is the island’s Sherriff, Wesley Grant, and the heroine is forensic anthropologist Lydia Muir who is sent to the island to evaluate a skeleton found buried on the beach.

This books is billed as Inspirational Romantic Suspense. It works fairly well on the suspense level. There is a complex plot involving murder and a smuggled ruby. Old crimes and betrayal by an old love haunt our hero. Our heroine is struggling to establish herself in her career and goes to great lengths to uncover the truth. All good.

On the romance level, it’s less successful. We are told the h and H are attracted to each other, but it seems unconvincing to me. They have very little in common, distrust each other for most of the book, and have about as much spark as a bowl of tapioca pudding.

On the inspirational level, it’s bad. I enjoy inspirational novels when they are well written. The hallmark of a well written inspirational is that the faith aspects flow naturally from the characters as drawn. Ms. Lee never convinces me that the heroine is a real person with an authentic faith. Lydia never convinces me. She announces her faith in lecture mode at a totally inappropriate moment. Then seems to forget it except for spontaneous, “God, save me!” prayers when dangerous things happen for most of the middle of the book. Then at the end, we are back in lecture mode as we resolve the romantic elements. It’s all quite awkward.

Because the mystery was interesting, I didn’t have any trouble finishing it, but on the whole, the book left me flat. Ms. Lee has a very good way with a plot, but needs to work on the emotional side of her characters, be those emotions based in faith or in love.