4.5!

Archaeologist Diana is currently in Jordan officially assisting in a dig with a Jordanian archaeologic site, unofficially she's a part of a team looking to make connections between artifact traffickers and terrorist group funding. When Diana is kidnapped for her expertise regarding ancient artifacts, she uncovers a bit too much.

Navy SEAL Chris Flyte is a part of the SEAL team sent to save Diana immediately after her abduction. However, when Diana mouths "Trust Me" to Chris before she appears to unwillingly but cooperatively follow her kidnappers, Chris is in for a long journey of figuring out if Diana is trustworthy, stupid, a traitor, or something else entirely...

I am a big fan of Rachel Grant and have enjoyed her Flashpoint series and her Fiona Carver duology. Prior to starting this ARC, I purchase the prequel and book 1 of the series (even though this definitely stood on its own). Trust Me and the series it's a part of "Evidence: Under Fire" is part of what appears to be a spin-off series from Grant's Evidence series which consists of 12 books that I haven't read. In Trust Me, there are a handful of Evidence characters that make side appearances that aren't required to know previously, as well as a few side characters from the Flashpoint series which I was pleasantly surprised to see.

Rachel Grant takes great care in having super complex plots and mysteries that her main characters need to solve and this is no different. Diana has a lot of smarts to her and is a strong and powerful woman who ends up getting into a terrible situation through no fault of her own. One piece to this plot that I didn't love, especially after reading book 1 of this series immediately before, was just how complicated this plot ended up being. Into the Storm (book 1) is a complex plot with a large number of moving pieces, but the setting largely takes place in one location and so the scope of the issue seems less crazy. Trust Me features a lot of location changes and almost too many strings that end up being pulled in the final reveals that I couldn't follow certain changes between chapters. I'm still not sure if there is a chapter that is in Diana's POV or a different character's POV since it's so short and purposely leaves ambiguity (which also makes sense for the moment but was super confusing while reading without knowing what the "good guys" were attempting).

Ultimately, still really loved the focus on the careers and the accuracies that Grant pours into her work as well as the general plot that our heroes were facing.

Well, this book is entirely responsible for me not getting enough sleep two nights in a row. As with every other Rachel Grant book I’ve read, Trust Me pulled me in and I was hardly able to shut my Kindle off because once the action starts in her novels it doesn’t let up until the very end.

Trust Me takes us to the Middle East where Dr. Diana Edwards is finishing up a short-term position in Jordan as a visiting archeologist. She’s also secretly part of a group that calls themselves the Friday Morning Valkyries whose purpose is to find - and stop - the looting of artifacts that are trafficked and sold to support terrorism. Just as her assignment is over and she’s about to head back to the US, she gets kidnapped and forced to work for the very people she’s trying to expose.

Once she’s rescued, she thinks she’s put the whole awful ordeal behind her. Except the US government doesn’t believe her account of what happened while she was held captive. Also, the bad guys may have followed her home. But never fear, hunky Navy SEAL Chris Flyte is there to help Diana figure out who is after her and protect her from danger that appears wherever they go!

There is SO MUCH I love about Rachel Grant’s books. The non-stop action. The smart, capable heroines and the supportive, manly heroes. The way there are twists and turns you don’t see coming. The romances between mature characters who treat each other with respect and manage their conflicts with maturity is also a huge plus. Romantic suspense is probably my favorite genre to read, but also the one I’m most picky about - I want equal amounts of romance and suspense (not a romance with suspense thrown in, not suspense with sex thrown in), and Rachel Grant delivers that every single time. The romance parts always make me swoon, and the suspense parts have me sitting on the edge of my seat while my heart pounds.

Did I know this book would cause me to lose sleep if I read it at night? Yes.
Did I do it anyway? Of course I did. And I’ll do it again with zero regrets.

* thank you to NetGalley and Janus Publishing for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Archaeologist Diana is kidnapped by terrorists while working in Jordan. They want her to find artefacts they can sell to fund their group.. She is reluctant to help them, even with her life at risk, until she sees a ghost. The organisation she works for is tasked with protecting the past and had trained her well before sending her to Jordan. When Navy Seals try to rescue her she thwarts their efforts in an attempt to reveal the location of one of the most wanted terrorists the world believes is already dead. Eventually the Seals are sent after her again, but things to not go entirely to plan and no one believes what Diana saw. Chris is one of the Seals sent after her, both times. He sees an amazing, strong, determined woman, but he is also not sure if her identification was correct. Diana returns home, only to be questioned on many fronts and possibly to face prosecution for her actions. She sees Chris again through mutual friends and the spark of attraction she felt during the rescue grows stronger. They spend one amazing night together, but it ends badly and Diana’s life is thrown in to turmoil. When she needs help she turns to Chris and a game of cat and mouse ensues. Luckily Chris and Diana have the right kind of friends to help in this situation. I loved how Chris overcame is suspicion and let Diana in and I loved their connection. I haven’t read the stories of the other characters who brought to story together, but will definitely look for them to read now. This was action packed, full of passion and kept my interest for the whole story.

I thought that this book had a good storyline and it was well developed and very well written too.

The characters had well developed personalities and they worked well together.

It was a good walk through the field of international prevention of archelogy and espionage and that gave me a good insight too and was a slightly different book from those that I would normally pick up, this one was one that was slightly out of my normal comfort zone.

The pace of the book was good but there was a little too much detail for me in places which detracted from the plot for me but overall it was a very well written and exciting book

It is 4 stars from me for this one – highly recommended!

I received an ARC copy from Netgalley for an honest review. This second book in Evidence Under Fire series from Rachel Grant has the same DNA and rhythm. I liked the story and the romance. But not as much as the first book..
I read Rachel Grant’s romantic suspense /military romance to find intelligence and high skilled heroines and again Rachel Grant delivered. Waiting for Rand and Kira’s HEA now.

Dianna is an archaeologist and is working in Jordan but that's not all she does. She's also part of Friday Morning Valkyiers, they protect artifacts and she's trying to stop a terrorist from taking the artifacts and selling them to pay for his terrorism. She is kidnapped and forced to identify some artifacts. SEALs are sent to rescue her but she convinces her abducteer to get away.
Chris is a Navy SEAL and is on the team sent to rescue Dianna. He is the one that could have saved her if she hadn't have went with the kidnapper. He is angry and thinks she's turned on her country. But then they find out the message she was sending to her bosses. She has seen the Four of Kings, a terrorist who is thought to be dead. They finally rescue her but the terrorist and artifacts she wad forced to dig up, is gone.
No one believes that she seen the dead terrorist. She meets up with Chris again and they have a one night stand because Chris says an insensitive thing to her and she leaves. When she is wanted to looting in Jordan and she keeps seeing one of her young kidnappers, she goes to Chris for help. Can they find the terrorist and save her from being killed or extradited?

I hope I didn't give anything away. Excellent story. A multiracial couple. Sex. Action. Suspense. Two heros. And second chance at love.

* Voluntarily read and reviewed for Netgalley*

Trust Me (Evidence: Under Fire, #2) by Rachel Grant
This is a fantastic edge of your seat book by Rachel Grant. Archaeologist Diana Edwards and Navy SEAL Chris Flyte are the perfect H/h - they are both so strong, they each have their own baggage and are able to be there for each other. There are wonderful friends and co-workers and some awful villains, some laughs and tears, lots of suspense and fear, and steam to get us to a HEA.
Reasons I enjoyed this book:
Romantic Action-packed Tragic Steamy Great world building Haunting Easy-to-read Wonderful characters Happily Ever After Unpredictable Scary Page-turner Entertaining Tear-jerker.

This is the second book in this series and I enjoyed them both very much. Navy seal Chris Flyte was in the first book and I was glad to see him get his story. Archaeologist Diana Edwards is kidnapped while she’s on a mission to stop artifact stealing. It’s up to Chris and the seals to rescue her. If you love romantic suspense you will love this book.