“If [my father] hadn’t belted Professor Cartland that night in the Academy of Natural Sciences, I wouldn’t have had the chance to see Rachel’s eyes up close.” The first time Samuel Bolt and Rachel Cartland meet, it’s over their fathers’ flying fists. Professors Bolt and Cartland are battling paleontologists, each determined to be the best at wresting centuries old dinosaur bones from the unforgiving rock of the American West. So when Professor Cartland challenges Professor Bolt’s latest find in front of a fascinated audience, the gloves come off and Rachel and Samuel are forced to wade in and pull their fathers apart. That’s their first memorable meeting, but it isn’t their last. Soon they are each on an expedition with their fathers that end up being only a few miles apart in the badlands of Wyoming. Against all odds, and unbeknownst to their mad dads, the two intrepid teens not only share information about their respective digs but soon fall in love. Adamant about being together, the lovers hatch a daring plan to discover and cash in on the greatest dinosaur find of all time–the Tyrannosaurus Rex–and leave their fathers behind in the desert dust. Meanwhile, their expeditions are being closely watched by a Sioux party who are none too happy about the fact that Rachel’s father desecrated one of their burial pyres. Can Rachel and Samuel find the fabled T-Rex bones before their fathers or the Sioux hunting party find them? More romance than adventure, this story moves a bit slower than some of Oppel’s other intriguing works, which range from a Frankenstein origin story to a steampunk pirate escapade. But what Oppel lacks in pacing, he more than makes up for in characterization, especially when it comes to headstrong Rachel. During a time period when women’s opinions were hardly considered, let alone valued, she is a brilliant, unrepentant scholar, determined to be acknowledged as a fossil hunter in her own right and unafraid to challenge the male authority around her (including Samuel’s) that threatens to stifle her dreams. Both she and Samuel are full of doubts and contradictions, still trying to understand who they are as individuals even as they try to define themselves as a couple separate from their greedy fathers. If you ever even just had a passing interest in fossil hunting, paleontology, American Indian culture or the Old West, you’ll fall hard for this super hip hist. fic. Coming to library, bookstore or e-reader near you October 2016.
