Some of Anna Martin’s books are my go-to rereads that include Cricket, Tattoos & Teacup, and the Another Way series to name a few, and according to my archive, it’s been almost five years since I’ve posted my last review of one of her books which is entitled Five Times My Best Friend Kiss Me. Hah! It just feels like yesterday no?. Okay, that was a long intro – but anyway, I just want to put that out first as a disclaimer that she is one of my favorite authors before you continue reading my review of this book.
The setting of the book is basically very Jurassic Park-esque, where in Dinosaurs actually exists (or survived) in a group of island within the South Pacific. A community of scientists lives in one of the tiny islands here and two of the said scientists, Kit Sterling and Logan Beck who happens to work together every now and then are our two adorable main characters. Kit works in the lab while Logan does the patrolling of the island and gathering stuff for the lab team.
The world-building here is amazing. As mentioned above, it’s very Jurassic Park, and though I’m not very into dinosaurs, I could easily imagine these creatures and the setting with the way the author described them – the colors, the sounds, the scenery – the author is really good at this.
I really do liked that Kit and Logan’s relationship was established early on in the story. We didn’t have to wait for so long for them to really come together, or just be adult about it. I liked that here. I liked the side characters too – Kit’s two moms, Kit’s bff and of course, the baby dinosaur DIzzy. Super adorable!
The pacing of the story may have suffered a bit because there’s not much to go on in the case of the poachers and their accomplice. After the discovery of who the ‘traitor’ was, the whole thing felt like an afterthought and it becomes a a fairy tale ending. Don’t get me wrong, I loved me a happily ever after ending but I just want some oomph in the story – I want more tension. Overall, it’s an easy and enjoyable read.
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
Published January 21st 2020 by Dreamspinner Press (first published October 22nd 2019)
About The Author
Anna Martin is from a picturesque seaside village in the south west of England. After spending most of her childhood making up stories, she studied English Literature at university before attempting to turn her hand as a professional writer.
Apart from being physically dependent on her laptop, she is enthusiastic about writing and producing local grassroots theatre (especially at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, where she can be found every summer), travelling, learning to play the ukulele, and Ben & Jerry’s New York Super Fudge Chunk.
Although her most recent work is in the LGBT romance genre, in the past Anna has worked on a variety of different projects including short stories, drabbles, flash fiction, fan fiction, plays for both children and adults, and poetry. She has written novels in the Teen or Young Adult genre, Romance and Fantasy novels.
Anna is, by her own admission, almost unhealthily obsessed with books. The library she has amassed is both large and diverse; “My favourite books,” she says, “are ‘The Moonstone’ by Wilkie Collins, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee and ‘Oryx and Crake’ by Margaret Atwood.” She also owns multiple copies of Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park books and re-reads the Harry Potter novels with almost startling regularity.
Anna claims her entire career is due to the love, support, pre-reading and creative ass-kicking provided by her closest friend Jennifer. Jennifer refuses to accept any responsibility for anything Anna has written.
PADDYLAST INC. 