Rachel Grant

Tinderbox

In the volatile tinderbox of the Horn of Africa, Morgan Adler has made the paleoanthropological find of a lifetime. The discovery brings her to the attention of a warlord eager to claim both Morgan and the fossils, forcing her to make a desperate dash to the nearby US military base to beg for protection. Master Sergeant Pax Blanchard has orders to intercept Dr. Adler before she reaches the base, and in so doing saves her life. After a harrowing afternoon he safely delivers her to his commanders, only to find his responsibilities toward protecting the obstinate archaeologist have only just begun. Morgan and Pax are forced to work together in the Djiboutian desert heat, but it is the fire that ignites between them that threatens to combust them both. For the Green Beret, involvement with the woman he must protect is a threat to his career, while for the archaeologist, the soldier is everything she never wanted but somehow can't resist. When Morgan uncovers a mystery surrounding Djibouti's most scarce and vital resource, the danger to her reaches the flashpoint. For Pax, protecting her is no longer a matter of following orders, and he'll risk everything to bring her back alive.

Lynn Braden

Tinderbox is the first book in a series that takes place in the very volatile region of the Horn of Africa. Dr. Morgan Adler is a paleoanthropologist whose job is to research two dig sites outside of Djibouti to determine if either of them has enough historical significance to warrant rerouting a proposed water pipeline being constructed by the Chinese government. In her first attempt, she finds a skeleton of a prehuman she calls Linus after the famous Lucy skeleton found in Ethiopia. When Green Beret, Pax Blanchard is put in charge of Morgan's protection detail, sparks of attraction fly even though they both must attempt to resist. 
Tinderbox is in a class above the usual protector/protectee romance in that the main characters' attempts at resisting each other include realistic consequences if they can't. Another aspect of the story that makes it a cut above the norm is the true to life way Morgan Adler's job is portrayed as well as the political machinations of heads of state of Djibouti and the American military, especially those involving China's desire to make inroads into the region. A very timely - well researched story with a level of realism not always found in novels of this type.

Tinderbox

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