Ames’ review of Digging Deeper by Barbara Elsborg.
Archaeologist Beck isn’t expecting much to come out of this summer’s dig. While his colleague spends the summer in Italy, Beck draws the short straw supervising a group of archaeology students excavating on the grounds of Hartington Hall in Yorkshire. Little does Beck realize when he saves a redhead from the attentions of an amorous ram, that this accident-prone female will throw his ordered life into chaos.
The last thing Flick needs in her life is a digger, because some secrets are meant to stay buried. Very deep. But Beck is irresistible. She’d love to get him into bed, though after the incident at the swimming pool, the collapsing wall, the snake bite and the unexploded bomb—a hospital bed looks more likely. As their relationship lurches from one disaster to another, Beck has to delve deep to get to the bottom of this irrepressible redhead.
One thing is clear—you never know quite what you’re going to find when you start digging.
Writing this review has me torn. I enjoyed Digging Deeper but to some degree, it was really hard to read. And that’s my issue – I’m the kind of person when I’m watching a tv show or a movie and I know something bad is going to happen to the main character, like something embarrassing, I cringe and can’t stand to see whatever happens happen. And that’s how I felt for Flick (real name Felicity). This is a romantic comedy and as such, Flick gets into some amazingly crazy situations. And at first they were funny and then eventually when everyone turned against her, it was cringe worthy. At least for me.
So here’s what’s up: Flick was fired from her job because she was accused of stealing 180,000 pounds. Forty thousand of them mysteriously showed up in her account and so she was found guilty and told to repay the rest of the missing money. Except she didn’t do it. And her former employer refuses to look any deeper into it. So she’s fired from her job and she hasn’t told anyone why – and she can’t use her former job as a reference so she kind of gets stuck with a bunch of dead-end jobs, one of them being a dancer at Polecats. Yes, she’s a pole dancer. But her friends don’t know about that job, they know about the others and they’re all worried about her and don’t understand why she won’t try for a better job.
Flick’s pride is her biggest enemy. Every situation she winds up in is due to that situation around her job. And then she falls for this guy Beck, who is very yummy sounding (I have a thing for archaeologists LOL) but she can’t exactly open up to him. He can also jump to conclusions but I don’t blame him – Flick has secrets.
All in all, I enjoyed Digging Deeper but Flick’s actions frustrated me. But she’s a really likeable heroine so I forgave her for all the bad decisions she made. And yeah, I got a few laughs out of the situations she put herself in, but I also cringed at some of them too. I’m giving Digging Deeper a 3.75 out of 5. I’m definitely going to check out more of Barbara’s backlist.
This novel is available from Cerridwen Press. You can buy it here in e-format.
You can read more from ~ames~ at Thrifty Reader.
I’m a total cringer! I’ve been known to spend actual amounts of time writing mental apology letters for characters who did something incredibly embarrassing. [blush] — willaful
Willa–LOL It all depends on the circumstances and knowing what you’re getting into. Like knowing this was a romantic comedy made it more ok.
@Willa – I do that, too. If someone is embarrassed/humiliated, I want to die with them. I totally remember feeling terrible after watching Jerry McGuire. Everyone loved that movie, but not me.
@ames – good review babe. I’m going to check her out.