Publication Date: September 30, 2024
Hannah Marchand is a reporter for Aspire magazine and is assigned to do a story on an archaeological dig in the northern reaches of British Columbia. She knows it isn’t the sort of thing that will make her career but she’s having a bit of an issue with an ex-boyfriend that won’t take no for an answer so skipping town for a few weeks may be just what she needs.
Roman Patrick is an indigenous archaeologist who is conducting his first dig since a reporter from Aspire wrote a story in which he was alleged to have mishandled an artifact, nearly ruining his career five years before. He does not trust reporters and he doesn’t want them around.
Despite his suspicion of Hannah’s motives, there’s a spark that neither of them can deny. Can he rise above his mistrust and work with her to elude the man hunting Hannah?
I was given a pre-release copy of Hunting Hannah in exchange for my honest review.
Once upon a time, I read A LOT of romantic suspense. Way back when I was pregnant in 2001 and then my baby was in the hospital in 2003, I would read the books aloud to her careful to skip over the more salacious and violent material. Reading Hunting Hannah kind of brought me back to those days.
Hunting Hannah is not atypical of romantic suspense. As with any romance novel, it’s all about the journey and not the destination. This read is well plotted, fast paced, and interesting. Clark incorporates indigenous cultures and history in Hunting Hannah educating the reader. I’m sure it’s no mistake that this book is coming out on September 30 which is Truth and Reconciliation Day in Canada. While not exactly a cultural history (site names have been changed), there is a love and respect given to both the site and the interactions with Nathaniel, Roman’s grandfather and an indigenous elder. In the story, Roman and Hannah also visit a camp settled by American Draft Dodgers. While I couldn’t find if that plot point was rooted in fact, some 40,000 Draft Dodgers immigrated to Canada, so it’s not unlikely.
Hannah is a typical romance character, though well written. Her nickname is “Stick.” She has long, honey blonde hair, and big blue eyes (but we are told at one point, “womanly curves.”). She has the requisite scenes in which people tell her over and over how strong she is but that’s not something the reader sees. She faints from shock for an extremely extended period and her companions just say, “We’ll talk to her when she wakes up,” rather than calling for medical assistance on a satellite phone as may be realistic for the situation. There’s even a scene where Roman and her brother, Peter, and doing their man thing and talking about her like she’s not there and she stamps her (probably) small foot and says, “You know I’m right here!” That is maybe not a direct quote, but I guarantee its pretty close. She’s also prone to telling people to go away and when they do say “he shouldn’t have listened to me.” Is this realistic when a person has an active stalker?
That isn’t to say Hannah should be strong in the circumstances she faces. Her stalker, Derek, is a pretty fierce and aggressive guy right off the bat. How would a person react when faced with such agression? Hannah also feels that his wealth and power will negate any claims she makes so her best course of action is to just evade. Hannah grows in the story. She has solid sounding boards that she trusts, and we see her process to an extent which adds a realism to who she seems to be. How would we react in a similar situation? Who’s to say?
Roman is a solid character that has the external look of a tall, powerful, and bold, romance hero but he is deeply insecure. He needs for this dig to work out an be successfull and for nothing to go wrong because there are people just waiting for him to fail. Clark gives him quirks which we see as we have the advantage of viewing the story from his perspective. We know long before Hannah does why he doesn’t trust reporters and specifically Aspire magazine and we know why he needs for this dig to go well and why it’s so important to him. There is some need to suspend disbelief (as with any work of fiction) at some of the plot motivators but it’s easy to gloss over those slight too conveinant moments. Clark does go lengths to explain them.
My thinking coming out of reading these characters is that the author had a better sense of Roman than she did Hannah. He has deeper motivations. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that Hannah’s problems follow her to the remote location. I haven’t read the blurb yet but have not doubt that any reader will expect that. More of the story is of the dig than the problems and any reader will have the sense that was Clark’s motivation. She says in her afterward that she was an archeology major. Perhaps that is why she associated her archeologist with a university. I interned at an archeology museum in college and can tell you, the archeologists I’ve met spend very little time on digs. They either teach, write books, or spend a lot of time unemployed.
The background characters are just that. Hannah’s brother, Peter, is going through his own troubles and accompanies her to the dig. Nathaniel, Roman’s grandfather, is a frequent presence. Shas, Roman’s Newfoundland rescue, is a well-developed character in and of himself playing a role outside of the usual dog walk-on part of “yipping happily,” he is a fully realized companion for Roman and mascot for the dig site.
From a personal perspective, it was nice to read a Canadian based romantic suspense novel. I will admit to being a bit thrown at first when it became clear that the Vancouver that appears at the start of the novel is in BC. The characters syntax was very Canadian at points. There is a scene toward the start of the book that is very Canadian. I found this point of difference from the usual fare very refreshing.
There are some elements of Hunting Hannah that feel a little rushed and glossed over but I believe readers will close this work feeling as though they had a complete romantic suspense experience. If you are a reader that prefers clean romance or has a young reader that enjoys suspense, you can be assured that Hunting Hannah is for you. Pick this book up today and let me know what you think.
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