Every Hidden Thing is a realistic fiction/romance loosely based around the real life historical event ‘The Bone Wars’ by Kenneth Oppel. The bone wars took place 1877 – 1892, involving two rivaling archeologists in their search for dinosaur remains. They resorted to many dirty tactics and petty means of sabotaging each other’s finds and sites. This novel uses this thin bases to create the story of Samuel Bolt and Rachel Cartland. Samuel is the son of a practiced but uneducated archeologist with hundreds of bone finds under his belt. Rachel the daughter of a rich and established college man who has a passion for finding ancient skeletons. The two already quarreling scientists find themselves in close proximity looking for the same rumored giant buried somewhere in the Badlands. Among the danger of long hot days in the sun, Natives, and the clock ticking to find Rex first, Sam and Rachel fall in love. At first their love is secret but in an interesting turn of events Sam and Rachel are forced to make some tough choices and choose their families or their love.
I would rate this book at a 3/5. Although I had no problem reading it and finishing it in under a week, I often found myself annoyed with the characters. I am not a huge romantic so that might have been part of it, and at some points in the book it was painfully obvious it was written by a man. However, the shifting view points between Rachel and Sam made for good story telling and the true, but well rounded view of encounters with the natives was refreshing for western literature. The story was fun, a bit rushed at times, but overall entertaining to follow. The subplot of the dueling fathers and both Rachel and Sam’s passion for bone searching was also a new topic in literature that I enjoyed learning about. Overall If you are looking for an easy and low-commitment book to read for fun, and enjoy learning a little about the wild west, the science of bones, and a sprinkle of romance, this book is fun and won’t exhaust you.
