Carbon Dating (Nerds of Paradise, Book 3) Merry Farmer

Merry
Farmer
Genre: 
Contemporary

Ted Flint, a modest Texas cattle rancher, decides to settle down and find a wife, and  finds the perfect girl at his sister’s wedding. When he approaches her and talks about the town history she is thoroughly unimpressed and uninterested. However, when Laura starts talking about dinosaurs in the area, she is excited and animated. Ted is delighted —he knows where there is a dinosaur bone on his property and he takes her to see it. She begins excavating and is thrilled at the find, which is worth millions. Despite the paid-in-full mortgage note, the bank lays  claim to the fossil and the millions of dollars that will come from its sale. Ted and Laura must fight Ronny Bonneville, evil member of the bank’s board, to save the fossil and the ranch.

"Carbon Dating" is a quirky, delightful story filled with realistic people, like those who spill their food at weddings and are awkward around a girl.  Ronny Bonneville is well-fleshed out as the greedy bank executive. Excavation details are interesting and the reader gets an appreciation for the work that goes into recovering a large fossil from the ground. The sub-story about the bank making claims on the fossil is not believable, even though Bonneville is greedy enough to try anything to grab this windfall. It is a pleasure to meet these characters and get to know them better. The third book in the Nerds of Paradise series, this installment will entice readers to dig up  the first two books of the series.

Belinda Wilson