Sizzle and Burn

L.A. Banks, author of the long-running Vampire Huntress series, debuts her first full-length novel as Grant. Capt. Ryan Mason, a special forces operative, is assigned to guard scientists who study weaknesses in the earth's crust that could be exploited to create cataclysmic events. At a symposium, he runs into seismologist Dr. Mia Santiago, a "blatina" from Spanish Harlem. The two met and fell in love a decade earlier when he was at West Point and she at Vassar. Though both are determined to put their careers first, they can't deny that the sparks still fly. The mix of romance, a terrorist plot, and the prescient focus on natural disasters never quite gels, but fans of intensity and serious topics will appreciate the powerful emotions between Mia and Ryan, as well as Mia's struggles to succeed in science as a woman of color. (July)