The Fossil Hunter by Tea Cooper Review

 Happy Monday Friends :)

I pray today finds you all doing well, and I want to thank you all for joining me for another book review here on The Preppy Book Princess.

This past weekend is always one of the craziest times of the year at my workplace, and so I'm extremely thankful that it's finally behind me for another year, and while summer will continue to be busier than usual, I'm still thankful to have a few more moments of peace. I'm especially looking forward to curling up with the many titles I currently have on my July TBR List.

Before I dive right into reading though, I'd like to share a review with you all of an upcoming historical fiction release.

Keep reading below for my full review.

The Fossil Hunter by Tea Cooper:

Source: Publisher via NetGalley

Publisher: Harper Muse

Publication Date: August 9th, 2022

Genre: Historical Fiction/Dual Timeline

Synopsis:

Buried secrets. An ancient fossil. And one woman’s determination to unravel a nineteenth-century mystery.

Australia, 1847. The last thing Mellie Vale remembers before the fever takes her is sprinting through the bush with a monster at her heels—but no one believes her. In a bid to curb Mellie’s overactive imagination, her benefactors send her to visit a family friend, Anthea Winstanley. Anthea is an amateur paleontologist convinced she will one day find proof that great sea dragons swam in the vast inland sea that covered her property millions of years ago. Mellie is instantly swept up in the dream.

1919. Penelope Jane Martindale arrives home from the battlefields of World War I intent on making peace with her father and commemorating the deaths of her two younger brothers in the trenches. Her reception is disappointing. Desperate for a distraction, she finds a connection between a fossil at London’s Natural History Museum and her brothers’ favorite camping spot—also the last place they were seen before falsifying their ages to join the army. But the gorge has a sinister reputation: seventy years ago, several girls disappeared from the area. So when P. J. uncovers some unexpected remains, the past seems to be reaching into the present. She’s determined to find answers about what happened all those years ago . . . and perhaps some closure on the loss of her brothers.

(synopsis from goodreads)

My Review:

The Fossil Hunter is probably one of the hardest books I've ever had to review before if I'm being honest. While I'd read and loved The Girl in the Painting by this author and was expecting to end up feeling the same about this one, it didn't end up being anything like what I was expecting, and I really struggled to connect with either the characters or the story in either timeline.

I would say overall that I enjoyed the 1847 timeline a lot more than the one happening in 1912, but I can't truly say that I loved either. A lot of the story is devoted to history, and paleontology and not as much to suspense as I was initially expecting. There isn't truly as much of a connection between the two timelines as I was prepared for, and I felt that it made the story that much harder to muddle through.

A lot of the questions raised were never really answered in a way that satisfied me, and I was left at the end of the story wondering why certain things happened in the first place, as no reasonable explanation was ever truly given.

I found Sam's character in 1912 to be utterly obnoxious, and his horrid treatment of Penelope grated on my nerves right from the opening chapters. I couldn't remotely root for their romance, and everything about their relationship screamed toxicity.

I ended up not really enjoying the mystery, the romance, or the majority of the characters, and the few parts I did enjoy, like the historical components and a couple of the characters, were not enough to salvage this one for me unfortunately, and I ended up feeling pretty negative towards it at the end.

I would personally recommend The Girl in the Painting over this one, and I'm not sure if I'd rush out to read another book by this author again or not.

Final Rating: 2/5.

Thanks so much to Harper Muse for allowing me to advance read and review this one!

I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher (Harper Muse) via NetGalley. I was not required to give a positive review. This is my honest review, and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks so much for reading guys! Have a great rest of your day :)