We are thrilled to be revealing the cover for Jo Segura’s Raiders of the Lost Heart, which is an adventure rom-com featuring rival archaeologists from a new voice in romance you do not want to miss! Releasing on December 5th 2023 from Berkley Publishing, Raiders of the Lost Heart is available to pre-order.
Read on to discover the cover AND an excerpt, but first, here is what Jo thinks of her cover!
“When I saw the final cover for RAIDERS OF THE LOST HEART, I was absolutely blown away. The colors! The Indy/Lara Croft vibes! The bird! The nod to the Aztecs! (And did I mention the colors and the BIRD?!?!). Camila managed to capture the essence of RAIDERS in the most vibrant, fantastical way. I absolutely love it!”
Archaeologist Dr. Socorro “Corrie” Mejía has a bone to pick. Literally. It’s been Corrie’s life goal to lead an expedition deep into the Mexican jungle in search of the long-lost remains of her ancestor, Chimalli, an ancient warrior of the Aztec empire. But when she is invited to join an all-expenses-paid dig to do just that, Corrie is sure it’s too good to be true…and she’s right.
As the world-renowned expert on Chimalli, by rights Corrie should be leading the expedition, not sharing the glory with her disgustingly handsome nemesis. But Dr. Ford Matthews has been finding new ways to best her since they were in grad school. Ford certainly isn’t thrilled either—with everything going on in his life right now, the last thing he needs is a reminder of their rocky past.
But as the dig begins, it becomes clear they’ll need to work together when they realize a thief is lurking around their campsite, forcing the pair to keep their discoveries—and lingering attraction—under wraps. With money-hungry artifact smugglers, the Mexican authorities, and the lies between them closing in, there’s only one way this all ends—explosively.
EXCERPT
“How about we get to work, okay?”
She nodded as she twisted off the lid of the thermos and poured the coffee, now filling the air with the aromas of Jamaican coffee and coconut. He sucked in a breath. Mm. It took him back to the night in the library.
He was in trouble.
“So here’s where we are,” he said, pointing out their location on the map and trying to focus. “The locations marked with an X? Those are the ones I’ve checked out personally and determined weren’t right. The locations with a question mark? Well, it’s obvious what that means.”
Corrie stood and bent over the map while taking a sip of her coffee. Did she not realize what that did for her cleavage? Staring shouldn’t have been an option, but Ford couldn’t avert his gaze.
His eyes traveled upward along the crease between her breasts to the length of her neck, pausing momentarily on her wet, glistening lips before landing on her eyes. The ones staring right back at him.
Fuck. He quickly looked at the map and cleared his throat, waiting for another teasing browbeating from Corrie. When one didn’t come, he glanced back at Corrie, who was deeply entrenched in the map.
“Do you have a copy of my dissertation?” she asked.
“Um . . . yeah. Let me find it.”
The papers shuffled on the desk as he sorted through the stacks. Maybe he should have been embarrassed that he had been relying on someone else’s work, even going so far as assigning her dissertation as required reading material for his students, but it was a great paper. He could admit it. Corrie was brilliant. It was one of the reasons he’d kept her close during grad school. Keep your enemies close, right? Not that he’d viewed Corrie as his enemy all those years ago. Back in the day, it had been more like friendly competition.
Though, since then, it had turned less . . . friendly. And when Ford had taken the Yale fellowship, well, he’d all but declared war.
“Here,” he said, pulling out the well-worn copy of her dissertation. Dog-ears. Post-its. Handwritten notes in the margins.
He’d read it front to back a least a dozen times. A few passages he could even recite by memory. He remembered sitting there in the audience of her dissertation defense in awe—hidden in the back, of course, so as not to piss her off and screw her up. Had Dr. Crawley seen her defense, there was no way Ford would ever have gotten his job. In that moment, she’d earned that the of Dr. Socorro Mejía. She was the whole package—brains, beauty, fearlessness. A pang had shot through his chest. Regret possibly? And questioning whether he’d made a mistake.
Her eyebrows raised as she stared at his Frankenstein version of her paper. Okay, now he was embarrassed.
“Yeah . . . I might have read it a few times,” he said, lowering his head and rubbing the back of his beck.
“I guess so.”
Cringe again.
“Don’t worry, I’ve read yours too and also took notes. I mean, my notes are more like holes in a giant bull’s-eye, but the overall tattered effect is about the same. I’ll let you see it sometime. You know, like if I ever ask you to join me on a dig in Peru.”
Ford winced and thought back to his dissertation on the lives of the Incas in Machu Picchu. If he’d ever learned that Corrie had been hired for a dig there, and not him, it would have more than stung. “I deserve that.”
“Yeah, you do. But I’m still grateful for the after-the-fact invitation. If I’d heard that you’d come here and found Chimalli without me, I would have murdered you.” She smiled. God, why did Ford find it so sexy despite the fact that she was joking about killing him?
“Then I guess it’s a good thing for me that I wasn’t digging in the right spot.” He smiled back, and a silence fell over the room as they stared at each other. Searching each other’s faces.
What was happening here? Were they . . . getting along? Engaging in playful banter? Not wanting to murder each other?
The curled corners of Corrie’s dissertation thrummed through her delicate, slender fingers. What was she thinking? He could see something was on her mind. Something she wanted to ask him. Her lips twitched and she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. Ford fought to keep from looking at her mouth, but it was like a beacon begging for his attention.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jo Segura lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and two doggos who vie for her attention with their sweet puppy dog eyes whenever she’s trying to write (her dogs, that is… though sometimes her husband, too). Her stories feature strong, passionate heroines and draw upon aspects of her life, such as her love of good food, her Mexican heritage, and her fascination with archaeology. When she’s not writing you can find her practicing law, shaking up a mean cocktail, or sitting out on the patio doing Buzzfeed quizzes (though she doesn’t care what the chicken nugget quiz said—her favorite fruit is not banana).
