natalie intihar

Publication Date: July 28, 2026

AHHH! Happy cover reveal to Maggie North and her upcoming book Fossil Feud! This book already looks INCREDIBLE and I’m so excited. July 28th cannot come soon enough for this book to drop and everyone to read and enjoy!

Blurb:
Renegade paleontologist Ripley Adams is this close to digging up a fossil treasure and vindication. She’s spent the last three years in academic exile after her ex-boyfriend stole her work, betrayed her trust, and broke her heart in one fell swoop. If she can unearth a complete specimen of her newest discovery—a never-before-seen missing link between dinosaurs and birds—it will put her back on the map and finally restore her ruined reputation.

But when unfairly hot Oxford professor James Smithson crashes Ripley’s dig site, she realizes she’s not the only one searching for redemption in the Montana dirt. James is convinced a splashy new fossil is a fraud, and he needs Ripley’s help to prove it. She’d tell the buttoned-up Brit where to stick his suspicions, but the fake fossil is eerily similar to hers . . . and the fraudster is her ex.

The race is on to reveal a T-rex-sized discovery. Polar opposites Ripley and James will have to find common ground if they’re going to take down a hoax that could ruin them both. And as they dig deeper into their unlikely attraction, Ripley’s excavation boots won’t be the only things getting a little dirty…

Tropes:

• Professional rivals to lovers
• Women in who got kicked out of STEM
• Opposites attract
• He falls first (and hardest)
• “Just this once”
• Just one cabin
• Beautiful f*ked-up man 
• He’s got slutty little glasses AND a slutty little watch
• chaos muppet x order muppet
• years of tortured longing
• competence porn
• Love at first sight isn’t scientific (ESPECIALLY when it happens to him)
• She wants everything now; he is (ahem) VERY patient
• Forced proximity
• “I believe the lady asked you to leave”
• Buttoned-up Brit who is basically three stiff upper lips in a trench coat
• Can I get a man on a white horse (Note: I adore Missy Elliott in case you couldn’t tell, lol)
• Locked in the museum overnight
• Road trip shenanigans
• Found family
• Unlimited potential for bone jokes
• A dinosaur discovery that will change everything
• She’s still scarred from her shitty ex

Want to preorder this book? The Ebook is available here.

Thanks to the author for sharing the cover with me! An ARC review will be coming soon.