seriously romantic: sleight of hand by julie rowe

an outbreak of e. coli spread by beer kegs serves as the backdrop for sleight of hand where grumpy cdc doctor gunnar anderson and triage nurse joy oshiro are up against interagency rivalries, crazy homegrown terrorist groups, irresponsible college kids and ptsd from their own years spent in combat zones.

microbiology and infectious diseases aren't what you normally expect when reading a thriller. but the author does a wonderful job of ramping up the tension and suspense even while the characters are doing mundane sounding things like collecting samples.

gunnar and joy do more than collect samples. they get shot at and caught up in more than one bombing/bomb scare. but as a team they work seamlessly and their crossed boundaries feel like a natural progression and inevitable.

i liked both these characters a lot, so my only complaint is that the other characters talk a lot about gunnar being unreasonable or taking careless risks, and i just didn't feel like these accusations matched the reality of his actions, so to consistently get this message without feeling like this matched what was on the page was a little disconcerting. but hey, feeling protective over a character isn't a bad thing, and otherwise, this was a read i very much enjoyed.

**sleight of hand will publish on january 28, 2019. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/entangled publishing (amara) in exchange for my honest review.