River of Eden — Glenna McReynolds

Bad-boy scientist Will Travers may have an Ivy League mind but he's got the spirit of the jungle in his heart and the kiss of the Amazon on his body.

With his sun-bronzed skin, a week's worth of beard, and a shaman's crystal around his neck, Will Sanchez Travers looked more like a man mothers warned their daughters about than a Harvard-trained ethnobotanist. And even if only half the rumors about him were true, Dr. Annie Parrish figured she was in trouble. Still, she needed the rogue scientist to ferry her upriver in search of a prize so extraordinary, it would make her reputation -- if it didn't get her killed first.

When he'd reluctantly agreed to take the legendary Amazon Annie deep into the Brazilian rain forest, Will expected a woman warrior, not a blond ragamuffin renegade whose secrets ran darker than he could have imagined. But once the journey begins, there will be no turning back as they enter territory -- of the wilderness and the heart -- as dangerous as it is beautiful, desperate to stop a twisted destroyer of worlds before his nightmarish fantasy becomes horribly real. Amid sorcery, violence, and mystical visions, which will be the victor -- the yearning for vengeance, or a power as potent and seductive as the heart of a singular, magical orchid?