Avon, $7.99, ISBN 978-0-06-286171-9
Historical Romance, 2021
Spring Lee, the heroine of Beverly Jenkins’s Wild Rain, is the sister of the hero in Tempest.
Oh don’t worry, I don’t recall anything about that other story when I read this one (probably because that was the worst book to date by the author in my opinion), but I can follow this one just fine, so I think it can stand alone pretty well.
This one is also part of the author’s latest series Women Who Dare, but the only link it has with the previous story in this series is that they are both about women that make a life for themselves, despite the odds against them, in a brave new world after the Civil War.
Spring Lee is a rancher in Paradise, Wyoming, and she is doing fine on her own, thank you. She’s had a hard life filled with abuse and bruises, but she’s not letting her past hold her back.
She meets Garrett McCray, whom I believe is a brand new dude not related to anyone in the author’s past books, when he strikes out into the Wild Wild West in pursuit of an interview with one Dr Colton Lee.
His father is the editor of a sundown paper—the staff work after the sun sets because everyone has a day job—and Garrett is a lawyer by training and a carpenter by day, journalist by night. He’s here hoping that a story featuring the remarkable doctor will help elevate their paper, but our city slicker is not fully prepared for a romp in the great outdoor.
He is caught in a bad snowstorm when he is found by Spring, who also lets him stay at her place for the time being. How fortunate, she just happens to the sister of the man he is all the way here for! Oops, the doctor is out of town to tend to a measles outbreak elsewhere, and the roads are blocked for the time being. Our hero is stuck here with the heroine until the snow clears.
Perhaps it’s a good thing that she asks for some rumble and tumble pretty quickly in this story, so the last thing he’d be is bored during his stay in Paradise. Hmm, the name of that town sure takes on a new meaning now, doesn’t it?
This is another story where the author quickly gets the bump and grind out of the way first, and a part of me wonders whether it’s because the author has a bigger story to tell here.
Alas, as I turn the pages, I realize that the party I’m hoping will happen never fully does.
Spring and Garrett by themselves are fine characters. Spring, especially, is one tough heroine that doesn’t take any crap from anyone, and the author doesn’t do contrived stuff to weaken the heroine’s grit too much in some misguided attempt to make our heroine more “feminine”. Garrett is a fun subversion of sorts as he’s the city guy that is quite the fish out of water here—usually the heroine is in that position in other stories. Besides, he’s a writing man who is also good with his hands and brawn—how can I resist?
However, when they are together, the chemistry just of fizzles out instead of becoming a conflagration. These two don’t generate any believable sparks, most because Spring seems far more interested in educating Garrett in the ways of the folks out there in the west, and the hero is more of an eager student than lover.
That’s right, this is a story that sees the author using her characters to show off various historical aspects of life in that time and in that part of the world. As much as I appreciate the history lesson, I’m here for the romance first and foremost, so I can’t help being disappointed.
Also, the story is full of stereotypes. While no one here truly resembles a cartoon villain, the nice people are straight out of casting central. For example, when I say “old man that’s a friend of the heroine”, I’d wager that whatever comes to your mind about that character is the very thing Odell turns out to be here.
Because of this, this story feels like a mechanical, by-the-numbers romance that exists mostly to be a vehicle for the author to showcase the lives and times of ex-slaves in the years after the Civil War. The romance feels like an afterthought here.
Here’s the thing, though: the author has been doing stories of this sort for a long time, and she has a considerable number of historical romances in her back catalog. Many of those balance romance and history lesson far better than this one, and hence are far more enjoyable to read.
So, I can’t think of many reasons to recommend this readable but bland little thing to anyone, unless that person is a collector of the author’s works, when they can look up those better romances from the author herself.
