Review: Forbidden

"I'm a woman of color, Mr. Fontaine. A hard shell is necessary."

Confession time: I have to be in the mood for a Beverly Jenkins book and it took me a while to pinpoint exactly why that is. Once I did though, a lot of puzzle pieces fell into place. I read Jenkins, primarily, because she writes great heroines - but she also writes what I call "community-based" books.  Think of them like small town contemporaries but - well - they're historicals. She tends to include a large cast of secondary characters, there's goings-on about town, there's past couples and familiar surnames for long-time fans (like happy little Easter Eggs) and the main romance, while a focus, ain't the sole thing going on in her books.  As a reader who gravitates towards short and snappy (I dig on Harlequins after all...) I'm just not always in the mood for this.  Long-time readers of this blog will recognize that I read and review very, very, very few small town single title contemporaries for the same reason.

So yeah, it took me a while to pick up Forbidden even though readers in my trust network have really enjoyed it.  And despite all that word vomiting I did in the first paragraph of this post?  Yeah, once I started this book I didn't come up for air until I finished it - staying up way past my bedtime.

Rhine Fontaine has built a successful life for himself in Virginia City, Nevada. He's a member of the city council, he owns a local saloon, he's engaged to the daughter of an influential man, and he's got his eye on future political office.  Rhine is, also, passing as white. His mother a slave, his father the plantation owner. Rhine fought in the Civil War (for the Union cause) and headed west for a fresh start.  Only his business partner knows his secret and Rhine is comfortable with his decision, until he rescues a Black woman left for dead out in the middle of the desert.

There is nothing left for Eddy Carmichael in Denver and her dream is to head to California to open her own restaurant. However shortly after she purchases her train ticket she is robbed. It took her forever to save the necessary funds. She's given up her rented room, she's quit her job, there's nothing for it - she's got to find another way west.  She's doing pretty well until she lands in Nevada and is robbed (again) by a con artist who leaves her for dead in the desert.  It's a miracle that Rhine finds her and takes her back to Virginia City.

There's an instant and immediate attraction between Rhine and Eddy.  Rhine, while white, has done a lot to further the cause of the Black residents of Virginia City. Providing loans for businesses, buying real estate, allowing Blacks patrons in his saloon - and he's engaged to a proper (read: spoiled and pampered) white daughter of an influential man in town and local politics.  An attraction to Eddy complicates his life immensely.

While Forbidden doesn't surpass Indigo as my favorite Jenkins (thus far), Eddy might be my new favorite heroine. Jenkins tends to write strong, often feisty, heroines - which I love! Don't get me wrong!  But Eddy is a bit quieter. She knows her own mind. She's very forthright. And she's not a waffling sort of heroine.  She's a straight-shooter with Rhine. She's attracted to him, but tells him in no uncertain terms that it cannot happen. He's white, she's Black, and she has no interest in being a man's mistress. A romantic entanglement between them will only end in tears - hers. He'd walk away clean, she'd be the one paying the price. And, quite frankly, Eddy has dreams of her own that she's not willing to compromise.

And that's the wrinkle for me. Eddy ain't telling Rhine anything he doesn't already know - and yet once he extricates himself from his fiancée, the flirting kicks into high gear. Like, really dude?! I get it. You're warm for her form. You think she's smart and interesting. But he's still passing as white and she's still a Black woman. I mean, how complicated this is for Eddy should be something at the very forefront of his mind - and it's just...not. It's there occasionally, but not consistently. 

What I did really like about Rhine's character is that passing is something he feels he has to do. He was born into slavery. The power, the privilege, that passing will give him is a no-brainer - until it isn't. Rhine is running towards what he sees as a better life, but he's giving up an awful lot in the process. It's this process of reconciling his choices, and his dreams, that makes the happy-ever-after especially fraught and hard won.

All in all, I enjoyed this story quite a bit. Jenkins creates a great cast of secondary characters and while, in other books, the focus away from the main romance would annoy me - it doesn't here. I really liked the wide array of characters, especially in the boardinghouse that Eddy calls home, and it added a richness to the story.  The writing flowed, the pages easily kept turning, and before I knew it it was past midnight and well past my bedtime.

This was a good, solid read and a fine example of a "small town" romance that worked very well for me.  I'm looking forward to the next two books in the series featuring Eddy's nieces.

Final Grade = B+