The Particulars: Historical romance, Berkley Jove, 1994, Out of print - sort of. Available digital-only, 2010 Harpercollins reprint. Fun fact: this is Heath's second published book.
Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: When I started reading romance back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, ebooks weren't a thing, and the only way you could find old, out of print romances was by scouring used bookstores or the Internet. This was one of my white whales. Heath's early westerns tended to be recommended a lot in those days and were hard to find, but I somehow got my hands on a used copy and proceeded to keep it in my TBR for probably 20 years because that's just the kind of sick person that I am.
The Review: I have no idea what I thought of this story. The plot is straight-up early 1990s WTF-ery but damn if the execution doesn't mostly work even as I was cringing in parts. A lot of readers I know love this book and I'm not saying they're wrong - but it is rather eyebrow raising in parts. Expect some spoilers folks.
Maddie Sherwood has hit the end of the line. Her father and brother dead, she has traded or sold everything she has of value (meager as it was) and the only thing left is her body. Hungry, cold, and desperate, she goes into a well-known brothel and the madam quickly starts the bidding for who will get to deflower the virgin. Almost immediately a bid of $1000 is entered and that seals the deal. The winner is Charles Lawson and impotent from an accident, he doesn't want to bed Maddie, he wants to marry her. His wife, the love of his life died in childbirth. Charles himself has a terminal illness and three young children, who he doesn't want to grow up without a mother. Does he tell Maddie this? Well partly. He leaves out the part about him dying (our first Big Secret). With no other options, other than the brothel, Maddie says yes to Charles. They quickly marry and make the trip from Fort Worth to Waco.
Charles owns a stagecoach stop / inn, which is where he, his three children and his older brother Jesse live. Jesse is a former Texas Ranger and is gobsmacked when Charles comes home married to a stranger. He's even more put out that he's attracted to her himself even though his lawman instincts tell him something is rotten in Denmark. The attraction is mutual, with both Jesse and Maddie rubbing each other the wrong way, until over time feelings grow as Charles' time on this Earth slowly ebbs away.
So hey, like I did, you're probably thinking that Charles dies within the first 50 pages and the rest of the 200+ pages are spent on building the love story between Jesse and Maddie. Narrator: Well, you would be dead wrong. Folks Charles LIVES for the majority of this book. It's only in the last few chapters when he finally pushes up daisies - so readers are regaled with Jesse and Maddie falling in love while she's married. MARRIED TO THE HERO'S BROTHER!
The author tap dances around this by having Charles still being desperately in love with his dead wife. Also, he's impotent so can't bone the heroine, but they do spoon and sleep in the same bed. Charles is also not a terrible person. He's desperately, hopelessly nice. He was honestly my favorite part of the story until he slips into Gary Stu Martyrdom territory in the final chapters. The friendship between Maddie and Charles is really well developed and frankly not the sort of thing we see a lot in romance.
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| Hot mess original cover |
Kisses happen as do declarations of feelings ALL WHILE CHARLES IS STILL ALIVE mind you, but consummation doesn't happen until the final chapter. Which honestly, even with good chemistry between the couple I largely skimmed.
Y'all, it's skeevy in that special way 1990s romances could be skeevy. So why do so many readers gush and love this story? Even with all the skeevyness, Heath executes her story well. The characters are well-developed, interesting, and while I felt that Maddie's Big Secret could have been foreshadowed better in the early chapters, it's compelling. I had to keep reading. Also, damn my black soul, I cried. When Charles nears the end I got choked up and leaked out tears. Hey, maybe I'm not completely dead inside after all?
So where does that leave us? Lord, I have no clue. It's interesting, it made me cry, but dude - she's married while she and her brother-in-law are both getting mutual pants-feelings for each other. Look, Charles is dying, he's in love with his dead wife, he's not blind, he's not even upset about it - but it's still skeevy. I said what I said.
But I cried. Over a book. And frankly that usually only happens once or twice every year. This is definitely a Wendy review one should read and not just skip to the final grade, because Lord even knows what I'm doing anymore.
Final Grade = B-
Note: At the time of this posting, this book was available via Kindle Unlimited.
I've read this book in 2015 and liked it. I agree with pretty much everything you say but, yes, it was still emotional as many books with similar plots aren't. ;)
ReplyDeleteS: So emotional! I was a wreck at the end when Charles dies.
DeleteMy mother had the cover with the copy that looked like a quilt. I remember staring at it on the book shelf and contemplating it, but it sounded sad and maybe "Christian" (which was not my mom's thing, so I don't know why I thought that) and I was deeply in my Jayne Ann Krentz/Nora Roberts phase and didn't read a lot of historical.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I'd like it now, but just hearing the summary and seeing that cover makes me feel like I'm a teenager in my parents den, looking at the bookshelf.
Jill: I can totally understand why you got "Christian" vibes from the original cover art. It's dreadful and during this period inspirational cover art was laughably awful. My first year as a librarian was 1999 and I remember some of the terribly book covers I stumbled across in the library stacks! That said, give it up to inspirational publishers - they got their act together and starting in the 2000s their historical romance cover art (in particular) became top notch.
DeleteI am not even the tiniest bit surprised, by the grade or the "what? how?" feeling. Heath has always been a very accomplished writer, who drags you into the story whether you want it or not.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure I'll jump to read this one--which, interestingly, I do not own in paper, despite going on a determined hunt for her backlist way back when. But I understand your feelings very well.
AL: I left out a good chunk of WTF'ery in my review because it happens towards the end and Huge Honkin' Spoilers Batman - but yes. It's the character development that elevated this one for me and the compelling storyline, even with all the What?! How?!
Deletesomehow got my hands on a used copy and proceeded to keep it in my TBR for probably 20 years because that's just the kind of sick person that I am.
ReplyDeleteI am riddled with this disease
Folks Charles LIVES for the majority of this book.
Wut
Nooooooo. lol
it's skeevy in that special way 1990s to be followed by this damn my black soul, I cried.
I felt this is in my soul. The time period societal grossness can't quite choke out those emotions authors could/can write and why I won't just throw out all my older books before I read them.
Whiskey: Seriously. So much skeevy, so much WTF'ery but completely compelling and I CRIED!
Deletel feel you on lusting after an early Lorraine Heath for what seems like forever, and then when you finally read it, it's...not worth the hype? For me it was Texas Destiny. I waited until it was republished by Avon and got it from the library. I had built it up so much in my head that it pretty much couldn't meet my expectations. Parts of it were good, parts were WTF?? and it was just sorta a bizarre reading experience.
ReplyDeleteI'm also pretty sure Lorraine Heath went back to this well about brothers loving/sharing a woman later, and it caused a kerfluffle. The Earl Takes All, I think?
My choice for this month was Elizabeth Hendrickson's "The Scoundrel's Bride," a Signet trad Regency which started off strong and just sorta...whimpered out. The heroine goes from clever to TSTL in service of a stupid third act Big Mis, and a completely unnecessary and ridiculous "mystery" was also shoved in there at the end, basically to give the H/h something to do on their honeymoon instead of boning. Because if they boned, the Big Mis would dissolve and we can't have that!
Eurohackie: I read the Texas trilogy back-to-back-to-back in 2001 and LOVED Texas Destiny, but realize now with hindsight that it may not hold up or hit me the same way should I reread it now. Also, ugh - your TBR read sound so disappointing. I hate when an author morphs a character into a pod person to shoehorn in third act conflict.
DeleteWOW! That's a lot to unpack. I am glad you ended up finding some redeeming parts, but I can see why this one would be hard to rate it... It's got flaws, but also some great writing. And the cover is so special straight from the 90s.
ReplyDeleteJen: It was kind of like a train wreck - I felt like I should avert my eyes and yet I couldn't look away. Heath's execution of the story was certainly compelling.
DeleteI couldn't remember reading this one but apparently I did, and gave it 4 stars. I guess it's my hipping upbringing, but I don't find the whole married thing that upsetting? If he doesn't care and they're not trying to kill him to get him out of the way, meh. 😂
ReplyDeleteWillaful: I left it out of my review because it's a huge honkin' spoiler (also major WTF'ery LOL) but yeah - his not caring became a bridge too far for me in the end since Charles starts morphing into this weird, saintly Gary Stu martyr character with a Big Secret....which just didn't really work for me. I probably watched too many soap operas as a kid - I'm coded to want THE DRAMA 🤣
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