#TBRChallenge 2023: The Prisoner

The Book: The Prisoner by Cheryl Reavis

The Particulars: Historical Romance, Harlequin Historical #126, 1992, out of print, available digitally (self-published reprint with additional material added), first book in series

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: Reavis is a favorite and has both historical and contemporary romances in my keeper stash

The Review: I have had a used copy of the original Harlequin Historical edition in my print TBR stash for a very long time - where it languished, as books tend to do in my TBR, until finally here I am many years older with really crappy eyesight.  So when I decided that this was the book I was going to read for this month's Unusual Historical prompt, I downloaded the self-published edition available via Kindle Unlimited with the extra "lost chapters."  This is definitely an instance where 1) I would have liked this book better as a baby, less jaded, less cantankerous reader and 2) where the lost chapters should have truly stayed lost. More on that in a moment...

The book opens in 1865, during the final gasping days of the Civil War.  Union Captain John Howe has been in a hellhole prisoner of war camp in Salisbury, North Carolina, where conditions not great to begin with have rapidly deteriorated.  He's near starvation, sick, desperate and makes a run for it via a tunnel the prisoners have dug - his best friend getting left behind and presumed dead when said tunnel collapses. He has to make it to a house in town where there's a local war profiteer that will provide him with passes and a disguise to get north - except John picks the wrong house and gets saddled with a pretty young captive as a grand prize.

Amanda Douglas lives with her emotionally abusive minister father and loving stepmother.  Long story short, Amanda is paying for the sins of her mother.  She's home alone when John Howe breaks in and Daddy Dearest walks in on a situation that looks compromising enough that he jumps right to the conclusion that she's a whore no better than her mother.  Stuff happens, they eventually land at the profiteer's house, and now John and Amanda are on the run despite not liking or trusting one another even a tiny bit. Basically it's get me north to my family and I'll make sure you're not hung out to dry - and really, other than her stepmother, there's nothing for Amanda in North Carolina. She reluctantly chooses John.

First, let's start off with the good. Reavis has a way of painting pictures with words and creating a world that as a reader I can fall right into.  It's richly drawn without spending too much time in the weeds.  Her characters are also, generally, very interesting.  There's a number of secondary characters I really liked in this story, an army doctor and Amanda's stepmother being the most interesting to me.  Also, having read the second book, The Bride Fair, many years ago (and I loved it back then) - it was great to finally read about the guilt and baggage that the hero in this book has in regards to the hero of that second book.

So what's the problem?  Well, Amanda and John are what I call hot-and-cold-running characters - which means mood swings.  A lot of them.  Which yes, makes some sense given the circumstances of how they meet - but that doesn't make it any less exhausting.  Also, for a book with "lost chapters" included, the timeline of when John is delirious from sickness and fever and Amanda has to prop him up, lug him around through their travels, jumps ahead in time and leaves quite a few blank spaces. I was disappointed that none of the lost chapters addressed the gaps in that timeline.

There's also the small matter that this is a Civil War book and it's strangely apolitical. John refers to Amanda as "Reb" but Amanda is about as political as a potted fern - which honestly, I could almost buy into given she had lived her entire life up to that point in a home with an emotionally abusive father.  When that is your life, are you really going to think of much else outside of that bubble?

Eventually John gets home, Amanda finds out his family is kind of a big deal, there's a misunderstanding perpetrated by his overbearing mother (that John, even though he KNOWS what kind of woman his mother is, doesn't suspect she just might be behind the third act separation when Amanda runs off? Like really John?! Like, really?!?!??!).  Then there's a reunion, more drama, and then what is quite obviously the original final chapter.

Original cover

The "lost chapters" in the self-published version are all tacked on at the end of the original final chapter - and some of them are interesting because it does give the reader a bit more time to spend with the secondary characters.  Unfortunately it also gives the reader more time to spend with John and Amanda, which means another misunderstanding, which means another instance where she runs off, which means I now think that these two are one more misunderstanding away from imploding entirely.  This is also when the author includes some politics and honestly, staying apolitical would have been better. John is still in the Army and leading the occupying forces in Salisbury.  The idea being that he's now married to a local and things will go more smoothly (never mind most of the locals now consider Amanda a Yankee whore) and there's nonsense in there with Amanda telling John that the Southerners are conquered but should still be allowed to have their pride.

Look, do you know what Southern pride got us in this country?  Jim Crow among other things.  Apolitical was better, thanks.

So where does that leave us?  Well, I'd probably give the original version of this book somewhere around a C+ maybe?  John and Amanda just didn't really work for me as a romantic couple, but Reavis' world-building and secondary characters were on-point.  The lost chapters section?  Ugh, probably a D. They should have stayed on the cutting room floor, because if anything they made me believe less in Amanda and John as a viable couple.  Plus the politics in this section annoyed me.

Final Grade = Oh, who the hell knows, let's say C

TBR Challenge 2013: Patrick Gallagher's Widow

The Book: Patrick Gallagher's Widow by Cheryl Reavis

The Particulars: Contemporary romance, Silhouette Special Edition #627, 1990, Out of Print, Not Available Digitally.

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?:  Reavis is one of those rare authors who has both historical and contemporary books in my keeper stash. This particular book won the RITA award in 1991 in the Best Long Contemporary Series Romance category, which besides the fact that I was glomming Reavis books in general, was another reason I added it to the ol' TBR.

The Review:  First, 1990 was 23 years ago.  Second, that depresses the hell out of me.  Third, going in I fully expected to find aspects of this story that hadn't aged well.  I mean, 23 years is a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.  So imagine my surprise to discover, outside of some fashion and music references, that this story holds up extremely well.  And it's pretty dang good even with all 23 years showing on that epic Old School cover.

Johnson Garth is the cop who caught the Patrick Gallagher case.  Gallagher, also a cop, died in the line of duty.  Garth caught the kid who shot him, and should be happy about that.  But he's not.  The whole thing was just too....tidy.  He also doesn't trust Hugh Gallagher, another cop, the grieving brother, whom Garth has a long, colorful history with.  Hugh doesn't want Garth bothering Patrick's widow, Jenna, and naturally Garth can't let that go.  So he starts sniffing around the widow Gallagher, hoping to ferret out the truth.  Instead, he ends up falling in love with her.

Really, that pretty well covers the basics.  It's a deceptively simple set-up for a story that is actually anything but.  Reavis has that ability that all really good category writers do - taking a simple enough sounding idea, acknowledging the word count restrictions in category, and yet having that ability to create rich, complex drama for her equally rich and well-drawn characters.  Not only did she outdo herself with Garth and Jenna, I'm pretty damn impressed that RWA (an organization folks like to throw stones at - a lot) awarded this book a RITA.  Reavis avoids the easy route, challenging her characters and her readers.  Yeah, this is 23 years old now, but it's still a remarkably fresh story in a lot of ways.

For one thing? Jenna loved her husband.  They were having some issues at the time of his death, but she loved him.  Garth grew up on the wrong side of the tracks, loved a girl from the neighborhood, and she died a violent death.  He loved her, and I loved that the author doesn't make excuses for that.  She acknowledges the fact that it is OK for her hero and heroine to have loved other people before.  That doesn't mean they'll be incapable of finding love again and the author knows her readers are smart enough to know this.  She doesn't tear down Patrick or Mary.  They were who they were, they were loved, they died tragically.  And it's OK that the two people most affected by their deaths would find each other and move on.

I loved that Jenna knows the realities of being a cop's wife and that she's bristling with the responsibilities of her widowhood and the perceptions that go with it.  Her husband died a hero, which means everyone from her in-laws to the general public wants a piece of her.  Everyone has expectations on how, as a widow, she should behave and what she should feel.  There have been countless widows in Romance Novel Land over the years, but very few books that address what it is to actually BE a widow.  Reavis addresses it here.  In a 23 year old book.

The romance is solid and heart-wrenching, and the mystery of Patrick Gallagher's death is suitably drawn and compelling.  However, that's not to say this book doesn't have issues.  It's set in New York City, but there were times that the city is portrayed in a vague sort of way.  Also, a few of the secondary characters (Garth's mother, a surrogate father figure, an old-beyond-his-years child at the Catholic school where Jenna is a substitute teacher....) are more caricatures than anything else.  Luckily they're mostly relegated to background noise, and the real meat-and-potatoes secondary characters (Garth's new partner for example) are better drawn.

I also wasn't entirely sure how it was that Jenna and Garth fell in love.  I got the lust part OK.  Jenna is lonely (and horny!), and despite loving her husband, isn't ready to commit herself to perpetual widowhood.  Garth is haunted and wounded, with a protective streak a mile wide.  I get that they're hot for each other, just not sure what makes them fall in love with each other outside of horny loneliness and protective instincts.  But you know what?  They say all the right things, and struggle with all the emotional baggage that people like this should be struggling with, and better still?  The author doesn't make the ending easy.  They don't blissfully fall into bed proclaiming their undying love once the Bad Guys are caught.  They struggle with what they want and how they feel for each other - and I appreciated that.

It's not my favorite of Reavis' work, and I don't think it will make my keeper shelf, but it's still a really good book - even with the added years.  Some contemporary stories aren't meant to stand the test of time.  This is one that does.  Only a few minor tweaks and this is a story that could have leapt from the author's computer keyboard just last week.  It looks like it's fairly easy to come by used, but here's hoping Harlequin and Reavis can get on the same page and make this one part of the digitized "Harlequin Treasury" program.  This is a book that deserves to see the light of day again.

Final Grade = B+

Truer Than The Red, White And Blue

I know. It seems like I've been doing a ridiculous amount of promo on the blog lately. Well, brace yourselves. I've got more!

February 1 finds Harlequin unveiling three more Blogger eBook Bundles. The gals over at We Write Romance bring forth some of their Top Picks (with titles from the Intrigue, Presents, American and now-defunct Bombshell lines), while Smart Bitch Sarah gives us a rockin' socks bundle featuring titles from Blaze, Desire and Presents.

Once again, I'm up to bat with another (yes, another) bundle of Harlequin Historical titles.

This go-around my desire was to cram down your throats suggest titles that illustrate how wonderful historical romances not set in England can really be. No really, they can be. Trust me on this one.

Prairie Wife by Cheryl St. John may be my favorite title by her to date. It's a marriage in trouble story set in the west, about a once happily married couple who drifts apart when their toddler son dies in an accident. It's gut-wrenching, heart-breaking, and damn near sucks all the oxygen out of the room - but man, it packs a wallop!

Married By Midnight by Judith Stacy is an amusing story that will lighten just about any foul mood. It's also set in late 19th century Los Angeles, a setting that is criminally under-utilized. Heroine is a bridesmaid for the third time in a month and is ready to scream. Her latest wedding obligation finds her meeting up with the hero again, several years after he broke her heart. He's ready to settle to down, but doesn't want to deal with all the wedding goo-ga - so he and his buddy enter into a wager to see who can get married within the next month. He meets the heroine again, is immediately smitten with her, completely disregards the wager, they marry and whamo! Yeah, she finds out about it. Not happy. Not happy at all.

The Bride Fair by Cheryl Reavis won the RITA award in 2003 for Best Short Historical, and it's a fantastic story. Set in North Carolina, post-Civil War, the Army Colonel hero, and former POW, is commanding the local occupying troops. Needless to say, nobody is happy to have them there, especially the heroine, whose home has been commandeered to house the commanding officer (uh yeah, the hero). The war has taken everything from her, her father is very ill, and she's carrying a small mountain of burdens. Thrown into this mix is the hero, who begins to show her through his actions that he is a good man, with his own burdens to carry.

This bundle is currently on sale all over the darn place. A few places where it's available:

eHarlequin, retailing for $12.60

Books On Board, retailing for $9.98

Sony Store, retailing for $12.60

Amazon Kindle Store, retailing for $9.99

Barnes & Noble Nook Store, retailing for $9.99

But...I'm not seeing it on Fictionwise yet. Hopefully soon.

ETA: As Phyl indicated in the comments - it's up on Fictionwise now! Yippee! $14.00, with big savings if you use their micropay program.

I really loved all of these stories, and hope you'll like them too. Also, this is the first time any of them has been available (legally anyway) in a digital format. Yeah, for more formats! Yippee!

Harlequin + Super Librarian = More Awesome!

Remember when I posted about the upcoming Cheryl St. John ebook bundle I proposed to Harlequin? The one coming out in January 2010? I mentioned in that post that I had proposed three different ideas for ebook bundles, hoping one would "stick." Turns out - they liked them all!

Coming in February 2010 is the Love, American Style Harlequin Historical bundle! My goal for this bundle was to showcase the diversity that can be found if readers would just Please For The Love Of My Sanity Read Some American Historicals Already. In this bundle are three books that have previously been unavailable in electronic format.

Prairie Wife by Cheryl St. John - Yes, more St. John. But really, you cannot go wrong with this woman! This is my favorite of her books, an emotionally gut-wrenching, western-set, marriage in trouble story (which I normally don't care for - but holy cow is this a good one!).

The Bride Fair by Cheryl Reavis - Reavis is one of my very favorite Harlequin authors who consistently delivers in her historicals as well as her contemporary-set stories. This one takes place post-Civil War, in the South, and features a Southern heroine with a real dilemma on her hands and the Northern, former POW, commanding officer who has commandeered her family home for the occupying troops.

Married By Midnight by Judith Stacy - This is the story that will lighten up the bundle. Set in late 19th century Los Angeles, the heroine finds herself a bridesmaid for the third time in three months, when she runs up against our hero, a man who broke her heart as a young girl. The hero has entered into a wager with his best friend, and ultimately falls under the heroine's spell - but what happens when the heroine finds out about the wager? Yeah, it doesn't bode well for our hero. Stacy is kind of hit or miss for me, and this one was a major hit. It's charming, it's funny, and it's set in Los Angeles. More historicals need to be set in L.A. Says me.

Also, good news via an e-mail bud of mine - she has discovered both of these bundles at the Kindle Store over at Amazon. Just go to the Kindle Store and search "super librarian" and they'll both pop up, available for pre-order. Amazon is retailing both bundles for $9.99 and if their list price is anything to go by - they'll be around $14.00 at other ebook retail outlets. Woot!

As for that third bundle I proposed? Given the theme of the bundle, Harlequin has told me they're holding it back for a Summer 2010 release. And no, I'm not spilling the beans on that one just yet. You'll have to be patient and wait.

Oh Look, He Brought Me Flowers

Nobody ever seems to pimp series romance. But we're talking Cheryl Reavis here people! Cheryl Reavis! The only author who has both a historical and a contemporary in my beloved stash of "keeper" books. You know how it is with most authors - you love them in one genre and when they switch - well you just can't make the switch with them. Reavis happens to be one of my favorite authors, but one of my more problematic ones. Why? She must have a life, because she doesn't churn out that many books. Oh well, I'll take quality over quantity any day. I'm selfish though. Can't help it.

She has a new contemporary coming out from Silhouette Special Edition in March, and it sounds really good! Can't wait! Take a gander:

Medicine Man by Cheryl Reavis - Silhouette Special Edition #1815, March 2007, ISBN 9-780373-24815-5

Description:

He was about to go to a war zone. He couldn't get involved with a woman now.

She was in a battle for custody of her son. She couldn't risk a new romance.

He was half Navajo; he embraced the spiritual wisdom of his ancestors.

She knew nothing about his traditions.

And both Will Baron's and Arley Meehan's big, protective, opinionated families opposed the two of them being together.

If they were smart, they'd walk away from each other fast. If they followed their hearts, who knew what might happen…