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Tulsa #1
Tulsa Tempest
When country girl Tessa Jurgen learns that her bootlegging father has promised her in marriage to a man she doesn't love, she seeks refuge in the supposedly progressive boom town of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The year is 1921.
As governess to the children of an old baron, Tessa is befriended by the black household servants. Chloe, Jasper, and Pole. Together they become a true family. But the rakishly handsome school teacher Gaven MacIntyre is also interested in forming a partnership with Tessa, despite his worry that she is "overly friendly" to black people.
Racial tensions remain at a simmer until Jasper and a friend are accused of "accosting" a white girl. Will Tessa stand up for what she knows is right, even if it means losing Gaven?
As governess to the children of an old baron, Tessa is befriended by the black household servants. Chloe, Jasper, and Pole. Together they become a true family. But the rakishly handsome school teacher Gaven MacIntyre is also interested in forming a partnership with Tessa, despite his worry that she is "overly friendly" to black people.
Racial tensions remain at a simmer until Jasper and a friend are accused of "accosting" a white girl. Will Tessa stand up for what she knows is right, even if it means losing Gaven?
170 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 1, 1995
2 people are currently reading
10 people want to read
About the author
Norma Jean Lutz
120 books22 followersNorma Jean Lutz’s writing career began when she enrolled in a writing correspondence course. Since then, she has had over 250 short stories and articles published in both secular and Christian publications. The full-time writer is also the author of over 50 published books under her own name and many ghostwritten books. Her books have been favorably reviewed in Affair de Coeur, Coffee Time Romance, Romance Reader at Heart, and The Romance Studio magazines, and her short fiction has garnered a number of first prizes in local writing contests.
Norma Jean is the founder of the Professionalism In Writing School, which was held annually in Tulsa for fourteen years. This writers' conference, which closed its doors in 1996, gave many writers their start in the publishing world.
A gifted teacher, Norma Jean has taught a variety of writing courses at local colleges and community schools, and is a frequent speaker at writers' seminars around the country. For eight years, she taught on staff for the Institute of Children's Literature. She has served as artist-in-residence at grade schools, and for two years taught a staff development workshop for language arts teachers in schools in Northeastern Oklahoma.
As co-host for the Tulsa KNYD Road Show, she shared the microphone with Kim Spence to present the Road Show Book Club, a feature presented by the station for more than a year. She has also appeared in numerous interviews on KDOR-TV.
Norma Jean has brought out past out-of-print novels to create a new series. These teen novels (which she likes to call "Clean Teen Reads") were published in the 1980s and 90s, yet the story lines are timeless. Sporting new titles and new book covers, these books will become part of the "Norma Jean Lutz Classic Collection" series.
Her newest teen offering is Brought to You By the Color Drab. A story of a young man living in the ghetto who seemingly was born in the wrong place in the wrong time. This is a story of redemption!
Norma Jean is the founder of the Professionalism In Writing School, which was held annually in Tulsa for fourteen years. This writers' conference, which closed its doors in 1996, gave many writers their start in the publishing world.
A gifted teacher, Norma Jean has taught a variety of writing courses at local colleges and community schools, and is a frequent speaker at writers' seminars around the country. For eight years, she taught on staff for the Institute of Children's Literature. She has served as artist-in-residence at grade schools, and for two years taught a staff development workshop for language arts teachers in schools in Northeastern Oklahoma.
As co-host for the Tulsa KNYD Road Show, she shared the microphone with Kim Spence to present the Road Show Book Club, a feature presented by the station for more than a year. She has also appeared in numerous interviews on KDOR-TV.
Norma Jean has brought out past out-of-print novels to create a new series. These teen novels (which she likes to call "Clean Teen Reads") were published in the 1980s and 90s, yet the story lines are timeless. Sporting new titles and new book covers, these books will become part of the "Norma Jean Lutz Classic Collection" series.
Her newest teen offering is Brought to You By the Color Drab. A story of a young man living in the ghetto who seemingly was born in the wrong place in the wrong time. This is a story of redemption!
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 31, 2013
The year was 1921; the place was Tulsa, Oklahoma during the Tulsa race riots. The story centered on a nineteen year old woman, Tessa, who fled to Tulsa to avoid marrying one of her father’s drunken buddies.
Tessa is not at all prejudice and she proves it time and again. Her strong beliefs rub off on a man she comes to love.
While I enjoyed the story and the history, I felt there wasn’t enough action and conflict for such a violent and tumultuous time in history. I also found it difficult to establish and maintain Tessa as a nineteen year old, as she was repeatedly described and perceived as much younger throughout the story.
A Christian tone was sprinkled throughout Tulsa Tempest, but not in a preachy way. Tulsa Tempest is an approachable way to be introduced to the Tulsa riots of 1921.
Tessa is not at all prejudice and she proves it time and again. Her strong beliefs rub off on a man she comes to love.
While I enjoyed the story and the history, I felt there wasn’t enough action and conflict for such a violent and tumultuous time in history. I also found it difficult to establish and maintain Tessa as a nineteen year old, as she was repeatedly described and perceived as much younger throughout the story.
A Christian tone was sprinkled throughout Tulsa Tempest, but not in a preachy way. Tulsa Tempest is an approachable way to be introduced to the Tulsa riots of 1921.
October 22, 2017
This reminds me a lot of a Grace Livingston Hill novel. There is a simple, sweet romance (too fast-moving, though), lustful bad men, a brave heroine, a somewhat weak male love interest who changes at the end (seeming a little sudden), children who become friends with the heroine, and the friendly black workers who befriend the heroine. She stands up for them in their time of trouble, and the riots come near the end of the book. Has some worth-while moments and was just the type of easy-reading I was looking for, but it's nothing earth-shattering and is Arminian in theology.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews