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Santa Fe Trilogy #3
Deep as the Rivers
With the Mississippi beckoning, Colonel Samuel Shelby is eager for his mission: making peace with the fierce Osage Indians. He is certain the task will prove easier than making peace with his faithless wife. The dangerous wilderness seems a welcome refuge...until he meets beautiful, headstrong Olivia St. Etienne.
When the fire-haired Olivia discovers that her guardian plans to sell her as a mistress to the darkly handsome colonel whom she dreamed would marry her, the heartsick girl flees, only to be cast unwillingly into his arms.
Together, Olivia and Samuel must survive the savage wilderness, engaged in a battle of wills which both vow to win, but which both are fated to lose. From ballrooms along the Potomac to Osage lodges on the Missouri, from rowdy St. Louis down the mighty Mississippi to elegant New Orleans, the lovers discover a passion as wild, as turbulent, and as deep as the rivers.
When the fire-haired Olivia discovers that her guardian plans to sell her as a mistress to the darkly handsome colonel whom she dreamed would marry her, the heartsick girl flees, only to be cast unwillingly into his arms.
Together, Olivia and Samuel must survive the savage wilderness, engaged in a battle of wills which both vow to win, but which both are fated to lose. From ballrooms along the Potomac to Osage lodges on the Missouri, from rowdy St. Louis down the mighty Mississippi to elegant New Orleans, the lovers discover a passion as wild, as turbulent, and as deep as the rivers.
381 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
9 people are currently reading
96 people want to read
About the author
Shirl Henke
63 books77 followersaka Alexa Hunt.
Working my way through college provided great life experiences for a novelist. One problem. I didn’t know I was destined to write books. Instead, I floundered around during and after receiving my B.A. and M.A. in history from the University of Missouri. None of my wide variety of jobs satisfied me: cashier for a loan company, public welfare caseworker, assistant circulation manager for a small daily, editor for several “house organ” newspapers, administrator of a federal information program for the elderly.
Finally I was offered the opportunity to use my history degrees, teaching in a large urban university in the Northeast. I truly enjoyed it. Unfortunately, when the history requirement was dropped for incoming students, so was my instructorship. After that I taught gerontology, sociology, proposal writing for social service agencies and freshman composition at the same university. Further life experiences. My last two years of teaching were in remedial English—just the nudge I needed to take this writing thing seriously.
Since childhood I’ve been an avid reader, everything from Robert Heinlein’s sci-fi adventures to Frank Yerby’s historical romantic sagas. More recently I became hooked on thrillers. Since childhood I had story ideas in my head, but never the epiphany to write them. Okay, maybe I just didn’t have the courage. But there were just so many times I could explain what a verb was to a college senior before I realized that maybe writing a book might be easier. I sold my first novel, a big historical romance titled GOLDEN LADY, to Warner Books in 1985. Within two years, I quit remedial comp. Now I can't imagine doing anything but writing for a living. In 2005 I switched over to the “dark side.” Tor published two political thrillers, CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY and HOMELAND SECURITY under the pseudonym Alexa Hunt. I’ve also written romantic suspense for Penguin Onyx and Silhouette Bombshell as Shirl Henke. Since I began my career, I’ve appeared on the USA TODAY bestseller list, been a RITA Finalist twice, received a BookraK Bestseller Award, and won three Career Achievement Awards, an Industry Award and three Reviewers Choice Awards from Romantic Times.
My husband Jim Henke is a former cabdriver, bartender, sailor, judo instructor and English professor. He's a scholarly authority on obscene slang and a master at its use, but an astonishingly understanding man who puts up with my all-night writing sprees and sudden dashes to my desk to jot down bits of dialogue as dinner burns on the stove. Since he took early retirement from academe, he has helped me brainstorm plots and research my novels.
After four years in the U.S. Air Force, our son Matt works in telecommunications and lives in an adjacent county with his brute of a cat, Max. Jim and I now share our cedar house in the woods with a pair of utterly adorable tomcats, Inky and Pewter, whose destructive capacity rivals that of a medium sized thermonuclear weapon. But just as life without writing would be unimaginable, so would life without cats.
For therapy when I'm not at the computer or off researching a new book, I cook large dinners for our extended family, putter in my garden and greenhouse, and still read voraciously. When deadlines permit, I love to travel. I'm a member of the Author's Guild, Romance Writers of America, Missouri Romance Writers, Sisters in Crime, Novelists Inc. and International Thriller Writers
I wrote my first twenty-two novels in longhand with a ball-point pen--it's hard to get good quills these days. Dragged into the 21st century, I now use one of those "devil machines. Another troglodyte bites the dust
Working my way through college provided great life experiences for a novelist. One problem. I didn’t know I was destined to write books. Instead, I floundered around during and after receiving my B.A. and M.A. in history from the University of Missouri. None of my wide variety of jobs satisfied me: cashier for a loan company, public welfare caseworker, assistant circulation manager for a small daily, editor for several “house organ” newspapers, administrator of a federal information program for the elderly.
Finally I was offered the opportunity to use my history degrees, teaching in a large urban university in the Northeast. I truly enjoyed it. Unfortunately, when the history requirement was dropped for incoming students, so was my instructorship. After that I taught gerontology, sociology, proposal writing for social service agencies and freshman composition at the same university. Further life experiences. My last two years of teaching were in remedial English—just the nudge I needed to take this writing thing seriously.
Since childhood I’ve been an avid reader, everything from Robert Heinlein’s sci-fi adventures to Frank Yerby’s historical romantic sagas. More recently I became hooked on thrillers. Since childhood I had story ideas in my head, but never the epiphany to write them. Okay, maybe I just didn’t have the courage. But there were just so many times I could explain what a verb was to a college senior before I realized that maybe writing a book might be easier. I sold my first novel, a big historical romance titled GOLDEN LADY, to Warner Books in 1985. Within two years, I quit remedial comp. Now I can't imagine doing anything but writing for a living. In 2005 I switched over to the “dark side.” Tor published two political thrillers, CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY and HOMELAND SECURITY under the pseudonym Alexa Hunt. I’ve also written romantic suspense for Penguin Onyx and Silhouette Bombshell as Shirl Henke. Since I began my career, I’ve appeared on the USA TODAY bestseller list, been a RITA Finalist twice, received a BookraK Bestseller Award, and won three Career Achievement Awards, an Industry Award and three Reviewers Choice Awards from Romantic Times.
My husband Jim Henke is a former cabdriver, bartender, sailor, judo instructor and English professor. He's a scholarly authority on obscene slang and a master at its use, but an astonishingly understanding man who puts up with my all-night writing sprees and sudden dashes to my desk to jot down bits of dialogue as dinner burns on the stove. Since he took early retirement from academe, he has helped me brainstorm plots and research my novels.
After four years in the U.S. Air Force, our son Matt works in telecommunications and lives in an adjacent county with his brute of a cat, Max. Jim and I now share our cedar house in the woods with a pair of utterly adorable tomcats, Inky and Pewter, whose destructive capacity rivals that of a medium sized thermonuclear weapon. But just as life without writing would be unimaginable, so would life without cats.
For therapy when I'm not at the computer or off researching a new book, I cook large dinners for our extended family, putter in my garden and greenhouse, and still read voraciously. When deadlines permit, I love to travel. I'm a member of the Author's Guild, Romance Writers of America, Missouri Romance Writers, Sisters in Crime, Novelists Inc. and International Thriller Writers
I wrote my first twenty-two novels in longhand with a ball-point pen--it's hard to get good quills these days. Dragged into the 21st century, I now use one of those "devil machines. Another troglodyte bites the dust
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 9, 2020
Read this one years ago, but his time around I found myself getting very bored and couldn’t wait for it to end. Unnecessary drama, wanted to hit Samuel and Olivia around the head and say “sort it out”. Long drawn out passages and chapters and never felt a connection between Samuel and Olivia.
November 18, 2012
When I read this, I did not know it was the third in a series. I don't feel that it made much of a difference though. I thought the book had very good potential, but too many bad things kept happening to the hero and heroine. It gets to a point where you want to scream, "enough already!" It was pretty good-I rate it at 3 1/2 stars.
October 14, 2024
Way too much drama, otherwise would've given it a 4-star.
December 1, 2015
The Western Frontier During the War of 1812
A well-researched sage, this is book 3 in the Santa Fe trilogy and tells the story of Elise Louvois’ brother Colonel Samuel Shelby, introduced in book 2. Shelby is sent west by President Madison to make peace with the Osage Indians. He is happy to go being married to a harridan who he plans to divorce. However, his wife needs him for her own purposes and sees that the divorce request goes awry.
In St. Louis, Shelby meets Olivia St. Etienne masquerading as a lad racing horses for her manipulative guardian. When the guardian discovers Shelby’s attraction for his ward, he plans to sell her to Shelby as his mistress since the guardian knows Shelby is married. But when Olivia overhears their plans, she wants nothing to do with Shelby though she was previously attracted to him.
Olivia heads up river where Shelby has also gone, never knowing they will soon be thrown together.
There’s real history here and real historic figures including Dolley Madison. And lots of action in this one with some engaging characters. My favorite was the mountain man who takes Olivia in when she is desperate. Unlike Shelby, the mountain man treats her well and teaches her how to live in the wild. Shelby, who for most of the book thought the worst of Olivia, eventually comes around.
Characters from the first two books make appearances in this one, so I do recommend reading them in order.
The Santa Fe trilogy:
Night Wind’s Woman
White Apache’s Woman
Deep as the Rivers
A well-researched sage, this is book 3 in the Santa Fe trilogy and tells the story of Elise Louvois’ brother Colonel Samuel Shelby, introduced in book 2. Shelby is sent west by President Madison to make peace with the Osage Indians. He is happy to go being married to a harridan who he plans to divorce. However, his wife needs him for her own purposes and sees that the divorce request goes awry.
In St. Louis, Shelby meets Olivia St. Etienne masquerading as a lad racing horses for her manipulative guardian. When the guardian discovers Shelby’s attraction for his ward, he plans to sell her to Shelby as his mistress since the guardian knows Shelby is married. But when Olivia overhears their plans, she wants nothing to do with Shelby though she was previously attracted to him.
Olivia heads up river where Shelby has also gone, never knowing they will soon be thrown together.
There’s real history here and real historic figures including Dolley Madison. And lots of action in this one with some engaging characters. My favorite was the mountain man who takes Olivia in when she is desperate. Unlike Shelby, the mountain man treats her well and teaches her how to live in the wild. Shelby, who for most of the book thought the worst of Olivia, eventually comes around.
Characters from the first two books make appearances in this one, so I do recommend reading them in order.
The Santa Fe trilogy:
Night Wind’s Woman
White Apache’s Woman
Deep as the Rivers
August 31, 2015
Deep as the Rivers
I've just finished this last book and I feel it is the best one in the trilogy. It grabbed my attention from the first chapter & I never wanted to put it down. I didn't think the author could create any other characters as interesting and "connected" as Samuel & Olivia, but she tied all the families together and you instantly knew how the connections came about. I heartily recommend this Santa Fe Trilogy and will find myself reading them again.
I've just finished this last book and I feel it is the best one in the trilogy. It grabbed my attention from the first chapter & I never wanted to put it down. I didn't think the author could create any other characters as interesting and "connected" as Samuel & Olivia, but she tied all the families together and you instantly knew how the connections came about. I heartily recommend this Santa Fe Trilogy and will find myself reading them again.
May 6, 2016
A good read but long. Everything that could possibly happen to these two lovers, does, including a natural disaster.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews