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Men Made in America 2 #1
The Redemption of Deke Summers
A secret past
Deke Summers doesn't need the whine of a high-powered rifle to tell him it's time for a new alias and a different town. Not after someone he loved in a previous life ended up paying the ultimate price.
An uncertain present
Becki Travers tries to keep her distance, but she dares to dream when she sees how well the loner and her little boy to get along.
A terrifying future
When Deke's enemies make Becki's child a pawn in their deadly game, together they race to save him. But if they succeed, Becki will be forced into a choice no woman should ever make: to save the life of the man she loves—or her son.
Deke Summers doesn't need the whine of a high-powered rifle to tell him it's time for a new alias and a different town. Not after someone he loved in a previous life ended up paying the ultimate price.
An uncertain present
Becki Travers tries to keep her distance, but she dares to dream when she sees how well the loner and her little boy to get along.
A terrifying future
When Deke's enemies make Becki's child a pawn in their deadly game, together they race to save him. But if they succeed, Becki will be forced into a choice no woman should ever make: to save the life of the man she loves—or her son.
251 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1997
67 people want to read
About the author
Gayle Wilson
150 books86 followersGayle Wilson is a two-time RITA® Award winner, taking home the RITA® Award for Best Romantic Suspense Novel in 2000 and for Best Romantic Novella in 2004. In addition to twice winning the prestigious RITA® Award, Gayle’s books have garnered more than 50 other awards and nominations, including most recently the Daphne du Maurier Award for the Best Single Title Romantic Suspense of 2008, awarded to Victim, her latest novel from MIRA.
Gayle holds a master’s degree in secondary education, with additional certification in the education of the gifted. Although her specialty was teaching honors and gifted students, as a former high school history and English teacher, she taught everything from remedial reading to Shakespeare—and loved every minute she spent in the classroom.
Gayle was on the board of directors of Romance Writers of America for four years. In 2006 she served as the president of RWA, the largest genre-writers’ organization in the world.
Gayle has written 41 novels and four novellas for Harlequin Enterprises, including works for Harlequin Historicals, Harlequin Intrigue, Special Releases, HQN Books, MIRA, and Mills & Boon.
Gayle holds a master’s degree in secondary education, with additional certification in the education of the gifted. Although her specialty was teaching honors and gifted students, as a former high school history and English teacher, she taught everything from remedial reading to Shakespeare—and loved every minute she spent in the classroom.
Gayle was on the board of directors of Romance Writers of America for four years. In 2006 she served as the president of RWA, the largest genre-writers’ organization in the world.
Gayle has written 41 novels and four novellas for Harlequin Enterprises, including works for Harlequin Historicals, Harlequin Intrigue, Special Releases, HQN Books, MIRA, and Mills & Boon.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 7, 2022
New author to me. Some good sentences .. may try another (newer) book by her.
This is a Harlequin Intrigue .. not a series I generally read. Must have gotten a deal on this old paperback.
This is a Harlequin Intrigue .. not a series I generally read. Must have gotten a deal on this old paperback.
May 16, 2011
Widowed Becki is drawn to her new neighbor, the reclusive John. But when a group of strange armed men break into her home one night to use her as a hostage, she discovers that John -- whose real name is Deke -- has an ugly past. Next thing she knows, Becki and Deke are on the run, trying desperately to locate her missing son before the men hunting Deke can.
Deke really makes this story. He’s strong but gentle, protective and cool-headed, just the guy you'd want to be on the run with. Tormented by past tragedies, he tries to resist Becki, seeing her as just another victim of his mistakes: "Already marked with blood.... There would be no other sacrifices for his failures. No more broken and bloodied bodies." But of course he can't hold out against her healing love forever. Good suspense and touching romance.
Deke really makes this story. He’s strong but gentle, protective and cool-headed, just the guy you'd want to be on the run with. Tormented by past tragedies, he tries to resist Becki, seeing her as just another victim of his mistakes: "Already marked with blood.... There would be no other sacrifices for his failures. No more broken and bloodied bodies." But of course he can't hold out against her healing love forever. Good suspense and touching romance.
January 13, 2012
5 Stars! ~ A mistake made four years ago had forced Deke into hiding from a dangerous militia group. He's Becki's new neighbour; and her son, Josh, wouldn't mind if Becki picked Deke to be her new husband. Deke couldn't stop himself from kissing Becki one starry night, and now the militia are after Josh and Becki to get to him.
This is an incredibly good read. It has everything ... the sexy hero .. the action, the suspense and lots of strong emotion. Deke and Becki are very well developed. One of Ms. Wilson's best works.
This is an incredibly good read. It has everything ... the sexy hero .. the action, the suspense and lots of strong emotion. Deke and Becki are very well developed. One of Ms. Wilson's best works.
February 10, 2018
Reviewed for THC Reviews
"3.5 stars" The Redemption of Deke Summers is one of Gayle Wilson's earliest romantic suspense novels, her third to be exact, and I think it perhaps showed a little of her greenness as an author. I liked it fairly well, but the plot is a somewhat simplistic one. We have a mysterious guy who moves in next-door to a widow, but other than doing some handyman work for her, mostly keeps to himself. Despite the distance, they develop an attraction for one another that eventually leads to a kiss. Then one night, armed men invade her home with the express intention of using her to draw him out. He rescues her from their clutches and takes her on the run with him across the country, until the villains manage to capture several of her family members, including her young son, leading to a tense stand-off. There’s some good suspense that kept me nicely engaged as they find it necessary to evade the bad guys several times. But I found the character and relationship development somewhat lacking, so while it was an easy read that had its good points, the story as a whole wasn’t entirely satisfying.
Deke is a man who’s running from the past and hiding under an assumed name. We don’t learn exactly why until a ways into the story, after he and Becki go on the run. In a nutshell, he worked undercover for the ATF and was involved in a Waco-style incident in which some innocent children were killed. The men who are after him are militant, nationalist types who blame him for the incident and have a nationwide network dedicated to finding him and taking him out. These men did succeed in killing his wife, so now Deke is all alone and trying to stay one step ahead of them, while blaming himself for all the deaths. The pretty widow and her son who live next-door remind him of the life he could’ve had, so one night, after getting drunk, with the loneliness weighing him down, he gives in to temptation and kisses her. Deke has a sympathetic backstory, but we don’t learn much about him beyond these things, nothing about his life before ATF (except for a couple of lines from his ex-partner during the final pages of the book), how he met his wife, or how he felt about her beyond the fact that he loved her and blamed himself for her getting killed. He tends to be the strong, silent type, and while I know many women really go for that, I prefer my heroes to be a little more communicative and vulnerable. I like that he was so protective and self-sacrificing, always trying to put Becki and her son, Josh’s needs above his own, even prepared to give up his life if necessary. But because he doesn’t talk much or interact with Becki on a deeper emotional level, I never got a good sense of why he was falling for her, except that from a physical standpoint, she reminds him of his dead wife, which isn’t really a strong enough reason upon which to base a relationship.
Becki is a school teacher and a widow, her husband having been claimed by cancer several years before the story opens. She hasn’t really dated much, but the guy next-door is undeniably attractive and intrigues her. She’s at least trying to make a few inroads with him toward a dating relationship when the gunmen invade her home. They feed her lies about Deke, and considering that she barely knows him herself, I wasn’t quite certain why she decided to trust him over them. After the first day or so of running, she demands that he tell her everything and he finally fesses up, but until then, she seemed to be going on nothing more than gut instinct. Once Becki knows the truth, I admired her for understanding and for standing by him. She’s a strong woman, taking the unexpected turn of events surprisingly well, and she helps him a lot when he’s injured, keeping a cool head. But much like with Deke, I just never fully grasped how or why she fell in love with him. Her declarations of love came about a little too quickly to be entirely credible. I’m not sure I could have developed that sort of love in such a stressful situation, while knowing so little about the man I was with.
For the most part, The Redemption of Deke Summers focuses pretty narrowly on Deke and Becki as they try to stay one step ahead of the bad guys. In general, the supporting characters tend to orbit the periphery rather than being in the thick of things. Overall, I liked the characters but thought that a few more ingredients could have been added to make them even more interesting. The author’s writing style is a little top-heavy on the prose, with it being pretty densely packed. The story definitely could have benefited from more dialogue to liven things up a little. As I mentioned the suspense is pretty strong, with something new happening on this front fairly often to keep things interesting. This is probably the main thing that kept me reading, because I was wondering what would happen next. If only the romance had been stronger and more vibrant so that I could actually feel the connection between Deke and Becki, this would have been a winner for me. Even still, it was a decent read that left me waffling between 3.5 and 4 stars, but ultimately I decided that the lack of a stronger romance was enough to knock it down the additional half-star. The Redemption of Deke Summers was originally published in the Harlequin Intrigue line of category romance, and was later reprinted as part of their fifty states themed series, Men Made in America 2, as the first entry for Alabama.
"3.5 stars" The Redemption of Deke Summers is one of Gayle Wilson's earliest romantic suspense novels, her third to be exact, and I think it perhaps showed a little of her greenness as an author. I liked it fairly well, but the plot is a somewhat simplistic one. We have a mysterious guy who moves in next-door to a widow, but other than doing some handyman work for her, mostly keeps to himself. Despite the distance, they develop an attraction for one another that eventually leads to a kiss. Then one night, armed men invade her home with the express intention of using her to draw him out. He rescues her from their clutches and takes her on the run with him across the country, until the villains manage to capture several of her family members, including her young son, leading to a tense stand-off. There’s some good suspense that kept me nicely engaged as they find it necessary to evade the bad guys several times. But I found the character and relationship development somewhat lacking, so while it was an easy read that had its good points, the story as a whole wasn’t entirely satisfying.
Deke is a man who’s running from the past and hiding under an assumed name. We don’t learn exactly why until a ways into the story, after he and Becki go on the run. In a nutshell, he worked undercover for the ATF and was involved in a Waco-style incident in which some innocent children were killed. The men who are after him are militant, nationalist types who blame him for the incident and have a nationwide network dedicated to finding him and taking him out. These men did succeed in killing his wife, so now Deke is all alone and trying to stay one step ahead of them, while blaming himself for all the deaths. The pretty widow and her son who live next-door remind him of the life he could’ve had, so one night, after getting drunk, with the loneliness weighing him down, he gives in to temptation and kisses her. Deke has a sympathetic backstory, but we don’t learn much about him beyond these things, nothing about his life before ATF (except for a couple of lines from his ex-partner during the final pages of the book), how he met his wife, or how he felt about her beyond the fact that he loved her and blamed himself for her getting killed. He tends to be the strong, silent type, and while I know many women really go for that, I prefer my heroes to be a little more communicative and vulnerable. I like that he was so protective and self-sacrificing, always trying to put Becki and her son, Josh’s needs above his own, even prepared to give up his life if necessary. But because he doesn’t talk much or interact with Becki on a deeper emotional level, I never got a good sense of why he was falling for her, except that from a physical standpoint, she reminds him of his dead wife, which isn’t really a strong enough reason upon which to base a relationship.
Becki is a school teacher and a widow, her husband having been claimed by cancer several years before the story opens. She hasn’t really dated much, but the guy next-door is undeniably attractive and intrigues her. She’s at least trying to make a few inroads with him toward a dating relationship when the gunmen invade her home. They feed her lies about Deke, and considering that she barely knows him herself, I wasn’t quite certain why she decided to trust him over them. After the first day or so of running, she demands that he tell her everything and he finally fesses up, but until then, she seemed to be going on nothing more than gut instinct. Once Becki knows the truth, I admired her for understanding and for standing by him. She’s a strong woman, taking the unexpected turn of events surprisingly well, and she helps him a lot when he’s injured, keeping a cool head. But much like with Deke, I just never fully grasped how or why she fell in love with him. Her declarations of love came about a little too quickly to be entirely credible. I’m not sure I could have developed that sort of love in such a stressful situation, while knowing so little about the man I was with.
For the most part, The Redemption of Deke Summers focuses pretty narrowly on Deke and Becki as they try to stay one step ahead of the bad guys. In general, the supporting characters tend to orbit the periphery rather than being in the thick of things. Overall, I liked the characters but thought that a few more ingredients could have been added to make them even more interesting. The author’s writing style is a little top-heavy on the prose, with it being pretty densely packed. The story definitely could have benefited from more dialogue to liven things up a little. As I mentioned the suspense is pretty strong, with something new happening on this front fairly often to keep things interesting. This is probably the main thing that kept me reading, because I was wondering what would happen next. If only the romance had been stronger and more vibrant so that I could actually feel the connection between Deke and Becki, this would have been a winner for me. Even still, it was a decent read that left me waffling between 3.5 and 4 stars, but ultimately I decided that the lack of a stronger romance was enough to knock it down the additional half-star. The Redemption of Deke Summers was originally published in the Harlequin Intrigue line of category romance, and was later reprinted as part of their fifty states themed series, Men Made in America 2, as the first entry for Alabama.
January 26, 2024
The rapidity of the relationship between Becki and her son Josh with their neighbor was not convincing, especially since the neighbor was very aloof and did nothing to encourage either of them. Also, when someone is wounded, the effects of that wound do not disappear in a matter of days as it appears to have done in this book. Finally, I had trouble with sex raising its head in life and death situations. Too stupid for words.
May 1, 2010
Needed a light book to take on a hike.. this fit the bill.
I received this as a RABCK and for some reason I wasn't expecting much, but it was an entertaining interlude. Ironically it was the second book within a day or two which dealt with paramilitary groups in the States (the other was Nauti Dreams by Lora Leigh which came through as part of a spiral), so I was at first surprised but then quite familiar with the theme.
I received this as a RABCK and for some reason I wasn't expecting much, but it was an entertaining interlude. Ironically it was the second book within a day or two which dealt with paramilitary groups in the States (the other was Nauti Dreams by Lora Leigh which came through as part of a spiral), so I was at first surprised but then quite familiar with the theme.
June 26, 2010
A very convoluted story, twisty and turn-y to exhaustion, with rather bland characters, nonexistent chemistry, and a group of villains whose motives weren't all that clear.
Thrown in some past issues with both hero and heroine to create tension and you get this bland, mediocre story.
Disappointing for those of us who like hidden-identity plots.
Thrown in some past issues with both hero and heroine to create tension and you get this bland, mediocre story.
Disappointing for those of us who like hidden-identity plots.
August 7, 2016
Another Men Made in America book. This one is set in Alabama. Intriguing storyline. The male lead character is sort of in witness protection of his own making. Somehow he unknowingly involves a woman and her son. Lots of action. Romance too.
August 22, 2010
I really enjoyed this book.
It was a bit intense as the main characters were on the run most of the book and did not know who to trust.
It was a bit intense as the main characters were on the run most of the book and did not know who to trust.
April 20, 2012
Wow! Great read!
April 15, 2013
The ideas they come up with to write a book. It was a page turner.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews