The Pretender

The Men of Pride County Series #4

by Rosalyn West

In the heat of the Civil War, blue-uniformed Deacon Sinclair was nursed to health by beautiful Garnet Davis. First he captured her heart and then he stole her innocence. But he was a spy, and though he took away valuable information to his graycoat comrades, he left something behind: a baby he never knew was his. Years later, Deacon has returned to Pride County, but can Garnet trust the man who once shattered her world?

Genres: Historical Romance, Romance, Civil War, Historical, Westerns

384 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published June 1, 1999

About the author

Rosalyn West is other pen name of Nancy Gideon

Reviews

[Misfit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wow. Five days have gone by since I finished this and I really don't remember much about it. Not a good sign. This was an average, run of the mill story with a revenge twist after the heroine believes the hero done her wrong. There were just too many things that didn't make sense and not terribly believable plot twists for my tastes.

[Lotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is part of a series. I haven't read the other novels in the series, but that didn't detract from the story. There were some motivations and relationships among secondary characters that might have been clearer with that knowledge.

There weren't quite as many twists of the knife as I would have expected in a book whose plot is driven by revenge. Garnet gets Deacon over a barrel, taking his home and his livelihood, but this doesn't get driven home quite as much as I had expected. Perhaps this shouldn't be surprising as her chosen method of revenge is to essentially present herself and show how much Deacon's community and family would love to count her among their number. She softens to him fairly quickly and their fights, while terse, were not quite as bitter as I expected.

Deacon was not quite fully formed. His moral code was discussed, but didn't quite mesh. It also never seemed to have occurred to him that it was possible to marry for love (or at least hot, hot sex. Not that the sex in this book is hot).

[L. · Rating 2 out of 5]

During the American Civil War, Confederate Deacon Sinclair (who has some serious Daddy issues) seduces Garnet in order to gain some valuable information for his side. Years later Garnet is back for revenge.

Kind of.

Sorta.

Almost.

Okay, she wimps out in the end.

And now my beef with the story: Deacon doesn't know it but Garnet has his baby. She has another man step in to be her pretend husband/pretend father of the boy, William. When the truth comes out at the end, the adults decide the other man will pretend to die and he will secretly slip away so Deacon and Garnet can marry publicly. No one stops to think what kind of effect this will have upon young William. I mean, this other guy is the only father Willy has ever known. To have his "father" suddenly disappear and another man almost immediately put in place has got to be traumatic for a five-year-old.