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Desperado
The High Sierra, Texas, 1913. Araminta Winthrop was bride to a man she had never desired. Then a black-clad bandit crashed, guns blazing, into her wedding reception, and she became the captive of the notorious, and handsome, Rigo de Castillo.
370 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
2 people are currently reading
171 people want to read
About the author
Rebecca Brandewyne
61 books175 followersBorn in Knoxville, Tennessee, Rebecca lived in Knoxville and then, later, Chattanooga for the first few years of her life. After that, she and her family moved to Kansas, where she grew up, spending her summers in Alabama, visiting both sets of her grandparents. She says she's just a country girl with a dash of big city sprinkled in for spice. But having traveled extensively in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, and the Caribbean, she moves easily between the publishing world of New York and her hometown.
Rebecca graduated cum laude with departmental honors from Wichita State University, earning a B.A. in journalism, minors in history and music (theory and composition), and an M.A. in communications [mass (broadcasting) and interpersonal (dyadic relationships):]. During the course of her education, she was fortunate enough to study at various times under, among several other distinguished instructors, three Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists and one of the foremost authorities in the field of interpersonal communication. Twice a recipient of the Victor Murdock Scholarship, Rebecca taught interpersonal communication at the university level before becoming a published writer.
She was twenty-one when she started work on her first novel, No Gentle Love. She finished the book a year later and sold it to Warner Books some months after her twenty-third birthday, making her, at that time, the youngest romance author in America, a record that stood for ten years before finally being broken. To date, Rebecca has written over thirty consecutive bestselling titles, including novels and novellas on the following lists: New York Times, Publishers Weekly, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Magazine & Bookseller, Ingram, B. Dalton, and Waldenbooks, among many others.
Her books have been translated into a number of foreign languages, including Chinese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Rumanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish; and they have been published in over sixty countries worldwide. Many have been selections of the Doubleday Book Club and Literary Guild. Hardback editions of several titles have been published by Severn House, and large-print editions of some books are also available from Macmillan Library Reference and Thorndike Press. Rebecca currently has millions of books in print in the United States alone.
From Affaire de Coeur magazine, she has won: the Classic Award for Classic Romances, for Love, Cherish Me, 1990; the Golden Quill Award for Best of the '80s Historical Romances, for Love, Cherish Me, 1990; the Bronze Pen (Wholesalers' Choice) Award, 1989; the Silver Pen (Readers' Choice) Award, 1988, 1987, and 1986; and a Gold Certificate for The Outlaw Hearts, 1987.
From Romantic Times magazine, she has won: the Reviewer's Choice Nominee for Best Historical Romantic Mystery, for The Ninefold Key, 2004; the Reviewer's Choice Certificate of Excellence for Victorian Historical Romance, for The Jacaranda Tree, 1995; the KISS (Knight in Shining Silver) of the Month for Best Hero, for The Jacaranda Tree, 1995, and for Swan Road, 1994; the Career Achievement Award for Futuristic Romance, 1991, for Passion Moon Rising and Beyond the Starlit Frost; the Reviewer's Choice Award for Best Historical Gothic, for Across a Starlit Sea, 1989, and for Upon a Moon-Dark Moor, 1988; the Historical Romance Novelist of the Year Award, 1987; and the Reviewer's Choice Award for Best Western Romance, for The Outlaw Hearts, 1986. Rebecca has also been named one of Love's Leading Ladies and inducted into Romantic Times magazine's Hall of Fame.
http://www.brandewyne.com/castle/gall...
Rebecca graduated cum laude with departmental honors from Wichita State University, earning a B.A. in journalism, minors in history and music (theory and composition), and an M.A. in communications [mass (broadcasting) and interpersonal (dyadic relationships):]. During the course of her education, she was fortunate enough to study at various times under, among several other distinguished instructors, three Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists and one of the foremost authorities in the field of interpersonal communication. Twice a recipient of the Victor Murdock Scholarship, Rebecca taught interpersonal communication at the university level before becoming a published writer.
She was twenty-one when she started work on her first novel, No Gentle Love. She finished the book a year later and sold it to Warner Books some months after her twenty-third birthday, making her, at that time, the youngest romance author in America, a record that stood for ten years before finally being broken. To date, Rebecca has written over thirty consecutive bestselling titles, including novels and novellas on the following lists: New York Times, Publishers Weekly, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Magazine & Bookseller, Ingram, B. Dalton, and Waldenbooks, among many others.
Her books have been translated into a number of foreign languages, including Chinese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Rumanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish; and they have been published in over sixty countries worldwide. Many have been selections of the Doubleday Book Club and Literary Guild. Hardback editions of several titles have been published by Severn House, and large-print editions of some books are also available from Macmillan Library Reference and Thorndike Press. Rebecca currently has millions of books in print in the United States alone.
From Affaire de Coeur magazine, she has won: the Classic Award for Classic Romances, for Love, Cherish Me, 1990; the Golden Quill Award for Best of the '80s Historical Romances, for Love, Cherish Me, 1990; the Bronze Pen (Wholesalers' Choice) Award, 1989; the Silver Pen (Readers' Choice) Award, 1988, 1987, and 1986; and a Gold Certificate for The Outlaw Hearts, 1987.
From Romantic Times magazine, she has won: the Reviewer's Choice Nominee for Best Historical Romantic Mystery, for The Ninefold Key, 2004; the Reviewer's Choice Certificate of Excellence for Victorian Historical Romance, for The Jacaranda Tree, 1995; the KISS (Knight in Shining Silver) of the Month for Best Hero, for The Jacaranda Tree, 1995, and for Swan Road, 1994; the Career Achievement Award for Futuristic Romance, 1991, for Passion Moon Rising and Beyond the Starlit Frost; the Reviewer's Choice Award for Best Historical Gothic, for Across a Starlit Sea, 1989, and for Upon a Moon-Dark Moor, 1988; the Historical Romance Novelist of the Year Award, 1987; and the Reviewer's Choice Award for Best Western Romance, for The Outlaw Hearts, 1986. Rebecca has also been named one of Love's Leading Ladies and inducted into Romantic Times magazine's Hall of Fame.
http://www.brandewyne.com/castle/gall...
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 14, 2016
Gloriously bad.
Fantastically purple.
Exceptionally amethyst.
Outstandingly dreadful.
This book gloried in its awfulness, reveled in its ghastliness, climaxed in its cheesiness.
I thought I had read the worst of the bodice-rippers. Nadine Crenshaw gave us pubic hair likened to curly, yellow, parsley leaves. Staying with the theme, Catherine Coulter had one of her heroine's long, silky, golden locks getting stuck in the bushy, coarse, dark curls of the hero's nether regions. Bertrice Small gave us thousands of marble columns, love lances, and man roots plunging into the depths of wet channels, love grottos and honey pots. Lorraine Heath gave her heroine green eyes that the hero saw as fresh grass that he wanted to feel with his bare feet. Many other authors gave us orgasmic kaleidoscopes of rainbow colors.
But Rebecca Brandewyne, I bow down to you, O Queen of the Purpletastic Prose, O Nobel Laureate of Bodice-Rippery, O Empress of all that I love most in 80s style swashbuckling, unintentionally comical, erotic prose. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you:
the mellifluous, engorged nether lips that trembled and unfolded to him in their own avid, needy, accord
the honeyed heart of her cinnabar petals dripping with nectar
the hard, questing blade of his manhood...stabbed swift and deep and true into the molten sheath of her, piercing her to its hilt, in a heart-stopping moment of shattering, white-hot pain that was ultimate domination, all invading and conquering
As fragrant as the smoke-misted rain rose the sweet, musky scent of their primal mating
Headlong, she hastened with him down a high, wild wind, through dark labyrinthine canyons that gave way to sweeping, soaring mesas, where a massive atavistic sun blazed so hot and bright in the endless turquoise sky that, inexorably, it exploded, brutally, breathtakingly, bursting into an infinite spiral of scintillating conflagration, blasting and battering the earth with a dazzling, utopian light that shimmered like a desert mirage, burned like a desert fire, making them cry out as it consumed them, glorified them, and then slowly charred them to cinders until, finally there was naught save stillness and silence.
To paraphrase that infamous scene from When Harry met Sally, I'll have whatever Rebecca Brandewyne is having!
Fantastically purple.
Exceptionally amethyst.
Outstandingly dreadful.
This book gloried in its awfulness, reveled in its ghastliness, climaxed in its cheesiness.
I thought I had read the worst of the bodice-rippers. Nadine Crenshaw gave us pubic hair likened to curly, yellow, parsley leaves. Staying with the theme, Catherine Coulter had one of her heroine's long, silky, golden locks getting stuck in the bushy, coarse, dark curls of the hero's nether regions. Bertrice Small gave us thousands of marble columns, love lances, and man roots plunging into the depths of wet channels, love grottos and honey pots. Lorraine Heath gave her heroine green eyes that the hero saw as fresh grass that he wanted to feel with his bare feet. Many other authors gave us orgasmic kaleidoscopes of rainbow colors.
But Rebecca Brandewyne, I bow down to you, O Queen of the Purpletastic Prose, O Nobel Laureate of Bodice-Rippery, O Empress of all that I love most in 80s style swashbuckling, unintentionally comical, erotic prose. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you:
the mellifluous, engorged nether lips that trembled and unfolded to him in their own avid, needy, accord
the honeyed heart of her cinnabar petals dripping with nectar
the hard, questing blade of his manhood...stabbed swift and deep and true into the molten sheath of her, piercing her to its hilt, in a heart-stopping moment of shattering, white-hot pain that was ultimate domination, all invading and conquering
As fragrant as the smoke-misted rain rose the sweet, musky scent of their primal mating
Headlong, she hastened with him down a high, wild wind, through dark labyrinthine canyons that gave way to sweeping, soaring mesas, where a massive atavistic sun blazed so hot and bright in the endless turquoise sky that, inexorably, it exploded, brutally, breathtakingly, bursting into an infinite spiral of scintillating conflagration, blasting and battering the earth with a dazzling, utopian light that shimmered like a desert mirage, burned like a desert fire, making them cry out as it consumed them, glorified them, and then slowly charred them to cinders until, finally there was naught save stillness and silence.
To paraphrase that infamous scene from When Harry met Sally, I'll have whatever Rebecca Brandewyne is having!
March 24, 2016
Love this author's older books.
December 27, 2012
I really tired hard to read this, even got halfway through, but it was just so boring. I hate to say that about any book yet this one just couldn't hold my attention. The descriptions of the land were fabulous. I could easily see the scenes, but the characters were flat.
February 17, 2021
Cheesy romantic goodness.
October 16, 2017
This is my second novel from the author and I like her writing style. The story was nice sweet romantic tale and I was totally immersed in it. What I don't like about this story was that H/h instantly fell in love with each other and I wished little more drama before that happens and also the epilogue was short.
March 16, 2025
3.5 stars I loved the story, strong heroine and hero, good amount of romance and spice.
The book started out great, but then reverted back and it went into too much unnecessary detail before it really started. Also for a romance book too much in depth info about Mexican revolution.
The book started out great, but then reverted back and it went into too much unnecessary detail before it really started. Also for a romance book too much in depth info about Mexican revolution.
January 22, 2023
Este o carte extraordinara. Mie mi-a placut foarte mult!
August 15, 2013
It's been awhile since I last read Desperado but I loved it; it was passionate, moving and a very engaging read. I fell in love with Rigo and Araminta, I felt for both of them very deeply, I'll have to read it again to remember exactly what happens in the story, but with characters like Rigo and Araminta, revisiting their world would be a joy.
October 17, 2014
love the author was a good read
May 16, 2010
Western Romance
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews