Midnight Rain

by Elizabeth Turner

Determined to break the heart of saloon singer and former debutante Alana Fairchild and thus avenge his brother, California rancher Trey Matthews finds himself falling for the devotion of his unsuspecting new bride. Original.

372 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1994

About the author

born: 1943
A pseudonym used by Gail Oust.

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
(1) romance

Reviews

[ANGELIA · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was okay, but it had its weak points. It's difficult to believe that the h would leave her upper-class home to elope with a guy she barely knew, no matter how charming his British accent. And after her husband of barely a week is killed, instead of coming back home to her parents and sister and hope for forgiveness, she gets on a train and heads for California with a strange man who promises to help her. Of course, in La La land, she becomes a very popular saloon singer who manages to hand onto her virtue, but in real life I doubt she'd have had so good an outcome.

And while the H may have thought he had a reason to despise her and want vengeance (blaming her for his brother's death), after a time it got redundant, all his "one step forward, two steps back" when it came to their relationship, especially his marrying her, hoping to break her heart like she broke his brother's, and instead getting jealous of the OM and being dumb enough to listen to the villain in the story, who told him the h and OM were lovers. (He acted as stupid as a lot of h's do in books where they believe the conniving OW.)

There's a lot of fighting, action, misunderstandings, and some serious thoughts about suicide, and the pain it can cause, leaving people (like the H) to blame themselves, think they might have prevented it, and blame others unfairly (like the h).

I liked the tribute the h made at the end, for the man who was once her suitor and became her late brother-in-law.

Part of the story also dealt with illegal Mexican immigrants, which is pretty ironic today.

The best part of the book is how the H and h both slowly make a new life for themselves, each putting the pasts to rests as well as their misunderstandings.

It's not perfect, but still worth checking out.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an ok read. I found myself having to re read the previous pages as I was often confused or forgot what was happening in the story.

The story took a small turn that I didn't care for. Alana felt she was not married for love and was mistreated quite a bit in the story. Then there was the threat of rape by the hired hand.