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Broken Vows
Years after being separated by circumstance, lovers Rebekah and Rory meet again and are unable to forget their passion for each other, but Rory is determined to destroy Rebekah's politician husband. Original.
10 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1995
17 people are currently reading
132 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 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 8, 2020
4,5 stars
We have passion,revenge,misunderstandings,secret baby trope,forced marriage,blackmail,mystery murder in "Broken Vows" that takes place during the middle 1800s in the town Wellswille in Nevada,where the youthful innocent heroine Rebekah Sinclair,daughter of a local Presbyterian minister and the irish prize-fighter Rory Madigan who lives a reckless life meet and fall in love.They swore to love each other for all eternity,but her family`s prejudices and another suitors evil intensions separates them,both thinking the other betrayed each other.
I saw in another review that "Broken Vows" reminded her of Judith McNaught`s contemporary romance "Paradise",and i had to agree.The plot went the same way and it has much angst to deliver.I loved Rory and Rebekah when they were young and i loved them even more as adults.It was fun watching Rory obsess over Rebekah all those years and thirsting for revenge,but once he sees her again the thought of revenge flew out of the window!I thought him sooooo cute with his son Michael,the scene where he saves him made me shed some tears!That was so touching!There are more than one villian,but the most despicable of them was Rebekah`s sadistic husband.And i can`t believe that Rebekah`s father was so stupid to let her marry him!!!No wonder Rory despised the lot of them,they took everything away from him!
This book was dry on some parts which is why i can`t give it full 5 stars,but was otherwise an engaging read that made me so excited that i was distracted the whole day by it.It also mentioned the main-couple from "Terms of Love" which i found intruging!By the way,i think the cover looks beautiful!
We have passion,revenge,misunderstandings,secret baby trope,forced marriage,blackmail,mystery murder in "Broken Vows" that takes place during the middle 1800s in the town Wellswille in Nevada,where the youthful innocent heroine Rebekah Sinclair,daughter of a local Presbyterian minister and the irish prize-fighter Rory Madigan who lives a reckless life meet and fall in love.They swore to love each other for all eternity,but her family`s prejudices and another suitors evil intensions separates them,both thinking the other betrayed each other.
I saw in another review that "Broken Vows" reminded her of Judith McNaught`s contemporary romance "Paradise",and i had to agree.The plot went the same way and it has much angst to deliver.I loved Rory and Rebekah when they were young and i loved them even more as adults.It was fun watching Rory obsess over Rebekah all those years and thirsting for revenge,but once he sees her again the thought of revenge flew out of the window!I thought him sooooo cute with his son Michael,the scene where he saves him made me shed some tears!That was so touching!There are more than one villian,but the most despicable of them was Rebekah`s sadistic husband.And i can`t believe that Rebekah`s father was so stupid to let her marry him!!!No wonder Rory despised the lot of them,they took everything away from him!
This book was dry on some parts which is why i can`t give it full 5 stars,but was otherwise an engaging read that made me so excited that i was distracted the whole day by it.It also mentioned the main-couple from "Terms of Love" which i found intruging!By the way,i think the cover looks beautiful!
March 12, 2012
Superb Storytelling and an Irish Hunk to Love!
Set in Nevada in the late 19th century (beginning in 1870) during the silver boom on the Comstock Lode, Henke delivers a superb tale of young love, prejudice (against the Irish among others), deception, treachery and love’s second chances. I highly recommend it.
Rebekah Sinclair, a small town preacher’s daughter, and Rory Madigan, an impoverished Irish immigrant who worked his way West as a prizefighter, meet and quickly fall in love. In a night of passion, they vow to love each other forever and Rory asks Rebekah to marry him and tells her he will find a way to make enough money to win her parents’ respect. However, an evil rich man who wants Rebekah on his arm as he rises in politics conspires to keep Rory from her and his efforts are aided by the bigotry of Rebekah’s family. As a result Rory and Rebekah are separated, each believing betrayed by the other. In a story reminiscent of Judith McNaught’s PARADISE (another 5 star but a contemporary), Rory and Rebekah meet again years later when Rory is rich and influential and bent on revenge. But true love will have its day….
I know I’m reading a 5 star novel when I cannot put it down and my emotions are truly engaged. In this case, I also ended up reading it through much of the night, it was that good. Her wonderful characters are richly drawn and her plot weaves an intriguing story. Henke gives us a taste of the West when it was still wild enough that murder and corruption went without retribution, when powerful men used others for their own greed and lust. Then, too, living in America now, we forget the Irish were not just persecuted by the English in Ireland; they were persecuted here as well. Though Rebekah was poor, her family would never consider an Irish Catholic an acceptable husband, no matter how much she loved him. Thank God it’s a romance and all comes right in the end. You won’t regret getting this one!
Set in Nevada in the late 19th century (beginning in 1870) during the silver boom on the Comstock Lode, Henke delivers a superb tale of young love, prejudice (against the Irish among others), deception, treachery and love’s second chances. I highly recommend it.
Rebekah Sinclair, a small town preacher’s daughter, and Rory Madigan, an impoverished Irish immigrant who worked his way West as a prizefighter, meet and quickly fall in love. In a night of passion, they vow to love each other forever and Rory asks Rebekah to marry him and tells her he will find a way to make enough money to win her parents’ respect. However, an evil rich man who wants Rebekah on his arm as he rises in politics conspires to keep Rory from her and his efforts are aided by the bigotry of Rebekah’s family. As a result Rory and Rebekah are separated, each believing betrayed by the other. In a story reminiscent of Judith McNaught’s PARADISE (another 5 star but a contemporary), Rory and Rebekah meet again years later when Rory is rich and influential and bent on revenge. But true love will have its day….
I know I’m reading a 5 star novel when I cannot put it down and my emotions are truly engaged. In this case, I also ended up reading it through much of the night, it was that good. Her wonderful characters are richly drawn and her plot weaves an intriguing story. Henke gives us a taste of the West when it was still wild enough that murder and corruption went without retribution, when powerful men used others for their own greed and lust. Then, too, living in America now, we forget the Irish were not just persecuted by the English in Ireland; they were persecuted here as well. Though Rebekah was poor, her family would never consider an Irish Catholic an acceptable husband, no matter how much she loved him. Thank God it’s a romance and all comes right in the end. You won’t regret getting this one!
August 16, 2022
This one took me so long to finish because I felt like it kind of dragged. The book is split into two parts, with the second part told around 8 years later. The first part really held my attention even though the plot wasn't anything special but I'm just a sucker for 'forbidden love' tropes.
The heroine Rebekah is a preacher's daughter, and the hero Rory is an Irish prizefighter; they are from opposing faiths but of the same 'class'. With her family being poor, they want better for their daughter so not only are they against the two being together because of his profession, and religion, but they also don't want someone from the same class and are instead pushing her toward Amos Wells, a wealthy politician that has taken an interest in Rebekah.
I skimmed what was probably the last 50 pages of the book since I lost interest in the story since it felt too much for me at that point. More of a me thing since I think I ignored the part of the blurb where it said Rebekah married a senator, and I have no interest when characters suddenly become political figures with huge fortunes. I wanted the focus to be more on the romance and I guess I was just expecting more angst between the characters.
I don't know what I'm talking about at this point lol it's almost 5am I just wanted to write down my thoughts before collapsing. Anyway, the bottom line is I don't regret reading it but I wouldn't mind having not read it so 3 stars for the good start but it fell flat in the end.
The heroine Rebekah is a preacher's daughter, and the hero Rory is an Irish prizefighter; they are from opposing faiths but of the same 'class'. With her family being poor, they want better for their daughter so not only are they against the two being together because of his profession, and religion, but they also don't want someone from the same class and are instead pushing her toward Amos Wells, a wealthy politician that has taken an interest in Rebekah.
I skimmed what was probably the last 50 pages of the book since I lost interest in the story since it felt too much for me at that point. More of a me thing since I think I ignored the part of the blurb where it said Rebekah married a senator, and I have no interest when characters suddenly become political figures with huge fortunes. I wanted the focus to be more on the romance and I guess I was just expecting more angst between the characters.
I don't know what I'm talking about at this point lol it's almost 5am I just wanted to write down my thoughts before collapsing. Anyway, the bottom line is I don't regret reading it but I wouldn't mind having not read it so 3 stars for the good start but it fell flat in the end.
June 20, 2018
Surprisingly good
I happened by chance on this author and this book the other day while looking at recommendations by Amazon. I immediately was drawn to it because the cover is exactly the same as the cover of the book I had just finished. But that is where the likeness ended, with the cover.
This is a truly good story and we'll written. The characters are well described and developed throughout. The plot is interesting and creative.
The basic storyline consists of a young pastor 's daughter and a poor, drifter, prize fighter who have an immediate attraction when she sees him fighting during an illegal match. The prejudices against Irish immigrants in the country, let alone this mining town in Nevada, make the likelihood of this relationship impossible. The romance is sweet and desperate. The writing is wonderful. Many twists and turns in the plot with an unexpected outcome.
I highly recommend this one to readers of historical romance fiction. I look forward to reading more books by the author.
By the way, I don't care for the cover. It's the one thing I disliked about this book.
I happened by chance on this author and this book the other day while looking at recommendations by Amazon. I immediately was drawn to it because the cover is exactly the same as the cover of the book I had just finished. But that is where the likeness ended, with the cover.
This is a truly good story and we'll written. The characters are well described and developed throughout. The plot is interesting and creative.
The basic storyline consists of a young pastor 's daughter and a poor, drifter, prize fighter who have an immediate attraction when she sees him fighting during an illegal match. The prejudices against Irish immigrants in the country, let alone this mining town in Nevada, make the likelihood of this relationship impossible. The romance is sweet and desperate. The writing is wonderful. Many twists and turns in the plot with an unexpected outcome.
I highly recommend this one to readers of historical romance fiction. I look forward to reading more books by the author.
By the way, I don't care for the cover. It's the one thing I disliked about this book.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews