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In the Midnight Rain
Looking For The Past...
Ellie Connor is a biographer with a special talent for piecing together fragments of the past. Her latest project, though, promises to be her most challenging--and personal. Not only is she researching the life of a blues singer who disappeared mysteriously forty years ago, but Ellie is also trying to find the truth about the parents she never knew. The love child of a restless woman who died young and an anonymous father, Ellie has little to go on but a faded postcard her mother sent from a small East Texas town--the hometown of her latest subject.
Could Mean Finding Her Future
It is there that Ellie meets Blue Reynard, a man with deep roots and wide connections who may help her find answers. With a piercing gaze and cool grin, Blue is as sultry and seductive as the Southern night air. Beneath his charming surface, however, lies a soul damaged by loss. Despite her better judgment, Ellie finds herself irresistibly drawn to Blue's passion--and his pain. But Ellie's been lured by sweet talk and hot kisses before. How can she possibly stay with blue when every instinct tells her to run?
Ellie Connor is a biographer with a special talent for piecing together fragments of the past. Her latest project, though, promises to be her most challenging--and personal. Not only is she researching the life of a blues singer who disappeared mysteriously forty years ago, but Ellie is also trying to find the truth about the parents she never knew. The love child of a restless woman who died young and an anonymous father, Ellie has little to go on but a faded postcard her mother sent from a small East Texas town--the hometown of her latest subject.
Could Mean Finding Her Future
It is there that Ellie meets Blue Reynard, a man with deep roots and wide connections who may help her find answers. With a piercing gaze and cool grin, Blue is as sultry and seductive as the Southern night air. Beneath his charming surface, however, lies a soul damaged by loss. Despite her better judgment, Ellie finds herself irresistibly drawn to Blue's passion--and his pain. But Ellie's been lured by sweet talk and hot kisses before. How can she possibly stay with blue when every instinct tells her to run?
420 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 451 reviews
April 19, 2013
This book was fantastic = I literally had to force myself to go to sleep while reading it as I could not put it down. First thing in the morning I had to keep reading. The relationship between Blue and Elle is very intense and I had a knot in my stomach most of the way through thinking "can they make it?" Really excellent story with strong secondary characters. Well worth 99 cents on my Kindle.
April 21, 2022
How could you not like a hero whose first name was Blue?
Dr. Laurence 'Blue' Reynard was a charmer and a ladies’ man "with a bourbon voice, smoky and gold and dangerous." He owned a "rat-dog" named Sasha and an elderly cat on death's door called Piwacket. He was a guy who grew and studied orchids and was a lover of old music. His speech was loaded with ”blurred Southern vowels".
After corresponding with him in a blues music newsgroup on the Internet, biographer Ellie Connor took up Dr. Reynard's offer of a cottage on his property in Pine Bend, Texas. She was a music historian. She intended to research and write on native blues singer Mabel Beauvais: a rising star whom mysteriously vanished one day long ago.
Ellie was expecting someone much older than the devilishly handsome Blue. And Blue found himself attracted to her.
”Ellie rolled down the window, letting in the thick midday air. Wind blew her hair back from her serious, intent face. Blue imagined she was imprinting details, and as if to give that theory credence, she inhaled deeply, lifting her nose like a dog scenting the air. He smiled."
Besides writing Mabel's narrative, Ellie had another puzzle to solve. Tied with this land, she hoped to locate her father. Her mother was a product of the late 1960's hippie movement. She had spent a long summer in Pine Bend, then returned home to western Louisiana: unwed and pregnant. After leaving Ellie with her mother, she took off again. Eventually, she died from an overdose of drugs leaving Ellie to wonder about her father.
In the Midnight Rain was a breathless romance between two unlikely characters. It contained plenty of secrets packed with moments of angst. The townspeople pushed the story along with sultry nights, haunting music and old-fashioned gossip.
In some ways, it eerily reminded me of a modern-day gothic. And like molasses, I read Blue's and Ellie's story slowly. The author's strength was found in her crisp wordplay; the sentences flowed with descriptive words. I sunk into this enchanting mystery and didn't want to climb out.
Dr. Laurence 'Blue' Reynard was a charmer and a ladies’ man "with a bourbon voice, smoky and gold and dangerous." He owned a "rat-dog" named Sasha and an elderly cat on death's door called Piwacket. He was a guy who grew and studied orchids and was a lover of old music. His speech was loaded with ”blurred Southern vowels".
After corresponding with him in a blues music newsgroup on the Internet, biographer Ellie Connor took up Dr. Reynard's offer of a cottage on his property in Pine Bend, Texas. She was a music historian. She intended to research and write on native blues singer Mabel Beauvais: a rising star whom mysteriously vanished one day long ago.
Ellie was expecting someone much older than the devilishly handsome Blue. And Blue found himself attracted to her.
”Ellie rolled down the window, letting in the thick midday air. Wind blew her hair back from her serious, intent face. Blue imagined she was imprinting details, and as if to give that theory credence, she inhaled deeply, lifting her nose like a dog scenting the air. He smiled."
Besides writing Mabel's narrative, Ellie had another puzzle to solve. Tied with this land, she hoped to locate her father. Her mother was a product of the late 1960's hippie movement. She had spent a long summer in Pine Bend, then returned home to western Louisiana: unwed and pregnant. After leaving Ellie with her mother, she took off again. Eventually, she died from an overdose of drugs leaving Ellie to wonder about her father.
In the Midnight Rain was a breathless romance between two unlikely characters. It contained plenty of secrets packed with moments of angst. The townspeople pushed the story along with sultry nights, haunting music and old-fashioned gossip.
In some ways, it eerily reminded me of a modern-day gothic. And like molasses, I read Blue's and Ellie's story slowly. The author's strength was found in her crisp wordplay; the sentences flowed with descriptive words. I sunk into this enchanting mystery and didn't want to climb out.
September 11, 2019
Wow. Just . . . Wow.
This book is an emotional journey. Part love story, part mystery, it touched my heart. Ellie looks at Blue Reynard and sees that he's broken. She knows she can't fix him. She knows better than to get involved with a man like him. She's done it before, and it's never ended well. She can't resist, but she doesn't kid herself that it's more than an interlude.
Blue has lost a lot in his life and he doesn't think he can survive any more loss. He meets Ellie online where they discuss music (mostly the blues) which they're both passionate about. When she decides to write a biography about a '30 blues singer from his small town, he invites her to stay in his guest house. As she explores the mystery of why this blues singer walked away from her promising career (as well as a personal mystery about the father she's never known), things ignite between the two.
As I read this, I couldn't help but think about the movies made from Faulkner's Long, Hot Summer. Somehow the feelings of hope and despair all intertwined in the story in way that left me totally sated. I need a little decompression time, I think, before I start another book.
This book is an emotional journey. Part love story, part mystery, it touched my heart. Ellie looks at Blue Reynard and sees that he's broken. She knows she can't fix him. She knows better than to get involved with a man like him. She's done it before, and it's never ended well. She can't resist, but she doesn't kid herself that it's more than an interlude.
Blue has lost a lot in his life and he doesn't think he can survive any more loss. He meets Ellie online where they discuss music (mostly the blues) which they're both passionate about. When she decides to write a biography about a '30 blues singer from his small town, he invites her to stay in his guest house. As she explores the mystery of why this blues singer walked away from her promising career (as well as a personal mystery about the father she's never known), things ignite between the two.
As I read this, I couldn't help but think about the movies made from Faulkner's Long, Hot Summer. Somehow the feelings of hope and despair all intertwined in the story in way that left me totally sated. I need a little decompression time, I think, before I start another book.
August 4, 2025
In the Midnight Rain
author Barbara O'Neal takes her readership to Texas. Gideon, Texas. There she puts Ellie Connor in a car on her way to that town of mystery and secrets. And once there a reader finds:
Marcus - a man Ellie has never heard of nor met;
Blue - a man who very nearly steals this book away from Ellie entirely;
Piwacket - a white cat belonging to Blue;
Sasha - a dog belonging to Blue;
Mabel B - a blues-singer of the past about who Ellie is doing research and who knew her not-in-her-life parents;
Ellie's less than helpful grandmother; and Blue. . .
Oh. I mentioned him already.
I enjoyed this read, and was charmed (but a little confused) trying to determine why the book was named as it was. . and so found the one mention of "in the midnight rain" in the book and it comes from . . . .wait for it. . . Blue. He has a thinking problem, and ever since he was 8 years-old, he found weather, especially storms, turbulence and rain helps him through it. Ellie coming to town creates a new kind of thinking problem for Blue. As in he can't stop.thinking.about.her. Gets repeatedly steamy and after so many mentions of engorged items, breasts and thighs (not talking chicken here) it became a little tired. Got it. They enjoyed each other. (O for the days of a scene change to smoke rising from an abandoned cigarette in an ash tray or fireworks or water - crashing waves or raging river or spouting vigorously from a hose somewhere. . .)
A good read about a girl who needs to see a man about . . .No. It's about the Blues (the jazzy kind), a long lost singer, rediscovering long lost parents, and a man named Blue (!!).
*A sincere thank you to Barbara O'Neal, Lake Union Publishing, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.* #IntheMidnightRain #NetGalley 25|52:47c
Marcus - a man Ellie has never heard of nor met;
Blue - a man who very nearly steals this book away from Ellie entirely;
Piwacket - a white cat belonging to Blue;
Sasha - a dog belonging to Blue;
Mabel B - a blues-singer of the past about who Ellie is doing research and who knew her not-in-her-life parents;
Ellie's less than helpful grandmother; and Blue. . .
Oh. I mentioned him already.
I enjoyed this read, and was charmed (but a little confused) trying to determine why the book was named as it was. . and so found the one mention of "in the midnight rain" in the book and it comes from . . . .wait for it. . . Blue. He has a thinking problem, and ever since he was 8 years-old, he found weather, especially storms, turbulence and rain helps him through it. Ellie coming to town creates a new kind of thinking problem for Blue. As in he can't stop.thinking.about.her. Gets repeatedly steamy and after so many mentions of engorged items, breasts and thighs (not talking chicken here) it became a little tired. Got it. They enjoyed each other. (O for the days of a scene change to smoke rising from an abandoned cigarette in an ash tray or fireworks or water - crashing waves or raging river or spouting vigorously from a hose somewhere. . .)
A good read about a girl who needs to see a man about . . .No. It's about the Blues (the jazzy kind), a long lost singer, rediscovering long lost parents, and a man named Blue (!!).
*A sincere thank you to Barbara O'Neal, Lake Union Publishing, and NetGalley for an ARC to read and review independently.* #IntheMidnightRain #NetGalley 25|52:47c
June 15, 2024
too much romance
The story is really good but too much emphasis on the Romantic story. A little less repetitive lust would help for my taste.
The story is really good but too much emphasis on the Romantic story. A little less repetitive lust would help for my taste.
July 15, 2011
In the Midnight Rain was tough to rate since it started off slow and had many characters in it.
Ellie Connor loves music especially the blues and works as biographer moving from town to town but resisting going closer to home since it means confronting her past. She was raised by her grandparents after her mother left her there and never knew who her father was. Her mother died when she was two, and since she was plain looking and illegitimate she didn't have an easy time of it. For the past year she has been mailing with Blue, a botanist and when she decides to go to Pine Bend, to cover the story of a black singer Mabel who could have made it to the top but disappeared, and to find her father, she takes the cottage Blue offered.
When they meet both of them are not expecting what they find especially the attraction and how much more younger they are. Blue is handsome and a man who is melancholy due to the losses in his life(brother died in Vietnam, wife in car accident and more). He mothers his plants, drinks bourbon and dates bimbos.
Ellie decides to resist the pull between them since she has a habit of falling for men with problems and thinking she can heal them but which has only left her broken-hearted. She is upfront to Blue about this and he agrees to an extent.
The town is filled with people who lost loved one's in Vietnam and the story of Mabel is very interesting as well. I enjoyed the book though it's pace was slow and it talked about the differences that existed between the blacks and the whites. I admit it was different.
Rating 3.5
Ellie Connor loves music especially the blues and works as biographer moving from town to town but resisting going closer to home since it means confronting her past. She was raised by her grandparents after her mother left her there and never knew who her father was. Her mother died when she was two, and since she was plain looking and illegitimate she didn't have an easy time of it. For the past year she has been mailing with Blue, a botanist and when she decides to go to Pine Bend, to cover the story of a black singer Mabel who could have made it to the top but disappeared, and to find her father, she takes the cottage Blue offered.
When they meet both of them are not expecting what they find especially the attraction and how much more younger they are. Blue is handsome and a man who is melancholy due to the losses in his life(brother died in Vietnam, wife in car accident and more). He mothers his plants, drinks bourbon and dates bimbos.
Ellie decides to resist the pull between them since she has a habit of falling for men with problems and thinking she can heal them but which has only left her broken-hearted. She is upfront to Blue about this and he agrees to an extent.
The town is filled with people who lost loved one's in Vietnam and the story of Mabel is very interesting as well. I enjoyed the book though it's pace was slow and it talked about the differences that existed between the blacks and the whites. I admit it was different.
Rating 3.5
![Profile Image for Michelle [Helen Geek].](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.gr-assets.com%2Fimages%2FS%2Fcompressed.photo.goodreads.com%2Fusers%2F1448463806i%2F5557851._CR0%2C13%2C200%2C200_.jpg&w=128&q=75)
November 14, 2011
I really liked Blue and Ellie's story. Well written.
Okay -- I feel I have enough time to do a better job with this one. My first read by this author and will not be my last. This was recommended for me by GR based on other reads I've rated. When I looked at it, I noticed other people I follow rated it highly and hear quite a bit about how good Barbara Samuels [aka .. Ruth Wind] is, so had to give it a try.
Okay, you take East Texas and the Blues, put it into a romance and will it work? Well, this one did. She did a really nice job of give Blue a backstory of a cerebral Botonist. Ellie [real name Velvet] as an author writing about music -- her first love. They meet because of an assignment Ellie has to write the story of a Blue's artist long gone, but not forgotten. Now lets weave in some Vietnam and a war memorial.
This story had quite a few moving parts and characters. At times I had to go back and see exactly who was who -- what did I miss, this didn't make sense, blah... I think this is why I didn't rate it higher. Plus, some of the story was very predictable.
Overall, a very good read. I really liked the primary characters; Blue and Ellie. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a detailed, contemporary romance. She weaves stories for quite a few secondary characters, so you got to stay with it, or she will lose you.
Happy Reading!
Okay -- I feel I have enough time to do a better job with this one. My first read by this author and will not be my last. This was recommended for me by GR based on other reads I've rated. When I looked at it, I noticed other people I follow rated it highly and hear quite a bit about how good Barbara Samuels [aka .. Ruth Wind] is, so had to give it a try.
Okay, you take East Texas and the Blues, put it into a romance and will it work? Well, this one did. She did a really nice job of give Blue a backstory of a cerebral Botonist. Ellie [real name Velvet] as an author writing about music -- her first love. They meet because of an assignment Ellie has to write the story of a Blue's artist long gone, but not forgotten. Now lets weave in some Vietnam and a war memorial.
This story had quite a few moving parts and characters. At times I had to go back and see exactly who was who -- what did I miss, this didn't make sense, blah... I think this is why I didn't rate it higher. Plus, some of the story was very predictable.
Overall, a very good read. I really liked the primary characters; Blue and Ellie. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a detailed, contemporary romance. She weaves stories for quite a few secondary characters, so you got to stay with it, or she will lose you.
Happy Reading!
June 11, 2024
I usually like Barbara O’Neill‘s books.
This one was so lame. I almost forgot what it was about.
Felt like a bad Harlequin romance novel
Author arrives in town to write the biography of a missing jazz singer from a small town in Texas.
She also thinks her hippie mother who never told her who her father was stopped in this town 29 years ago and came out with a baby, Which was her.
So as she is riding biography, she’s trying to find out information about her father.
Somehow, this gorgeous hunk of man is renting her the cottage she staying in and of course, a love affair must occur!
This one was so lame. I almost forgot what it was about.
Felt like a bad Harlequin romance novel
Author arrives in town to write the biography of a missing jazz singer from a small town in Texas.
She also thinks her hippie mother who never told her who her father was stopped in this town 29 years ago and came out with a baby, Which was her.
So as she is riding biography, she’s trying to find out information about her father.
Somehow, this gorgeous hunk of man is renting her the cottage she staying in and of course, a love affair must occur!
February 23, 2012
This is a really hard book to rate. On the one hand, I really enjoyed the romance between Ellie the biographer looking for her roots and Blue the vaguely alcoholic botanist haunted by his past. I liked how well the mystery plot was woven into the romance and how unraveling Mabel's story was key to understanding who Ellie was. I also enjoyed the look at race in the South without making a morality play out of it.
On the other hand, though, it was an uneven book. The author introduces the mystery plot rather inelegantly, introducing the reader to so many characters so quickly that I had trouble keeping everyone straight throughout the book. The mystery itself begs too much of the reader's suspension of disbelief () and so falls a bit flat at the end. Then, after the romance and book being up to its eyeballs in true-to-life emotion, the romance arc takes a hard turn for the conventional, serving up safe tropes that just felt out of place and out of character. After seeing how profoundly troubled Blue is for 99% of the book, a grand gesture in the final 1% didn't tie up their HEA for me. I wanted to see that resolution myself, not be assured of it by romance conventions.
And so, this book was a mixed bag. Slow at the beginning, an incredibly compelling middle that kept me reading all night, then an underwhelming ending. I'd say it's between a 3* and a 4*.
On the other hand, though, it was an uneven book. The author introduces the mystery plot rather inelegantly, introducing the reader to so many characters so quickly that I had trouble keeping everyone straight throughout the book. The mystery itself begs too much of the reader's suspension of disbelief () and so falls a bit flat at the end. Then, after the romance and book being up to its eyeballs in true-to-life emotion, the romance arc takes a hard turn for the conventional, serving up safe tropes that just felt out of place and out of character. After seeing how profoundly troubled Blue is for 99% of the book, a grand gesture in the final 1% didn't tie up their HEA for me. I wanted to see that resolution myself, not be assured of it by romance conventions.
And so, this book was a mixed bag. Slow at the beginning, an incredibly compelling middle that kept me reading all night, then an underwhelming ending. I'd say it's between a 3* and a 4*.
August 6, 2024
Barbara, just no. 😔
January 23, 2014
Posted at ROMANCE NOVELS FOR FEMINISTS:
http://romancenovelsforfeminists.blog...
Questioning the Segregation of Romance: Ruth Wind's IN THE MIDNIGHT RAIN
The United States Supreme Court's landmark Brown vs. Board of Education case, declaring separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional, was decided in 1954, more than fifty years ago. Racial integration in America's schools reached an all-time high in 1990, giving proponents of integration much to cheer about. But according to Dr. Adriana Villavicencio, senior research associate at the Research Alliance, New York University, segregation, not integration, has been the trend in American public schools since 1990:
In 1988, less than a third of Black and Latino students attended what Gary Orfield, Co-Director of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, calls intensely segregated schools: schools with 90-100% minority students. Today, 40% of Blacks and Latinos—and less than 1% of white students—attend these schools. The percentage of white students nationally is only 56%, but on average they attend schools where more than 75% of students are white. At the same time, the percentage of Black and Latino students attending majority white schools has dropped by more than 10 percent.
As in our schools, so in our romance novels: romance publishing is still largely segregated by race. With a few notable exceptions, characters in the mainstream romance lines are largely white; black characters are largely segregated into their own separate (but equal?) lines, such as Harlequin's Kimani and Kensington's Dafina. We could talk ad infinitum about the whys and wherefores of such segregation. Instead, I thought I would honor the day set aside in the United States to celebrate the birth of Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King by writing about one of the few romance novels I've read that features an integrated community: Ruth Wind's RITA finalist In the Midnight Rain.
White thirty-something Ellie Connor arrives in Pine Bend, Mississippi on two fact-finding missions. One is public: to research the early years of the subject of her latest biography, Mabel Beauvais, an African-American blues singer who disappeared in 1953, just on the cusp of achieving nationwide fame. One is private: to try and discover the identity of her father, a man whom her wild hippie mother, who died when Ellie was two, never named. When she arrives at the place she's arranged to stay, she finds two men sitting on the porch, one white, one black. By the end of the novel, the two men, and the two searches, will become entangled in ways Ellie, and perhaps the reader, never could have imagined.
Though the novel's action takes place in the present, Ellie's two research projects give readers a sense of race relations in Pine Bend during three different periods in American history: the years immediately before, and immediately after, World War II, when segregation was a given; the late 1960s, when the country struggled against the backdrop of the Vietnam War to figure out how the legal victories of the Civil Rights movement would play out on the ground, in their communities; and 1990, when many overt racial barriers had been taken down, but many racial assumptions and beliefs still attained. Deep into her research, Ellie notices that most of the people she's interviewed are black, and makes a note to herself to talk to white people who were around during Mabel Beauvais' early days, realizing that things then weren't the same for blacks as they were for whites, something she'll need to understand not just on an intellectual, but on a personal level if she is to convey the truth of Mabel's life.
Wind's novel is hardly a didactic tract about race relations; it's a heartfelt, beautifully-written, and in many ways a quite traditional love story. With her penchant for falling for wounded men, Ellie's been down the bad relationship path more than a few times, and spends much of the novel warning herself against succumbing to her attraction to the emotionally-damaged man whom she met via an online blues newsgroup and who, in his hospitably southern way, offered Ellie a place to stay while doing her research in his hometown. And she's not the only one issuing warnings; almost everyone in town, whether black or white, counsels Ellie to stay away from Blue Reynard, since the privileged white boy is known about town as a "dog," a charming love-'em and leave-'em guy who'll only break her heart. But Blue, who sometimes thinks of himself as Job because of all the personal losses he's experienced, can't help falling for his intellectual equal, just as Ellie can't keep her heart free from bad-boy/smart-boy Blue. In traditional romance-novel fashion, each must both struggle to cope with and accept their fears of abandonment before they can find their HEA together.
Yet race serves as the compelling backdrop to this love story, quietly asking readers to consider what race meant in America's past, and what it still means in our present. What makes one person black, another person white? What secrets should one keep to protect a fellow member of an oppressed group? What does an integrated community look like? When is integration a problem? What does friendship across racial lines look like? What does love?
It struck me as significant that In the Midnight Rain was published in 1990, at the height of American public school integration. Can you think of any other romance novels that have been published since then that depict not an interracial romance, but an integrated community against which a romance unfolds?
Photo credits:
Diverse hands: Unity in Christ Magazine
Ruth Wind (Barbara Samuel)
In the Midnight Rain
HarperTorch, 2000
http://romancenovelsforfeminists.blog...
Questioning the Segregation of Romance: Ruth Wind's IN THE MIDNIGHT RAIN
The United States Supreme Court's landmark Brown vs. Board of Education case, declaring separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional, was decided in 1954, more than fifty years ago. Racial integration in America's schools reached an all-time high in 1990, giving proponents of integration much to cheer about. But according to Dr. Adriana Villavicencio, senior research associate at the Research Alliance, New York University, segregation, not integration, has been the trend in American public schools since 1990:
In 1988, less than a third of Black and Latino students attended what Gary Orfield, Co-Director of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA, calls intensely segregated schools: schools with 90-100% minority students. Today, 40% of Blacks and Latinos—and less than 1% of white students—attend these schools. The percentage of white students nationally is only 56%, but on average they attend schools where more than 75% of students are white. At the same time, the percentage of Black and Latino students attending majority white schools has dropped by more than 10 percent.
As in our schools, so in our romance novels: romance publishing is still largely segregated by race. With a few notable exceptions, characters in the mainstream romance lines are largely white; black characters are largely segregated into their own separate (but equal?) lines, such as Harlequin's Kimani and Kensington's Dafina. We could talk ad infinitum about the whys and wherefores of such segregation. Instead, I thought I would honor the day set aside in the United States to celebrate the birth of Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King by writing about one of the few romance novels I've read that features an integrated community: Ruth Wind's RITA finalist In the Midnight Rain.
White thirty-something Ellie Connor arrives in Pine Bend, Mississippi on two fact-finding missions. One is public: to research the early years of the subject of her latest biography, Mabel Beauvais, an African-American blues singer who disappeared in 1953, just on the cusp of achieving nationwide fame. One is private: to try and discover the identity of her father, a man whom her wild hippie mother, who died when Ellie was two, never named. When she arrives at the place she's arranged to stay, she finds two men sitting on the porch, one white, one black. By the end of the novel, the two men, and the two searches, will become entangled in ways Ellie, and perhaps the reader, never could have imagined.
Though the novel's action takes place in the present, Ellie's two research projects give readers a sense of race relations in Pine Bend during three different periods in American history: the years immediately before, and immediately after, World War II, when segregation was a given; the late 1960s, when the country struggled against the backdrop of the Vietnam War to figure out how the legal victories of the Civil Rights movement would play out on the ground, in their communities; and 1990, when many overt racial barriers had been taken down, but many racial assumptions and beliefs still attained. Deep into her research, Ellie notices that most of the people she's interviewed are black, and makes a note to herself to talk to white people who were around during Mabel Beauvais' early days, realizing that things then weren't the same for blacks as they were for whites, something she'll need to understand not just on an intellectual, but on a personal level if she is to convey the truth of Mabel's life.
Wind's novel is hardly a didactic tract about race relations; it's a heartfelt, beautifully-written, and in many ways a quite traditional love story. With her penchant for falling for wounded men, Ellie's been down the bad relationship path more than a few times, and spends much of the novel warning herself against succumbing to her attraction to the emotionally-damaged man whom she met via an online blues newsgroup and who, in his hospitably southern way, offered Ellie a place to stay while doing her research in his hometown. And she's not the only one issuing warnings; almost everyone in town, whether black or white, counsels Ellie to stay away from Blue Reynard, since the privileged white boy is known about town as a "dog," a charming love-'em and leave-'em guy who'll only break her heart. But Blue, who sometimes thinks of himself as Job because of all the personal losses he's experienced, can't help falling for his intellectual equal, just as Ellie can't keep her heart free from bad-boy/smart-boy Blue. In traditional romance-novel fashion, each must both struggle to cope with and accept their fears of abandonment before they can find their HEA together.
Yet race serves as the compelling backdrop to this love story, quietly asking readers to consider what race meant in America's past, and what it still means in our present. What makes one person black, another person white? What secrets should one keep to protect a fellow member of an oppressed group? What does an integrated community look like? When is integration a problem? What does friendship across racial lines look like? What does love?
It struck me as significant that In the Midnight Rain was published in 1990, at the height of American public school integration. Can you think of any other romance novels that have been published since then that depict not an interracial romance, but an integrated community against which a romance unfolds?
Photo credits:
Diverse hands: Unity in Christ Magazine
Ruth Wind (Barbara Samuel)
In the Midnight Rain
HarperTorch, 2000
February 11, 2011
I have to start this review by saying that for a long time I heard the best things about this story. I had it on my TBR pile and each time I would look at it and think: hmm is it really that good? But I never felt compelled to pick it up till a few weeks ago. Well, I was completely blown away by it, I loved it and I am now wondering why I lost all that time without reading it...
I loved Ellie and what she did. Someone that loves music so much but that being unable to play has decided to write musician's biographies to spread that love sounds both interesting and romantic. When the object of her latest biography - a blues singer who vanished from the face of the earth - tales her to the small town where she believes she was conceived thirty something years ago Ellie can't resist trying to investigate the disappearance and at the same time discover the father she never knew.
Through the internet she meets Blue Reynard, another blues lover who ends up inviting her to spend that time in a spare cabin he has on his property. Ellie hesitates but since she is taking her dog along eventually agrees and relies on Blue's help to be introduced to the people who might help in both projects although she never reveals to anyone that her father may be a local and that she is looking for him.
The small town in Louisiana where the story is set is almost a character itself. A place where black and white people live side by side nowadays but that had a story of segregation in the past and that Wind describes with great detail from the hot, sultry nights to the forests and the orchids, the rain and bad weather and the blues music that seems to be everywhere. As Ellie and Blue spend more and more time together the sexual tension between them becomes more difficult to fight, and the atmosphere surrounding them just seems to heighten that. However Blue's troubled past doesn't make him a prime candidate for a HEA and Ellie hesitates in becoming involved with him.
Her main goal is still finding out what happened to Mabel and to discover who was her father and she is in for more than one surprise when she finally discovers what happened. There are many emotions in this wonderful story and it doesn't always makes it an easy and light read. However it is certainly a very engaging read and I was glued to the book till the last page. I loved it! I can't wait to find out if Ruth Wind has more books like this one published.
Grade: 5/5
I loved Ellie and what she did. Someone that loves music so much but that being unable to play has decided to write musician's biographies to spread that love sounds both interesting and romantic. When the object of her latest biography - a blues singer who vanished from the face of the earth - tales her to the small town where she believes she was conceived thirty something years ago Ellie can't resist trying to investigate the disappearance and at the same time discover the father she never knew.
Through the internet she meets Blue Reynard, another blues lover who ends up inviting her to spend that time in a spare cabin he has on his property. Ellie hesitates but since she is taking her dog along eventually agrees and relies on Blue's help to be introduced to the people who might help in both projects although she never reveals to anyone that her father may be a local and that she is looking for him.
The small town in Louisiana where the story is set is almost a character itself. A place where black and white people live side by side nowadays but that had a story of segregation in the past and that Wind describes with great detail from the hot, sultry nights to the forests and the orchids, the rain and bad weather and the blues music that seems to be everywhere. As Ellie and Blue spend more and more time together the sexual tension between them becomes more difficult to fight, and the atmosphere surrounding them just seems to heighten that. However Blue's troubled past doesn't make him a prime candidate for a HEA and Ellie hesitates in becoming involved with him.
Her main goal is still finding out what happened to Mabel and to discover who was her father and she is in for more than one surprise when she finally discovers what happened. There are many emotions in this wonderful story and it doesn't always makes it an easy and light read. However it is certainly a very engaging read and I was glued to the book till the last page. I loved it! I can't wait to find out if Ruth Wind has more books like this one published.
Grade: 5/5
January 5, 2014
Every book I’ve read by Barbara Samuel so far has been simply mesmerizing and enchanting. Same here with “In The Midnight Rain”. The whole story, from start to finish, is so atmospheric, palpable, and, as a reader, you can only be absorbed by it. The story just spoke to all my senses.
In a nutshell, a biographer of blues singers, Ellie Connor, travels to a very small town called Gideon (I think in east Texas close to Louisiana border), where she will work on the biography of Mabel Beauvais, a Gideon native female blues singer who suddenly vanished from the face of the earth in 1952. She’s been writing online for about a year with Dr. Laurence Reynard, living in Gideon. Laurence, nicknamed “Blue” is also a blues music aficionado. The Dr. stands for doctor in botany. Blue who experiments and grows orchids in his greenhouses on his property. As it happens, when meeting him, Blue is not what Ellie expected. He’s much younger (and better looking) than she’d imagined. But Blue is foremost a lost soul, a melancholy man, who had an immense share of losses in his young life.
I was instantly attracted by the beauty of the scenery; the nature that surrounded Blue's property, the flowers, the trees, the earth, but also the small town of Gideon. So inviting. I wished I could visit.
Music plays an important role in this story and that's something I can relate to, being a music lover. Ellie’s love for music was something that spoke to me on a very pure level. Ellie’s a wonderful young woman. She is so strong in the face of adversity. I admired that. While she’s in Gideon, she also looking for her Dad, knowing her deceased Mom spent the summer of 1969 in Gideon, and then came back home pregnant only to leave Ellie when she was 6 months old, to be raised by her grandma.
The Vietnam war connection was broached in an touching way. In Gideon, people still remember all the young men that went to Vietnam and never came back. The strength of the more "elderly" women is another aspect of this book that compelled me. From Ellie’s grandmother who raised her, to the townswomen who stood by Ellie, all were splendid.
This is an amazing book about love and family, and well, I just enjoyed it tremendously.
In a nutshell, a biographer of blues singers, Ellie Connor, travels to a very small town called Gideon (I think in east Texas close to Louisiana border), where she will work on the biography of Mabel Beauvais, a Gideon native female blues singer who suddenly vanished from the face of the earth in 1952. She’s been writing online for about a year with Dr. Laurence Reynard, living in Gideon. Laurence, nicknamed “Blue” is also a blues music aficionado. The Dr. stands for doctor in botany. Blue who experiments and grows orchids in his greenhouses on his property. As it happens, when meeting him, Blue is not what Ellie expected. He’s much younger (and better looking) than she’d imagined. But Blue is foremost a lost soul, a melancholy man, who had an immense share of losses in his young life.
I was instantly attracted by the beauty of the scenery; the nature that surrounded Blue's property, the flowers, the trees, the earth, but also the small town of Gideon. So inviting. I wished I could visit.
Music plays an important role in this story and that's something I can relate to, being a music lover. Ellie’s love for music was something that spoke to me on a very pure level. Ellie’s a wonderful young woman. She is so strong in the face of adversity. I admired that. While she’s in Gideon, she also looking for her Dad, knowing her deceased Mom spent the summer of 1969 in Gideon, and then came back home pregnant only to leave Ellie when she was 6 months old, to be raised by her grandma.
The Vietnam war connection was broached in an touching way. In Gideon, people still remember all the young men that went to Vietnam and never came back. The strength of the more "elderly" women is another aspect of this book that compelled me. From Ellie’s grandmother who raised her, to the townswomen who stood by Ellie, all were splendid.
This is an amazing book about love and family, and well, I just enjoyed it tremendously.
June 15, 2011
Writer and music lover Ellie Connor travels to the small, close-knit town of Pine Bend in eastern Texas to conduct research and write a biography on Mabel Beauvais, a blues singer who mysteriously disappeared in 1952 just as she was about to embark upon a successful music career. But Ellie also has a hidden agenda. Armed with the knowledge that her late, flower-child mother spent a summer in Pine Bend - the summer Ellie was conceived - she also hopes her journey will reveal some clues to her own past, and hopefully lead her to the father she never knew.
Ellie arranges to stay in the guest house of Blue Reynard, a tortured soul whose life has been filled with tragedy and loss. From the moment Ellie and Blue meet, an undeniable and irresistible attraction develops. Despite their best efforts, they are unable to keep their realtionship platonic. Colorful and engaging secondary characters assist Ellie and Blue in their journey as they team up to solve the mystery of Mabel, and search for clues to Ellie's past. All the while, local residents are still trying to come to terms with the pain caused by the inordinate amount of young men the town lost to the Vietnam War.
Before they can have their happily ever after, however, both Blue and Ellie have pasts they must reconcile and wounds they must heal.
This book was fabulous. Blue Reynard is the epitome of the scarred, tortured hero, and I wanted to reach into the book just to touch him. The vivid, deep, and entertaining cast of characters MADE this book. They felt like genuine, REAL, people. The writing is beautiful and the dialogue is excellent. The descriptions are so vivid, I could almost taste the southern fried chicken, feel the heat of a Texas summer, and smell the heavy rain in the air. The love that develops between Ellie and Blue was genuine and real. The romance, along with the two mysteries to solve, set against the backdrop of race relations in the mid-century South and the Vietnam War made for a wonderful work of fiction that I couldn't put down until it was done!
Ellie arranges to stay in the guest house of Blue Reynard, a tortured soul whose life has been filled with tragedy and loss. From the moment Ellie and Blue meet, an undeniable and irresistible attraction develops. Despite their best efforts, they are unable to keep their realtionship platonic. Colorful and engaging secondary characters assist Ellie and Blue in their journey as they team up to solve the mystery of Mabel, and search for clues to Ellie's past. All the while, local residents are still trying to come to terms with the pain caused by the inordinate amount of young men the town lost to the Vietnam War.
Before they can have their happily ever after, however, both Blue and Ellie have pasts they must reconcile and wounds they must heal.
This book was fabulous. Blue Reynard is the epitome of the scarred, tortured hero, and I wanted to reach into the book just to touch him. The vivid, deep, and entertaining cast of characters MADE this book. They felt like genuine, REAL, people. The writing is beautiful and the dialogue is excellent. The descriptions are so vivid, I could almost taste the southern fried chicken, feel the heat of a Texas summer, and smell the heavy rain in the air. The love that develops between Ellie and Blue was genuine and real. The romance, along with the two mysteries to solve, set against the backdrop of race relations in the mid-century South and the Vietnam War made for a wonderful work of fiction that I couldn't put down until it was done!
June 6, 2025
I so wish the author had put her effort into writing an actual good story line rather than use up so much of her creative energy to go into depth about the intimacy between characters. It eventually began to feel like that was the point of the book, which was so abundant it just got old. Remove those parts of the book and you miiiiight have a fifth of the book left.
As far as the actual storyline, obviously I found it lacking. Some things come together at the end, but not everything mentioned earlier in the book.
Super disappointed with this one.
As far as the actual storyline, obviously I found it lacking. Some things come together at the end, but not everything mentioned earlier in the book.
Super disappointed with this one.
June 2, 2024
I kept hoping this book would get better,, but ended up predictable for the last third. And what’s up with “Black” as a descriptor for skin color? Why not, then “White”
I won’t read this author again.
I won’t read this author again.
May 29, 2024
I absolutely loved this book. It did take a little while to get into the story, but I think it’s because the author is really descriptive of the characters and the setting. Once I fell in love with the small town charm, I couldn’t put it down.
Ellie is a writer who travels to a new town to research a blues artist named Mabel who mysteriously vanished. We also find out Ellie has personal ties to the town and is hoping to find out more while searching for Mabel. The story focused so much on Ellie that I felt Mabel’s story was a little lost in it all. I wanted to know more about her. Overall, the author did a fabulous job drawing me in and did great job wrapping it all up in the end. It is a genuinely a happy ending.
Thank you to Net Galley and Lake Union Publishing for an advanced copy of a revised edition of this book.
Ellie is a writer who travels to a new town to research a blues artist named Mabel who mysteriously vanished. We also find out Ellie has personal ties to the town and is hoping to find out more while searching for Mabel. The story focused so much on Ellie that I felt Mabel’s story was a little lost in it all. I wanted to know more about her. Overall, the author did a fabulous job drawing me in and did great job wrapping it all up in the end. It is a genuinely a happy ending.
Thank you to Net Galley and Lake Union Publishing for an advanced copy of a revised edition of this book.
August 16, 2010
Ellie Connor is a professional biographer with a yen for the blues. Her imagination has been captured by a minor blue singer from the 30s named Mabel Beauvais. A woman who was just about to make it big, when *poof* she disappears never to be heard from again. Ellie has decided to write Mable's biography and possibly ferret out the secret of her disappearance.
There are many theories about Mabel's disappearance being bandied about late at night on the various blues blogs and discussion boards that Ellie subscribes to. On one, she strikes up a friendship with Laurence 'Blue' Reynaud, a fellow blues enthusiast who happens to live in the same town that Mabel was from.
Blue invites Ellie out to Pine Bend, TX to further her research on Mabel and to complete her book. But Ellie has other reasons for going to Pine Bend. that was where her mother, deceased since Ellie was two, met Ellie's father. Ellie has never known who her father was and while researching Mabel's past she also hopes to find some answers about her own.
I have read only one other Ruth Wind book (written as Barbara Samuel) No Place Like Home(it was wonderful). And I have a slew of her books on my TBR. But I came across this one and couldn't wait to crack it open. I love books steeped in family drama, especially the old secrets southern family drama.
Wind does a great job of creating an atmosphere of Southern hospitality, warmth and welcome while still managing an air of close kept confidences and secrets. The Pine Benders like Ellie and rather enjoy the fact that she is writing a book about one of their own. But you always get the sense they know more than they are telling. And Ellie of course is also playing her cards close to her chest, subtly asking questions that seem benign enough on the surface but are designed to help figure out her own past.
The character of Blue is a very interesting one. I like it when an author give a character a quirk or a trait that makes them feel a bit more real. It is easy to make someone handsome or tortured, but there is a depth to Blue that is immediately arresting. He is a bit tortured, vaguely alcoholic, completely charming and purely Southern. I really enjoyed the heck out of him and thought his and Ellie's relationship progressed at just the right pace.
I had a suspicion of how the story would play out, but I didn't guess all the secrets. I especially liked Ellie's inner dialogue once she got her answers. It was sweet and very in keeping with the character. And the HEA between Ellie and Blue was even more satisfying.
I really need to break ou the rest of the Barbara Samuels books I have in my TBR. So far she is 2 for 2 for me.No Place Like Home
There are many theories about Mabel's disappearance being bandied about late at night on the various blues blogs and discussion boards that Ellie subscribes to. On one, she strikes up a friendship with Laurence 'Blue' Reynaud, a fellow blues enthusiast who happens to live in the same town that Mabel was from.
Blue invites Ellie out to Pine Bend, TX to further her research on Mabel and to complete her book. But Ellie has other reasons for going to Pine Bend. that was where her mother, deceased since Ellie was two, met Ellie's father. Ellie has never known who her father was and while researching Mabel's past she also hopes to find some answers about her own.
I have read only one other Ruth Wind book (written as Barbara Samuel) No Place Like Home(it was wonderful). And I have a slew of her books on my TBR. But I came across this one and couldn't wait to crack it open. I love books steeped in family drama, especially the old secrets southern family drama.
Wind does a great job of creating an atmosphere of Southern hospitality, warmth and welcome while still managing an air of close kept confidences and secrets. The Pine Benders like Ellie and rather enjoy the fact that she is writing a book about one of their own. But you always get the sense they know more than they are telling. And Ellie of course is also playing her cards close to her chest, subtly asking questions that seem benign enough on the surface but are designed to help figure out her own past.
The character of Blue is a very interesting one. I like it when an author give a character a quirk or a trait that makes them feel a bit more real. It is easy to make someone handsome or tortured, but there is a depth to Blue that is immediately arresting. He is a bit tortured, vaguely alcoholic, completely charming and purely Southern. I really enjoyed the heck out of him and thought his and Ellie's relationship progressed at just the right pace.
I had a suspicion of how the story would play out, but I didn't guess all the secrets. I especially liked Ellie's inner dialogue once she got her answers. It was sweet and very in keeping with the character. And the HEA between Ellie and Blue was even more satisfying.
I really need to break ou the rest of the Barbara Samuels books I have in my TBR. So far she is 2 for 2 for me.No Place Like Home
September 23, 2024
This author has written one of my favorite books… and she also wrote this one.
I’m at 59%, and so far, it’s just been a lot of tedious, repetitive anticipation that these two will have sex. Oh, but she mustn’t, because then she’ll get attached, and he’s obviously just another wounded baby bird! Oh, but how can she resist, because he’s hot and charming? Repeat ad nauseam.
I’m seriously considering DNF’ing. I do not care about either of these boring shell characters, and I really don’t care if they ever have sex or not.
…
Ok, they just had sex and it was the worst. The author kept saying “his organ” over and over like it was some kind of bad writing drinking game. Oh, and the guy roared like a lion when he came. I am not making this up.
…
Why do we need to hear on and on about how pretty this chick is not? Does the author think all her readers are ugly and this is aspirational?
And why the fuck does he keep calling her “little girl”??? So creepy!
…
Ok, this guy is a big stupid selfish coward, and if this author thinks he can redeem himself with only 6% of the book left, she’s nuts.
…
Wait a minute, was all that stuff about Ellie not being pretty because she’s half black? That’s super offensive. I can’t believe they published this.
I’m at 59%, and so far, it’s just been a lot of tedious, repetitive anticipation that these two will have sex. Oh, but she mustn’t, because then she’ll get attached, and he’s obviously just another wounded baby bird! Oh, but how can she resist, because he’s hot and charming? Repeat ad nauseam.
I’m seriously considering DNF’ing. I do not care about either of these boring shell characters, and I really don’t care if they ever have sex or not.
…
Ok, they just had sex and it was the worst. The author kept saying “his organ” over and over like it was some kind of bad writing drinking game. Oh, and the guy roared like a lion when he came. I am not making this up.
…
Why do we need to hear on and on about how pretty this chick is not? Does the author think all her readers are ugly and this is aspirational?
And why the fuck does he keep calling her “little girl”??? So creepy!
…
Ok, this guy is a big stupid selfish coward, and if this author thinks he can redeem himself with only 6% of the book left, she’s nuts.
…
Wait a minute, was all that stuff about Ellie not being pretty because she’s half black? That’s super offensive. I can’t believe they published this.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 11, 2024
Unpopular opinion but this one was lacking something for me and It could have just been that life was busy and It took me forever to get through this one. I usually love her books and have listened to some as audio before. I did this one as an audio and feel like I would have liked It better reading It. I didn’t like the voice the narrator used for Blue. Also, I can’t stand food noises and the main character made several in the book. Like it’s a real issue for me! I can’t pinpoint what the book was lacking but something fell short for me on this one. Again, It court have just been being busy and distracted in life while listening that contributed to not feeling connected to this book.
January 19, 2017
I enjoyed this book but didn't really get sucked into it until the last half as I felt the first part was too scattered for me to really bite down hard. However once I bit, I could hardly do anything else but read.
June 22, 2024
DNF. Too much repetitive lust and focus on romantic side of things.
June 21, 2012
4.5 stars.
This one is hard to review - I really loved it toward the end of the book, but struggled through the beginning and middle (lots of names, hard to remember everyone at first, and I had a hard time with the timeline of how things happened/sequence of events). It seemed to be more a mystery/disappearing act than a romance. While I saw the romance happening, honestly, Blue being the uber handsome and tortured hero he was, got on my nerves a bit. I loved Ellie tho. Loved all of the secondary characters, once I could finally remember who everyone was. This tale had some great twists and turns, took me by surprise, and almost made me cry. Very beautifully written - felt like I was really in that setting.
This week I just happened to watch The Patriot with Mel Gibson. It's very sad to think of all these young men that go to war and die. With In the Midnight Rain, there's a backdrop of the young men that went to Vietnam - the lives and friendships lost forever. The author's descriptions were so sharp - I could "see" the boys taking their pictures together before they left. Being young is such a wonderful time but it goes by so quickly and you don't even know what you had until it's gone. Life is so precious and so easily lost.
This book was quite sad, imo. There were many recommendations for it and it is definitely worth reading. It seemed more like a general fiction book with a splash of romance in it (albeit a good splash, Blue is hot stuff). It's not a clean read but pretty close to it. It's something you could recommend to your aunt or mom and not feel embarrassed.
This one is hard to review - I really loved it toward the end of the book, but struggled through the beginning and middle (lots of names, hard to remember everyone at first, and I had a hard time with the timeline of how things happened/sequence of events). It seemed to be more a mystery/disappearing act than a romance. While I saw the romance happening, honestly, Blue being the uber handsome and tortured hero he was, got on my nerves a bit. I loved Ellie tho. Loved all of the secondary characters, once I could finally remember who everyone was. This tale had some great twists and turns, took me by surprise, and almost made me cry. Very beautifully written - felt like I was really in that setting.
This week I just happened to watch The Patriot with Mel Gibson. It's very sad to think of all these young men that go to war and die. With In the Midnight Rain, there's a backdrop of the young men that went to Vietnam - the lives and friendships lost forever. The author's descriptions were so sharp - I could "see" the boys taking their pictures together before they left. Being young is such a wonderful time but it goes by so quickly and you don't even know what you had until it's gone. Life is so precious and so easily lost.
This book was quite sad, imo. There were many recommendations for it and it is definitely worth reading. It seemed more like a general fiction book with a splash of romance in it (albeit a good splash, Blue is hot stuff). It's not a clean read but pretty close to it. It's something you could recommend to your aunt or mom and not feel embarrassed.
October 14, 2016
I wish I could give this 10 stars. You know, when a book is so good you live in the pages and are shell shocked when you read the last word and are plunged back into the real every day world? Yeah that good. Ellie is a biographer looking to piece together a history on a Blues singer from Gideon in the late 1930's to early 1940's who disappeared at the height of her career. She is staying at a cottage on the property of Dr. Lawrence (Blue) Reynard who she met on the internet in a Blues group discussion for the last year. When she finally meets him she knows she will fall in love with him and he will break her heart.
October 21, 2011
Marvelous book -- a different perspective, for sure, on life and race relations in a small southern town. It brought up so many memories of time gone by, even though for much of the "past" in the book, I was growing up in Canada. I would love a soundtrack to In the Midnight Rain -- and it would make quite a movie.
October 31, 2013
Barbara O'Neal is my favourite author, and her older books, writing as Ruth Wind, are just as lush and evocative and wonderful as her recent tales.
Blue and Ellie are beautifully flawed characters. I couldn't get enough of their romance.
And the secondary characters + mystery at the heart of the plot make for a thoroughly enjoyable read.
Loved it.
Blue and Ellie are beautifully flawed characters. I couldn't get enough of their romance.
And the secondary characters + mystery at the heart of the plot make for a thoroughly enjoyable read.
Loved it.
June 30, 2015
Long and boring-did not live up to potential or reviews
There's a good story in there if you can skip over enough of the long, slow, boring parts. I couldn't stick with it though. I made it to 30% and skipped to the end.
As so often happens I wanted to read the book that got all of the 4 and 5 star reviews but I must have gotten a different version.
There's a good story in there if you can skip over enough of the long, slow, boring parts. I couldn't stick with it though. I made it to 30% and skipped to the end.
As so often happens I wanted to read the book that got all of the 4 and 5 star reviews but I must have gotten a different version.
April 26, 2025
cheekbones
I don’t drink but if I took a shot every time the author mentioned “cheekbones,” I’d remain inebriated throughout the read. Yes, I like to pike fun and she did have a cheekbone fetish but I lived the book. When you find yourself wondering how the characters are doing while you’re away from the book, you know the author has endeared them to you, cheekbones and all.
I don’t drink but if I took a shot every time the author mentioned “cheekbones,” I’d remain inebriated throughout the read. Yes, I like to pike fun and she did have a cheekbone fetish but I lived the book. When you find yourself wondering how the characters are doing while you’re away from the book, you know the author has endeared them to you, cheekbones and all.
May 13, 2011
A contemporary romance with heart, history, mystery and REAL people. Highly recommended.
June 12, 2024
Yet again, grateful for the re-issue and update of one of Barbara O'Neal's earlier books. (I believe this was originally published under the name of Ruth Wind.) This story has depth, atmosphere, beautifully depicted characters, and some lovely sexual tension. It's also significant that though a reissue, it touches on subjects very pertinent today - especially racial divide and Viet Nam losses and survivors. I especially loved the author's use of senses (again) to set the tone of the story, particularly the scents that clung to "Blue" from his greenhouse work.
I enjoyed this book a great deal, only dinging it a bit to a four star because it started slowly for me, and I had a difficult time keeping people straight. Once I got into it, however, I didn't want to put it down. The surprises are there - one I figured early on, but one in particular I had no clue about!
I received an ARC from the publisher for review purposes; opinions are my own.
I enjoyed this book a great deal, only dinging it a bit to a four star because it started slowly for me, and I had a difficult time keeping people straight. Once I got into it, however, I didn't want to put it down. The surprises are there - one I figured early on, but one in particular I had no clue about!
I received an ARC from the publisher for review purposes; opinions are my own.
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