Wild Rain by Beverly Jenkins Also in this series: Rebel
Series: Women Who Dare #2
Published by Avon on February 9, 2021
Genres: Historical Romance, American West
Narrator: Kim Staunton
Length: 8 Hours and 15 Mins
Pages: 355
Format: Audiobook
Source: Library
ISBN: 0062861719
The second novel in USA Today bestselling author Beverly Jenkins’ compelling new Women Who Dare series follows a female rancher in Wyoming after the Civil War.
A reporter has come to Wyoming to do a story on doctors for his Black newspaper back east. He thinks Colton Lee will be an interesting subject…until he meets Colton’s sister, Spring. She runs her own ranch, wears denim pants instead of dresses, and is the most fascinating woman he’s ever met.
But Spring, who has overcome a raucous and scandalous past, isn’t looking for, nor does she want, love. As their attraction grows, will their differences come between them or unite them for an everlasting love?
This review may contain spoilers, so fair warning, upon reading the review.
Wild Rain is one of those releases for the year I have been most anticipating, but it took me a while to get in the mood. I ended up having it on my TBR for the #HRREADATHON and rotating between the audio and the ebook. Wild Rain is the second book in the latest series by Bev Jenkins and a western romance. It definitely has the typical flair that one will find with Bev Jenkins books, but I love her style with westerns. Now it wasn’t a perfect book or one that won my heart completely. The ending was so NOT my cup of tea and I just felt the heroine could be selfish at times at the expense of the hero and it just rubbed me the wrong way.
Wild Rain begins with Spring Lee who is rancher and on her way home she stumbles across an injured rider and she takes him back to her home to tend to him. Garrett is a Eastern news reporter who has come to interview her brother who is a black man practicing medicine. Garrett is a respectful honest man that is intriguing to Spring. Spring is proud of the woman that she has become. She is independent, self sufficient and doesn’t depend on anyone but herself. She loves being a rancher and the ability to be able to pave her own life. But there is a chemistry between herself and Garrett and Spring doesn’t know what to do with this attraction with Garrett. She knows their lives are at a crossroads but can’t resist the temptation of a strong yet kind man who has only treated her with kindness and respect. Garrett has in his own, gone his own way. His parents fought for him since he was young and sacrificed much. But he is own man and wants to find his own way. He finds Spring and the western way of living such a temptation. He feels a sense of completeness he couldn’t ever feel in the city way of life. But he knows Spring will have to be the one to choose him because she is on her own path but hopes that their love will be enough for them both.
Wild Rain was a sweet and poetically penned romance. I had such a blast with this book and all the bright and colorful personalities that come into play into this story. Now while its definitely not one of my favorites, westerns always breath new life into my reading and this queen of an author can always draw me into her books and I love seeing the way it beckons me into it. I will say that as this one was an audio book, I was impressed with the talent of Kim Staunton. She really brought the perfect balance in the narration of this story. Spring and Garrett were definitely a unique mix together and I did enjoy their relationship and seeing the sacrifices. But I did feel that Garrett was really the one making all the concessions and sacrifices and it didn’t feel like Spring was willing to do nearly as much for the relationship. Garrett seemed to be much more invested in the relationship and I did find that the heroine was very selfish at times and yeah the ending just didn’t feel final or that HEA feel to it at all. I just finished reading the book with feeling like there needed to be more.
Now don’t get me wrong, I didn’t dislike the heroine at all. I found her to be very impressive and I adored the way she would stand up for herself and what she believed in. I just felt like there wasn’t much growth to her as I was expecting and there were aspects to her character that wasn’t my favorite to read in. But Garretty? As the male lead and hero, was superb in every way. I loved his dynamic character. I would say he is a beta with some alpha tendacies especially in being a protector. This part of his character comes when you least expect it. I loved seeing him grow in this story and being such a dynamic character.
He’d left her feeling treasured, desired, something she’d never experienced before. It awakened a long-buried part of herself to the possibility of what could be, and that scared her.
The plot in this book was quite interesting. I honestly never know what to expect in the plot developments of Beverly Jenkins reads and this one was no different. There are aspects of suspense and it was a unique experience to go along for the ride with this book and see where this author was taking us on the journey. There were mutliple of aspects that drew me into this book and I had no problem staying engaged, I found the pacing the plot to be steady and didn’t falter as sometimes happens in historical’s. I really get a kick out of Beverly Jenkins, she has always been an author whose writing style has just worked for me. I really respect her level of rich historical authenticity that is so rare in modern historical authors these days. Its obvious that she knows her history and does her research and “high respect”.
Overall I found Wild Rain to be a thrilling tale of western culture, rich historical context and a tender romance to curl your toes
About Beverly Jenkins
Beverly Jenkins is an African-American historical romance writer. She and her family live in southeastern Michigan. Born in Detroit, she graduated from Cass Technical High School and attended Michigan State University where she majored in Journalism and English Literature.
Ms. Jenkins has written sixteen books to date and has received numerous awards for her works, including: the Detroit Free Press Book of the Year, three Waldenbooks Best Sellers Awards; two Career Achievement Awards from Romantic Times Magazine; a Golden Pen Award from the Black Writer’s Guild, and in 1999, Ms. Jenkins was voted one of the Top Fifty Favorite African-American writers of the 20th Century by AABLC, the nation’s largest on-line African-American book club. In May of 2002, Ms. Jenkins published her first historical novel for young adults, titled: Belle and the Beau. Her second YA, Josephine and the Soldier followed in 2003.
Ms. Jenkins has been featured in many national publications, including the Wall Street Journal, People Magazine, Dallas Morning News and Vibe Magazine. She has lectured at such prestigious universities as Oberlin University; the University of Illinois; and the University of Michigan. She speaks widely on both romance and 19th century African-American history at libraries, schools and organizations including Romance Writers of America, and the Afro–American Historical and Genalogical Society. She is active in her church and community, and in November 2001 was a recipient of the YWCA Woman of Achievement Award.
In February of 2004, Ms. Jenkins’ first contemporary novel of romantic suspense, The Edge of Midnight was released. Sexy/Dangerous, her fourth novel of romantic suspense will be in stores in November 2006.
That cover is so stunning! I’m sorry that this one had a few issues for you, especially an unsatisfying ending, but it still sounds like there was a lot to love!
Lovely review. I read this one back when it first came out and I recall I rather enjoyed it, but I don’t particularly recall the ending. LOL. I do know that I want to now go back and read TEMPEST, the story of Spring’s brother Colt and his (now) wife, Regan. Someday!