Lisa Gregory - The Rainbow Promise

Beautiful Julia Dobson knew love years ago. And it had broken her heart. Now she is back in the little frontier town of her childhood, living in her brother Luke Turner's house, a stranger to the happiness he has with his wife, Sarah. For while Sarah's love redeemed Luke from a wild, lawless past, Julia still burns with shame at being born a Turner, a pretty rag doll of a girl from a tarpaper shack ... a girl not good enough for James Banks, the handsome son of the town doctor.
Yet in this tiny Texas town Julia cannot avoid James for long. When their eyes met, desire washed over her just as it had before. She knows some things never change, but she cannot forget her dream of a love that comes once in a lifetime ... or her secret promise that this time she won’t let him go.

Comment: I had read a book by this author last year and it was good enough to be read and to entertain but looking at what I wrote, it wasn't very impressive. Since I also had the second installment (published ten years later in relation to the first one), I've decided to have closure on this author and read this story too, so that it won't be hanging over my head as "unfinished business".

In this follow up to the other book, we meet again the loving couple Luke and Sarah in their idyllic existence and also Luke's sister Julia, whose husband dies and leaves her in a very complicated situation. Julia then decides to return to her old town and ask Luke's help, although they hadn't seen each other in years. Julia now has two children, and the house they lived in wasn't really theirs, so they are asked to leave. Once back into town and her brother's house, Julia is surprised to be welcomed so well by Luke and Sarah and she feels she might be able to raise her children in a good atmosphere. She also meets dr Banks again, the man she loved all those years ago and the reason why she decided to marry someone else, after all how could she be accepted by his family when hers was so disliked by everyone? Now they are both older, more mature, will they be able to reconnect and find what united them so much before?

I'd say this book would be easily categorized as "old skool", a book where the writing style, the characters' development went a certain way which might not be so appreciated now. Nevertheless, thinking about the development of the story, I think this wasn't too bad and it has aged a little better than most. I was well entertained for certain, and although some plot choices still made me wrinkle my nose, the majority of the story was appealing enough for me to have enjoyed reading it.

One critique I've seen repeated by several other readers is how much plot time is dedicated to Luke and Sarah (protagonists of book #1) instead of focusing even more on the supposedly main couple of this book, Julia and dr James Banks. I should add there's a third romance so the reader's attention is even more divided. I don't mind multi-POV stories and although this seems unfair, a good part of the plot does center on all the characters' lives. Until a certain point Julia and her children live with Luke and Sarah so it's not odd they should have air time. Perhaps yes, there's a little too much focus on them - especially because the focus is on a conflict they go through - but I don't think that element was such a big change from the author's usual style...

There are also surprises coming up regarding Luke's past. This occupies quite a significant part of the story and, despite its content not being that weird, considering the other book, it distracts readers from Julia and James' romance. Was it really necessary? I do think the author wanted to add as much potential for drama as she could and although things never go into silly territory, they didn't have to be addressed at all, but oh well...

Julia and James have a predictable love story. They fell in love young, she got pregnant and didn't tell him, she lives in self condemnation because she didn't love the man she married but she thought she wouldn't be accepted by James' family because of her own family's reputation. I can certainly expect this to be true to her time and to the personality of someone who has lived thinking less of herself. I can also accept James feeling betrayed since he didn't know she got pregnant but to see them so easily discuss these thing several (lost) years later wasn't such a surprise. After all, they were still a little bit in love and being older they were both more mature to deal with those decisions. Still, it did seem as if some drama could have been avoided but there you, it's always easy to say so after things happen and are solved.

I think there could have been more about this couple, though. We have glimpses of them here and there but it could have been as interesting, or even more so, if the development of the book were more on them, on how they reconnect, how they interacted for a while before starting to give in to their emotions...I believe their story could have been even more emotional and romantic.

All things considered, this wasn't too bad to read and despite the unfairness, it was nice to see Luke and Sarah again and to see some other characters too. Since the focus was all weird, the end felt a bit rushed, after so long spent on different issues concerning different characters, it sure could have been possible to develop things better at the end... still, an entertaining read.

Grade: 6/10

Lisa Gregory - The Rainbow Season

Luke Turner has always been an outcast-known as "bad blood" from his boyhood in a tarpaper shack, to his nights in a prison cell. Sarah McGowan's roots are deep in the Texas soil. But her secret, shameful love for her sister's husband has kept her from happiness. Pride and their love of Texas throw Luke and Sarah together in an unlikely marriage. Then, as unexpectedly as a spring flood, long pent-up passion explodes in a storm that consumes them both.

Comment: This is an old historical book by author Lisa Gregory (also known for her work as Candace Camp), initially published in 1979. This book is 40 years old. It's older than me! It just seems amazing how time flies.

The old paperback covers are really alike the bodice rippers of the time and so unlike what really happens in the plot. I mean, yes the main couple has sex, they are intimate but not to the indecorous extend the covers aim at, like this one on the left. 

Recently, many older editions have been "brought back" as ebook editions, with more conservative (dare I say elegant as well?) covers, like the one below in the text.

In this story we have a very basic story with heroine Sarah and hero Luke meeting after he gets out of jail for a crime he didn't commit. 

Since no one gives him a job, his last chance is Henry McGowan, a man renown as being fair, and if that doesn't work, Luke plans on leaving as soon as he gets a bit of money somehow. However, not only does he get a job but also the concern of his employer and the fascination of his daughter Sarah.

Sarah still lives in the shadow of her more attractive sister and she hides the secret of loving her husband in a way a sister-in-law shouldn't.

When rumors spread and a tragic event shapes the future of everyone concerned, will Luke and Sarah find things in common to have a lasting relationship and prove everyone they aren't just what other think of them?

If one is to base an opinion on what are contemporary views, contemporary things we accept or not, then this book certainly has issues in its content. However, romance is often seen as a means to escape reality and in that perspective, many unacceptable things now had a reason or a tradition that was the norm in another time. It's often complicated to put these things aside: the time when something was written and the time in which one lives.

This said, I wouldn't go as far to say this is a traditional bodice ripper. The characters are quite fair in how they deal with one another and the relationship between hero and heroine is respectable, even when they give in to their attraction. This means, both thinking about contemporary expectations and knowing how some older books were, this one is tame, sweet and more focused on the evolution of the characters than in how the hero can prove he is stronger/better than the heroine.

The plot is not too complicated, is more character driven and wants to show the reader how well suited the main couple actually is. There isn't as much talk about what they did in their pasts, about their overall feelings... but we see in actions, in choices made how they start respecting each other. This was quite a positive surprise, to have the characters be drawn more in relation to how their personalities were than things they said. It's not that often we have as much show rather than tell in these types of books (older and romance focused).

I'd say the two main issues why this wasn't a better book for me - and that certainly affected my final grade - were the following, both plot related:

First, the sense I got we had to be forced to change out opinion on Luke just because he was contrasted to Stu, one supposedly great man, hero potential, the husband of the better looking sister. Sarah apparently loves this man so of course Luke had to be a character developed as in opposed to Stu. I mean, why make Stu such a big deal? Just so we could believe Sarah actually loves Luke and was just attracted to Stu? I found this to be silly and unnecessary.

Second, there's a specific situation which happens and when it did, caught me by surprise on how avoidable and carelessly it was. I can understand why, it forced the characters into a certain action but... why, why couldn't the story follow the same path as it did without that detail? I got furious because it didn't change anything in how the characters behaved from that on.

There wee also some situations between hero and heroine that could have been presented with more tact, more sensitivity but well, there's still the year it was published in and some things were yet acceptable then as they wouldn't be now. I can think of this and not loose my mind over it. It's a dated romance, it wasn't impossible to be redeemed as the relationship between them evolved... but still, the little notion of it remains.

All in all, this was a good enough story, a travel back to an older point in time when things were thought a different way. The story has good moments, some silly ones but overall it were a few entertaining hours at least.

Grade: 6/10