Beverly Jenkins, Wild Sweet Love

Wild Sweet Love

Beverly Jenkins

Avon, May 2007, $5.99

ISBN: 0061161306

In 1895, incarcerated bank and train robber Teresa July receives a pardon for coming to the aid of a prison matron with the stipulations that she stay out of trouble and out of the west, especially the Arizona Territory, for a year. Philadelphia high society maven and charity representative Miss Molly Nance takes in the famous Black Seminole outlaw, who figures, how hard can it be to stay out of trouble while living amidst affluence?

However, Teresa readjusts her original contention that keeping out of trouble will prove easy when she meets Molly's son, Madison, a womanizing, retired cardsharp turned banker. He decides Teresa would make a fine notch on his belt, but instead of falling into bed with the hunk, she rips his skin, that is when she is not defeating him in some sort of contest. As they begin to fall in love over horseshoes, her previous lifestyle surfaces, leaving both and his mother in peril.

Using the sister of the hero of SOMETHING LIKE LOVE and a support role gambler from A CHANCE AT LOVE, Beverly Jenkins provides readers with a great historical romance that also includes a terrific look at black history. The lead couple each shows they can handle star billing as Teresa and Madison is a wonderful pairing who fuss, fight, compete, and love. No one shines a light on nineteenth-century African-America than the incomparable Ms. Jenkins consistently does; which is why this reviewer is also a fan.

Harriet Klausner