Blog Tour – Breathless by Beverly Jenkins @authorMsBev @avonbooks #review #giveaway

Posted January 30, 2017 by Carole in Blog Tour, Book Reviews, Giveaway / 9 Comments

I am excited to be a part of the blog tour for Breathless by Beverly Jenkins.  I found this to be a well done romance filled with wonderful characters.  Be sure to enter the giveaway for a chance to win a copy of the first book in the series, Forbidden.

Breathless by Beverly Jenkins
Series: Old West #2
Avon Books
Publication Date: January 31, 2017
Date Read: January 28, 2017
Source: Edelweiss
★★★★☆

As manager of one of the finest hotels in Arizona Territory, Portia Carmichael has respect and stability-qualities sorely missing from her harsh childhood. She refuses to jeopardize that by hitching herself to the wrong man. Suitors are plentiful, but none of them has ever looked quite as tempting as the family friend who just rode into town…and none have looked at her with such intensity and heat.

Duchess. That’s the nickname Kent Randolph gave Portia when she was a young girl. Now she’s a stunning, intelligent woman-and Kent has learned his share of hard lessons. After drifting through the West, he’s learned the value of a place to settle down, and in Portia’s arms he’s found that and more. But convincing her to trust him with her heart, not just her passion, will be the greatest challenge he’s known-and one he intends to win…

My Review

I really enjoyed this book.  I was so happy to see so many wonderful character from the first book in the series, Forbidden, featured in this book.  I found this book to be a really easy read and liked the sweeter romance that it offered.  The western setting was very well done and quite a lot of fun.

The book focuses on Portia and Kent.  Portia came to live with her Aunt Eddy and Uncle Rhine when she was 12 years old.  They are forced to leave Virgina City shortly after the events of the first book.  The family ends up in the Arizona Territory running a successful hotel.  Portia has grown up to be an intelligent and very capable woman who handles most of the day to day operations of the hotel.  She is very business minded and has no desire to marry.

Kent’s life has been rather adventurous since he fled Virginia City with Portia’s family.  He is now the rancher he always wanted to be and is hoping to settle down a bit.  He signs on to work with Rhine and soon is put in charge of the adjoining ranch.  He is a very hard worker and an all around good guy.

I liked Portia and Kent together.  This romance was really quite sweet.  Portia is very innocent and the bulk of the book covers the couple getting to know each other.  I liked how Kent handling all of the attention that Portia was getting from her long time suitors.  He seemed to know just the right thing to say to handle a situation.  It was nice watch this couple fall in love with each other.

I would recommend this book to others.  I didn’t like it quite as much as I liked Eddy and Rhine’s story but I thought it was a solid romance.  Having Eddy, Rhine, and other characters from the previous book play an important roles in this book was a nice surprise.  I can’t wait to read the next book in this series!

I received an advanced reader edition of this book from Avon Books via Edelweiss.

Giveaway
The Series – Old West
Book #1 – Forbidden – My Review
Book #2 – Breathless

A NOTE FROM
Beverly Jenkins
Dear Readers,

This is the second book in the Rhine Trilogy and I do hope you enjoy it. With all the issues and heartache Portia carried inside, I knew it would be difficult for her to give her heart to someone, but Kent Randolph proved to be the man for the job, even if I didn’t know he would be her hero when the story began. Hope you’ll enjoy seeing Rhine and Eddy from Forbidden and, yes, they are still very much in love.

The Fontaine Hotel is loosely based on the Mountain View Hotel founded in Oracle, Arizona, in 1895 by Annie Box Neal and her husband William “Curly” Neal, who were both of African- American and Native-American descent. The Mountain View was a combination hotel and spa and catered not only to European royalty but to wealthy visitors from places like Russia, Australia, and China, too. Look them up.

The great Apache chief Geronimo surrendered on September 4, 1886, and was promptly declared a prisoner of war. He and his people eventually wound up in Florida along with the Apache scouts the army employed to hunt him down. He died at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, in 1909. The Apache warrior Lozen, also captured in 1886, was sent to the barracks at Mount Vernon, Alabama, where she died of tuberculosis in 1887. Although her name has faded from America’s memory, her bravery and fearlessness remains legendary with her people.

I only touched briefly on African-American women and the fight for suffrage but hope to get back to it in depth sometime in the future. Until then, if you’d like to do some research on your own, here are two excellent sources:

African American Women and the Vote: 1837–1965 by Cynthia Neverdon-Morton, et al.
African American Women in the Struggle for the Vote: 1850–1920 by Rosalyn Terborg-Penn

Having the opportunity to create characters and stories that reflect my heritage as a woman of color is priceless. Representation matters.  Thanks again for the support and love. Thanks also for spreading the word about my books to everyone you know. It’s much appreciated.

Until next time, happy reading.
B.

About the Author

BEVERLY JENKINS has received numerous awards, including five Waldenbooks/Borders Group Best Sellers Awards, two Career Achievement Awards from Romantic Times Magazine, and a Golden Pen Award from the Black Writer’s Guild. Ms Jenkins was named 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. She was recently nominated for the NAACP Image Award in Literature. To read more about Beverly, please visit her website at www.beverlyjenkins.net.

Author Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter

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9 responses to “Blog Tour – Breathless by Beverly Jenkins @authorMsBev @avonbooks #review #giveaway”

  4. Katherine P

    I love the sound of this and I love that you mention that it's really about the couple falling in love. That's my favorite thing in a romance! I've been really wanting to try one of Beverly Jenkins' books and I love that she's taken inspiration from a nonfiction event. I'm definitely adding this to my TBR!

  6. Sophia Rose

    I already had Forbidden on my wish list, but cool that she wrote a follow-up story to make side characters the new hero and heroine. I love westerns romances so I look forward to both now.

  9. Lover Of Romance

    oh yay…so glad you had a blast with this book. She does the most romantic books and I love the diversity as well. These two sounds like a solid match.