Rainbow’s End
Rainbow’s End by Rebecca Brandewyne 1991 Warner Books
Josselyn O’Rourke was placed in a convent when seven years old while her father, Red, went to Colorado to find gold. She receives a letter that her father is dead, and she must travel to Colorado about her father’s mine, Rainbow’s End.
In her youth Josselyn had met a man secretly who seduced her with kisses and caresses before finding out that he was luring young girls to a brothel and had luckily been arrested before kidnapping her. She tells the nuns she wants to join the order, but they know she is doing it to hide.
The background establishes the heroine’s frame of mind of not trusting men and wondering if they are lying to her. It sets up the conflict in the future. Backstories should be short, sweet, and make a point.
The lawyer reads the will which leaves her share to her only if she does not become a nun and marries one of the remaining male partners, gentleman Wylie Gresham or saloon owner and desperado Durango de Navarro. Victoria Houghton is the widow of the fourth partner, Forbes, who died before Red O’Rourke. Both men begin courting her.
Josselyn is determined to find out who killed her Da and tries to get to know both men. Durango appears to be dirty, obnoxious, and forward so she doesn’t like him. Wylie is a gentleman but Victoria is his mistress. Neither man would make a good husband so why did her father make that a stipulation of the will?
Josselyn, who still wears her nun’s habit, goes to the mine with Durango. She falls into a cart and Durango rescues her. He kisses her, and she faints from the heat. Durango lets her think the worst. He isn’t a marrying man, but he wants her. He begins to show a softer side by taking in an orphan. Josselyn never confronts Durango with the fact that he owns a saloon with a brothel on the second floor. What should be a major obstacle to any romance is never addressed.
Many romances have a rake as the lead character but he is reformed at some point. Many heroines love a bad boy but do they marry them? Obstacles need to be resolved. Historically men have had many lovers to paint them as virile and attractive while the woman must remain virginal. But how does your heroine feel about this?
Durango is jealous when he sees Wylie kiss Josselyn and Victoria is threatened by her when she thinks she may lose Wylie. These are external threats. Victoria drugs Durango and Josselyn and hires thugs to put them in bed in a hotel. This results in a forced marriage.
A lot of stories rely on the forced marriage, especially a Regency, but there has to be some attraction before the incident or both or one would refuse to wed. Josselyn, thinks she has already been ruined by Durango and allows him to make love to her when they wake in the same bed. He excuses his action on the lie that she wasn’t an innocent and then marries her. This may make him feel better about his seduction, but he doesn’t take Josselyn’s feelings into consideration.
The quick marriage throws a wrench into Red’s plans because he faked his death to find out who the culprit was who sabotaged the mine and had hoped posting of the bans, which Durango didn’t do, would give him time to stop any wedding. Then Red breaks his ankle so he can’t interfere.
Brandewyne uses long passages of poetic description for the love scenes, something that isn’t done too often, but it is something every writer should be able to do in small doses. I am not a poet and envy those who can describe things in flowery phrases. Avoid too much, but add a few carefully crafted phrases to your writing.
Not completely trusting each other, Durango and Josselyn, move to the mine to investigate the accident and make love, waiting for each to declare “I love you.” All the characters end up down in the mine and Da reveals he’s alive. Da offers Durango all if he divorces Josselyn but he refuses, proving his love.
Spoiler alert: the plot had huge holes in it. Durango investigates what happened and explains it in several pages at the end. Forbes lost his fortune and sabotaged the mother lode so others would sell their shares to him, but he had no money. How was he going to buy their shares? No motive. Forbes also found out about his wife’s affair and was going to kill Wylie and have Victoria take the blame by planting her earrings at the site. Earrings? That’s not enough evidence for a murder conviction. Instead, Forbes accidentally falls into the sump before the story begins which means there was no real villain in the story. There needs to be a villain in a story that poses a real threat. Victoria’s sabotage and Red blowing up the mine made no sense except to delay a confronation. Red’s will put his daughter in jeopardy. He could have brought Josselyn to town with a letter instead. Red’s mistress Nell said it was a bad idea and readers will probably agree.
A plot like this can be saved, but first a writer needs to recognize the problems.
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#Romance #Historical #Brandewyne
