Forever, for Love

by Becky Lee Weyrich

Tempestuous Pandora Sherwood was drawn irrevocably to adventurer Ward Gabriel, but her innate restlessness soon pulled her to Europe to uncover her mysterious past. Would she finally unveil the secret that had torn her away from the only man she would ever love?

Genres: Historical Romance

Paperback

First published September 1, 1989

About the author

As an author for Loveswept, Becky Lee Weyrich published one romance novel.

She began publishing fiction in 1978. She has written for various publishers in a variety of genres, including historical romance, fantasy, saga, Gothic, horror/mystery, contemporary and time travel.

In 1991, she won Romantic Times magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award for New Age Fiction 1992, awarded the Certificate of Excellence in Career Achievement in Historical Fantasy and Reviewers' Choice Certificate of Excellence for "Sweet Forever" (Pinnacle Books, May 1992). Beginning as a nonfiction writer in 1960, she did freelance work for several newspapers and magazines. She also wrote and illustrated two of poetry before turning full time to fiction.

A member of Romance Writers of America and a board member of Southeastern Writers' Association, Weyrich is the originator of the Becky Lee Weyrich Fiction Award, presented annually at the Southeastern Writers' Workshop on St. Simons Island, Georgia.

After roaming the world as a Navy wife, the Georgia-born author now resides in a vintage beach cottage on St. Simons Island with her husband. Her hobbies include golf, beachcombing, cruises to exotic shores, and collecting Victorian antiques.

Reviews

[ANGELIA · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had some issues with this book. I gave it three stars because of the theme, as well as highly realistic (as well as frightening) scenes of a horrible hurricane. I have to say however, that it goes in the category of good idea but (if not poorly, then) not as good in the execution. I got the feeling I was reading an edited version, like a TV rerun that has scenes deleted to make room for more commercials. You get the idea, but some stuff is missing, leaving the story feeling incomplete.

I also have to wonder, why do so many HR novelists have a thing for Jean Lafitte? I did some research, and while he led quite a (probably exaggerated) life, I don't see him as a heartthrob, not the sort of man a woman will either fall madly in love with or cheat on her true love with, but apparently others differ in their opinion. To each his own, I guess.

In this book, the pirate is the early 19thc past life lover of the present late 19thc h, Pandora Sherwood, who lives in Galveston, TX with her Uncle Horace, Aunt Tabitha and cousin Angelica, after her parents were killed in a hurricane when she was a child. Ever since, she's had psychic powers, able to see visions of the future, as well as the past, which leaves people thinking her eccentric, as well as good party entertainment. Her aspirations for an artistic career add to the opinion, which is only countered by her planned marriage to respectable Dr. Jacob Saenger.

However, that doesn't stop her from having romantic dreams/visions about Jean Lafitte, and a woman named Nicolette, who she's convinced is herself in a former life, right there on the island. She's always been drawn to the ruins of Maison Rouge, Lafitte's former mansion, feeling a connection there.

Then, there's ambitious (as well as gorgeous) businessman Ward Gabriel, whom Pandora's attracted to, in spite of her love for Jacob. Her obsession with Jean and Nicolette convinces her she is Nicolette and that she has to find Jean in this lifetime. (In one of her visions, she saw the tragic death of Nicolette, who had been stabbed and died in Jean's arms. He vowed they'd be together again someday.) It goes without saying that she wants to believe Jacob could be Jean, but that fiery chemistry and passion between Jean and Nicolette is lacking between Jacob and Pandora. There's was a proper courtship, not going beyond a few kisses.

After an unsettling experience, where she tried to visualize her future with Jacob and couldn't see a thing, she ends up alone with Ward in his cottage, where she soon becomes overwhelmed both by her attraction to him and her thoughts of Jean. She has a retrocognitive experience, where she, as Nicolette, makes passionate love with Jean, and believes it happened with her and Ward, when all they did was kiss. Convinced she betrayed Jacob, believing that Ward is Jean's reincarnation yet wanting to think Jacob is, and feeling that she needs help (you think???), she goes ahead with a plan to study art in Paris for six months and also see a famed psychiatrist, Dr. Pinel.

This book has some real weird factors (though I guess I didn't need to state that). When Pandora first sees Dr. Pinel, she tells him of her fear that she actually did betray Jacob, because when she got home from Ward's cottage, she discovered blood on her thighs, apparent proof of virginity loss. The doctor offered to reassure her by examining her for a hymen, and she agreed. Talk about the ICK factor! If he were a gynecologist, that's one thing, but how many women go to a psychiatrist to have their vagina examined? To her relief, he pronounced her pure, though if some dirty old man doctor stuck his fingers in me, I wouldn't feel that way.

Anyhow: when he hears her wild story, he suggests hypnosis. Though he doesn't believe in reincarnation, he thinks some trauma she experienced (like the death of her parents, which is when the obsession started) could be causing her to retreat to this fantasy world, because her real one isn't to her liking. In session after session, she recalls more and more of Nicolette and Jean's life, (which includes a sexy Spanish captive named Isabella that always makes her think of her cousin Angelica) which further convinces her she's right about a past life, and further convinced the doctor she has serious mental issues. She makes the decision to cut her trip short by two months, get back to Galveston and marry Jacob sooner than planned, trying to convince herself he's Jean.

Instead, she gets a shock, when Jacob marries Angelica! In a rebound move (although she can't deny the attraction) she again winds up with Ward, and this time she wants to make love, as she's now convinced that he's Jean come back to her, after all. But when, after thinking he'd cure her of this past obsession by his present lovemaking, she calls him by Jean's name, that did it! It's like having ice water dumped on his man parts!

Next thing you know (and I mean that literally, since the book tends to jump from one big scene to another, without the usual build up), it's three years later, she's in Europe, painting a nude man! That became her specialty, after suddenly abandoning her sessions with Dr. Pinel, which she had briefly taken up again. Though fascinated by her stories while under hypnosis, he refuses to credit them to a past life, so she decided to cut ties with him, rather abruptly, considering all the time she spent in his office.

She decides to devote herself to establishing an art career, but when she paints one scene, it inevitably turns (either on canvas or in her mind) into another, involving Nicolette and Jean. The next thing you know, a hot looking male model named Eduardo approaches her, and practically begs her to paint him nude. At first shocked, then reluctant, she finally gives in, having convinced herself (first with Jacob, then with Ward, now with Eduardo) that he's Jean in this present lifetime. This seems to be confirmed in her eyes, when he kisses her in the studio, and soon, before each painting session, they have hot make out sessions on the sofa. Just when she's ready to surrender her hymen, she arrives early at the studio, (she has a separate apartment) and finds him naked and in the arms of an equally naked man! So much for his being Lafitte! (And why an obviously gay man would want to amuse himself by kissing, caressing, and leading on a female artist is beyond me. And to bring his lover to her studio, where she let him stay rent free? Not only is that crummy, but it also doesn't make sense.)

After that, it's strictly business, as her paintings sell like hot (guy) cakes, all of them signed "Nicolette". Clever, huh? She becomes anonymously famous, though basing her entire career on nude male portraits makes even less sense than some other things in this book. I don't know of any artist who based their career entirely on nudes, that was just one aspect of it. Especially since she had a talent for outdoor scenes and landscapes. No matter how well she painted, focusing in only one direction will soon kill a career. What would have happened to Whistler if all he did was paint old ladies in chairs?

As you probably suspected, Ward shows up, at a masquerade party a mutual friend from Galveston throws (as a pirate, no less). Having traveled around Europe (he's now a wealthy mine owner, successful jewelry designer, investor, and lots of other capitalistic ventures) searching for the elusive Nicolette! And (I'll bet you already guessed) Pandora soon decided, yet again, that Ward is her destiny, her beloved Jean returned! (I swear, this obsession is way over the top! I was waiting for a postman to deliver a package and have her throw herself at him, crying: "Jean! Oh, Jean!") Ward, meanwhile, believes all the stories he heard, that the mystery lady artist beds all her models and is angry, thinking about Pandora having lots of lovers. (He was far from a monk the past three years, but what the heck?) He's determined to make her forget them all and gets quite a surprise when her hymen is finally deactivated! (Isn't it a little TSTL for a sophisticated man like Ward to believe a lot of gossip and rumors, when it would be obvious that any woman artist is bound to be gossiped about in those days, no matter who or what she painted? Men artists too, for that matter.)

Isn't it also TSTL to believe that after only three years Pandora was an artistic success and Ward was a business mogul? Those things usually take at least a decade. But considering this book, I guess it makes sense.

(BTW: one thing I think really silly in so many HR novels is when the H or h becomes a raging success in too short a time. How many times has the H been captain of his own ship at a ridiculously young age? And it's even worse when the guy's a pirate! We're supposed to believe men in their 30's and 40's are going to take orders from an early 20-something? Come on! They'd throw him overboard in a minute! And when the h is a pirate, it's even more ridiculous! You know damn well they'd take turns raping her, then watch her walk the plank! It makes about as much sense as a young woman with reality issues taking art classes, then almost as soon as she's finished, she's famous, with hot male models eager to strip for her. I know these books are far from reality based -that's why we read them - but enough is enough!)

And another thing: (I did say I had issues with this book) when it comes to past life themes, isn't there usually a connection between both parties almost at once, where they sense they've met before, somewhere in time? This didn't happen with Pandora and Ward; they'd known each other a long time and nothing earthshattering ever happened. It was pretty TSTL of Ms. Weyrich to think her readers are TSTL to pick up on this.

I won't go on to tell the whole tale, but a few more points need to be made. Too much happens and is then glossed over. Ward and Pandora get married and return to Galveston, where he builds her a mansion, just like Jean did for Nicolette. (First Maison Rouge, then Pandora's Castle, how cute!) This is further proof to Pandora that Ward is Jean, but he stubbornly won't consider it, as he wants to discourage her from fixating on Jean and the past, despite her still having visions, some of which are pretty disturbing. He finds himself jealous of Jean, which is ironic, since if he is Jean returned, then he's jealous of himself!

That's not the only man he's jealous of. Jacob and Angelica have a lousy marriage, and he longs for what might have been with Pandora. Ward tries to hide his feelings and accept Pandora's friendship with her cousin-by-marriage, yet when Jacob's father, old doc Saenger, is ill when Pandora goes into labor (while Ward's away on business), Jacob has to deliver her twins. There wasn't any choice, she was a few weeks early and there wasn't any other doctor handy, but it really bothered Ward. The thought of his wife's ex-fiance bringing her babies into the world didn't seem proper, almost indecent, is the way he thought of it. Yet, the author just lets that go. Pandora picked up on his feelings, then it was all dismissed, which in real life wouldn't be so easy.

That goes double for the bad vibes Pandora gets from Angelica, who is clearly mentally unstable. She lies, schemes, manipulates, acts strangely, and it's obvious she's attracted to Ward. She's also been resentful of Pandora for a long time. (Not to mention Pandora's unspoken belief that Angelica is the reincarnation of Isabella, who resented Nicolette, lusted after Jean, and even had a one-night hookup with him.) Yet, Pandora's willing to suspend her better judgement and let Angelica be a surrogate nanny to her twins. (WTF!!!) It should come as no surprise that a near tragedy ensues.

So many things are left in limbo, or else go unspoken. When Pandora left for Paris, she entrusted her beloved litter of kittens to her aunt's care, yet they mysteriously disappeared. Angelica was living at home at the time, so you're supposed to infer that she possibly drowned them, but that's never established. Likewise, Pandora comes to the conclusion that Isabella murdered Nicolette but there's never a past life vision to confirm this. There's no more discussion about Angelica being Isabella, despite their being so many personality similarities. Most telling of all, after the twins were born, Jean appears to Pandora in a dream/vision and gives her two necklaces for the baby girls. When Ward returns, he says he had a dream about the babies and felt compelled to buy them necklaces, the same ones from Pandora's vision. When she tells Ward, once again he's overcome by jealousy, especially when Pandora swears the kiss that she got from Jean was real. Then it's forgotten. When they nearly die in a hurricane, Ward declares he lost her in one lifetime, and he won't let it happen again, which would imply he accepts his past life as Jean, but then nothing more comes of that. Even more ridiculous, Pandora sees Nicolette, reaching from the grave to help save them. Reaching from the grave? If she's Nicolette, how can she see her own ghost?

Also, the experience with the dream is supposed to be the psychic phenomenon of astral projection. Apparently, while Ward was dreaming, his spirit travelled from his body to visit Pandora, in his past life persona as Jean. Then, it's not explained for what it was, and is just dropped. In fact, despite the whole reincarnation obsession (including the fact that a very old man turns out to be the little boy Nicolette used to care for) taking up so much of Pandora's life, it's suddenly put aside altogether, as if it no longer mattered. She doesn't even care anymore whether or not Ward accepts it, when before she felt his nonbelief was hurting their marriage. Just water under the bridge now. (Huh???)

And what about Pandora's art career? The mysterious Nicolette just as mysteriously disappears, and no one seems to care? Also, she doesn't seem interested in working again, except to paint designs on their furniture and other such projects. Seems pretty lame.

To top it all off, after (thank God) finally becoming free of Anglica, Jacob leaves Galveston to start a new life elsewhere, so we're told, as there's no goodbye scene between him and Pandora, which is just ridiculous, considering all they've been through together and what they once meant to each other. For that matter, despite Ward's jealousy, he and Jacob became friends, so no departure scene between them is pretty unreal, as well. Jacob was a really good man, who got stuck with a really bad woman, and suffered for it. Yet, he made the best of his life, tried to make his marriage work, took care of his elderly father and was an excellent doctor. He deserved more than a quick exit.

Come to think of it, give this book 2 1/2 stars.