Run & Read That : Blog Tour: Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins

About Forbidden

USA Today bestselling author Beverly Jenkins returns with the first book in a breathtaking new series set in the Old West

Rhine Fontaine is building the successful life he's always dreamed of—one that depends upon him passing for White. But for the first time in years, he wishes he could step out from behind the façade. The reason: Eddy Carmichael, the young woman he rescued in the desert. Outspoken, defiant, and beautiful, Eddy tempts Rhine in ways that could cost him everything . . . and the price seems worth paying.

Eddy owes her life to Rhine, but she won't risk her heart for him. As soon as she's saved enough money from her cooking, she'll leave this Nevada town and move to California. No matter how handsome he is, no matter how fiery the heat between them, Rhine will never be hers. Giving in for just one night might quench this longing. Or it might ignite an affair as reckless and irresistible as it is forbidden…

My Review

Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins is an historical romance novel that tells the story of Eddy Carmicheal and Rhine Fontaine in the Old West after the discovery of the Comstock Lode of 1859. Eddy Carmicheal is woman of color born free living in Denver, Colorado with big dreams of heading further west to California with the even bigger dream of opening up a restaurant. She is all set to go after selling all of her belongings, quitting her job, and purchasing a train ticket. However, as she was leaving the train deport she was robbed of her all her money and the train ticket to her better life. With no one else to turn to she asked her sister, who laughed in her face and sent her on her way with her carpet bag and cook stove.

Luckily she ran into a friend of her deceased father who gave her a lift west, but definitely not to California. Once at her second destination, she met a Mormon family heading west to Utah to escape religious percussion in Iowa. This family pays her handsomely to drive one of their carts and once again she is on the way to fulfilling her dream, purchasing a train ticket and is finally on her way to California. But as misfortune or fate would have it, she is robbed yet again and left in the desert to die.

But as destiny would have it Rhine Fontaine and his business partner Jim found her near death on their way back from Reno. They gathered Eddy up and took her to Virginia City to recover. Now Rhine Fontaine, was a kind, tall, wealthy, and oh so hot, gentleman that was born a slave, but learned at the early age of 10 that he could pass as a white man with his fair skin and green eyes. So, as he nursed Eddy back to health he could not deny that there was something about this woman that has caused him to rethink everything he thought he knew and wanted of his life.

This novel was not only a love story between a man and woman, but it was truly an American Tale. This literary work was extremely well written, well researched, and beautifully told a story that you do not here often enough. At its bare essence, you have a black woman, born free that dared to dream big, even in a world that was ever changing and evolving on views of politics, race, gender, class and religion and a man who dared to go against the grain regardless of which side of the color line he chose to be on. As a white man he supported the black community by investing in their businesses and patronage and conversely as a black man he had wealth beyond any man in the entire state and a plan in place to maintain it no matter what race he chose.

Overall, I have no other rating to give this novel except a 5-star rating, and I recommend that you run and read Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins. Not only will you be entertained by the colorful bantering between the characters and fall in love with this story, but you will actually learn something new or gain a different perspective on some aspects of American history.

Job well done Ms. Jenkins... Job well done!!!

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About the Author

Ms. Jenkins is the nation's premier writer of African American historical romance fiction and specializes in 19th century African American life. She has over thirty published novels to date.

She has received numerous awards, including: five Waldenbooks/Borders Group Best Sellers Awards; two Career Achievement Awards and a Pioneer Award from Romantic Times Magazine; a Golden Pen Award from the Black Writer's Guild, and in 1999 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 has also been featured in many national publications, including the Wall Street Journal, People Magazine, Dallas Morning News and Vibe Magazine. She has lectured and given talks at such prestigious universities as Oberlin University, the University of Illinois, and Princeton. She speaks widely on both romance and 19th century African-American history and was the 2014 featured speaker for the W.W. Law Lecture Series sponsored by the Savannah Black Heritage Festival.