Breathless by Beverly Jenkins

BREATHLESS 
by Beverly Jenkins

On sale: 1/31/2017 | ISBN: 9780062389022

ABOUT THE BOOK:

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…

Rating/Review: ☕☕☕☕ (4 cups because this might be all wild west adventure but its definitely a steamy tale at that!)

In Breathless, readers will be transported back into the American Wild West during the late 1800s, giving them a glimpse of a life barely discussed in most history books.  The main characters in this book were first introduced in Forbidden.  Portia was then a 12 year old girl while Kent already a man at 18. Now fifteen years later they meet again, this time Portia has grown into an accomplished woman whose managing the hotel for her uncle.  Kent on the other hand, has matured because of his life experiences and wants to settle and find his own roots.  Portia and Kent's romance is a slow, sensual and often times sweet ride, a courtship in some ways.  Portia is hesitant while Kent is patient but very much bent on making her say yes.  A lush and vivid tale with the wild west as backdrop plus a plethora of interesting characters and a plot richly detailed with the minutia of life during those times, Breathless will definitely capture readers imagination and root for Portia and Kent's HEA.

A NOTE FROM

Beverly Jenkins

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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.

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