|
DESTINED Adrienne Ellis Reeves BET/Arabesque November 1999 (4+) Melanie Schuster |
Contemporary Romance |
|
PLOT SYNOPSIS: |
|
|
REVIEW: |
|
|
If you are in search of a true love story, DESTINED is the book for you. I say this because Dr. Adrienne Ellis Reeves writes of love so sweetly and passionately that I invariably cry at some point while reading her works. This is another book set in the little town of Jamison, South Carolina, and it is like a lovely homecoming. Leah
Givens grew up in an unhappy home with a tyrannical father. Small
wonder that she eloped with her high school sweetheart right after graduation.
She and Bill were blissfully happy in Raleigh, until her despotic father
showed up and dragged her away from her love nest.
He told her that he would have Bill arrested for statutory rape because
she was underage and Leah was young enough and frightened enough to believe him. Bill
Johnson searched frantically for his beloved Leah for months before giving up
the search. Due to her father’s
cruel chicanery, Bill had no way of knowing that she had been taken against her
will to Savannah. After years of
restless wandering in the service, Bill began to build a chain of electronic
stores that led him back to Jamison, where Leah was now living. So,
after 13 years apart, Bill and Leah are reunited.
But they can’t just pick up where they left off, even though they are
still in love. But has so much time
passed that the bitterness and pain will prevail, or will they find a way back
to each other? They want
desperately to be together, but the wounds run deep; will their love prove to be
deeper? Dr.
Reeves is not one for sizzling bedroom scenes; her characters behave in a chaste
and circumspect manner. But honey,
when someone falls in love in her books, you feel
that love. She has a gift for
making her characters come alive on the page.
I could feel every bit of the anxiety and adoration that the characters
were feeling. I sincerely believed
every word on the pages. Dr. Reeves
supplies her readers with lovely detailing that make her stories very realistic
and entertaining. Her books are
like taking a trip to a dear friend’s house for a well-prepared meal and a
long, heartfelt talk. There
has been a thread of discussion on one of the chat forums about sex in the
romance novel. Is it a necessary
part of the genre or can a convincing, entertaining book be written that does
not include spicy scenes? Well, I
will confess to being a devoted fan of the spicy.
Not overly explicit, just very hot.
And I can attest that with Dr. Reeves at work, you do not miss the spice.
If you want to talk about love, real, true, passionate, long lasting
love—pick up DESTINED and experience love at the
hands of a master. And that truly
is the heart of romance, which we sometimes forget… |
|
|
1st November 2002 |
|
