FOR KEEPS

Janice Sims

1-58314-034-4

BET/ Arabesque

September 1999

(5) Melanie Schuster

Contemporary Romance

 AWARD OF EXCELLENCE

PLOT SYNOPSIS: 

REVIEW: 

One of the things I love about romance is that there is room for all kinds of innovation. There are so many stories to tell and so many ways to tell them that the reader has an exciting variety from which to chose. And when the author is as talented and creative as Janice Sims, the reader simply cannot go wrong.  Without giving anything away, I will say that Ms Sims has indubitably given us a keeper with her latest offering, FOR KEEPS.

Native Montanan Cheyenne Roberts has been summoned from her lucrative position in Chicago to the bedside of her dying grandfather.  It turns out to be a ploy to lure her back to the family homestead but Cheyenne finds that she really doesn’t mind the idea too much. There is a way that she can help her family maintain the family homestead while she is using her college degrees, so it’s not like she will be vegetating in Montana.  And there is an awful lot of unfinished business between her and Jackson Kincaid, the neighboring rancher that she has been in love with for years.

Jackson Kincaid has been burned once in love by someone who thought that city life was the only life for her. He has always felt that Cheyenne was off-limits; she is his best friend’s sister and she’s too young, besides.  But Cheyenne has had his heart for as long as he can remember.  Now that she has convinced him that she is truly a woman and not his little sister, can she prove to him that nothing will separate them from the love that is blazing out of control?

This book is a real treat.  Savor it slowly, because when it is done you are going to heave a huge sigh of regret because it ended to soon.  The characters are warm, earthy, sympathetic, the locale is so vivid you will smell the wildflowers and the wood smoke and the plot is romantically realistic.  Ms. Sims did such an excellent job of depicting the events and the people that it was like watching a movie.  But the style of writing was what captivated me from the beginning.

I felt like I was given entrance into Cheyenne’s soul. I was with her every step of the way because she was such a well thought out and exceptionally well written character.  The secondary characters were equally well written.  I can’t wait until Cheyenne’s siblings are given their own stories--these people are too vital to disappear.  And Cheyenne’s mother had some touching moments of her own that I would love to see explored.

By its very nature romance writing tends to be formulaic. The basic boy meets girl format has been around for hundreds of years and will continue for hundreds more.  It is the basic principle which guides real-life relationships, after all.  But when a gifted and talented writer like Janice Sims tackles that formula, the results are astounding.  I have always admired Ms Sims for her willingness to do something different within the accepted structure and she never fails in this regard.  This time, though, she has take the genre to a whole new level.  This is a warm, well-written story with passion, humor and excitement; the very best kind of story, the kind that makes you hungry for more from the author.  If you have never read anything by Ms Sims, make sure you read FOR KEEPS and you will be a fan forever!

1st September 1999