Into a Wonderful Historic World

                             The Work of Beverly Jenkins

by Melanie Schuster

Okay, I’ll admit it!  I am a late bloomer when it comes to historicals. But that may just be a character failing of mine.  I was the last person I know to get cable—it just seemed like more TV than I wanted to be bothered with.  I just got a cell phone last year and I once thought that computers were the work of the devil.  I just bought my first hip-hop CD last week—hey, who knew it wasn’t all noise???  And I JUST discovered Beverly Jenkins…I know, it’s really sad…

You see, I have read historical romances in the past and they just weren’t me.  They were the true bodice rippers with pirates and fair white maidens being marauded by Indians and so forth.  I read a couple that had African-American characters and they were of the Mandingo-Big Missy ilk, I don’t think I need to go on.  But I have heard so much praise for Ms Jenkins work that I decided to see for myself.  In the words of the Cole Porter song, How Long Has This Been Going On???

Beverly Jenkins is a national treasure!!!  This woman should have a monument erected to her honor!  These books are absolutely marvelous, and this is from a woman who has a real problem reading about things that occurred before indoor plumbing!  Ms Jenkins combines sparkling dialogue, intriguing plots, heavily researched authenticity with some of the most fascinating characters one could ever hope to encounter.  Her books are an absolute pleasure to read.

She has yet to write a man whom I would not consume with a small spoon (to make him last longer) and her women are strong, independent and admirable.  She doesn’t shirk from reporting some of the less romantic aspects of the eras about which she writes, but the stories she tells and the way she tells them are so unique and thrilling that the reader absolutely gets lost in the reading.

I particularly like the way she writes with real substance.  Each book, although truly entertaining, is also a history lesson.  I have learned much from reading Ms Jenkins.  The reader is given a very clear picture of how our ancestors lived, how they worked, ate, dressed, struggled, what their world was like.  The politics of the era, the social systems and the pioneers who shaped the future are always brought out in a way that is never pedantic or professorial, but a critical part of the story.  Yet, her tales never turn into a Black History Month lesson.  The reader is skillfully drawn into a time and place that is vividly drawn and richly illustrated.

I don’t have favorites…well, not really.  I enjoyed them all thoroughly, although I admit to a special partiality for VIVID because it is set in Michigan, which is my home.  Ms Jenkins is a homegirl, too, hailing from Detroit, God bless her!  And I loved TOPAZ, because Dixon Wildhorse was…lovely, to say the least.  But I enjoyed her latest book, THE TAMING OF JESSI ROSE immensely, because by the time it came out I knew what to anticipate.

This is Beverly Jenkins at her best, with a compelling story, a captivating heroine and a hero that makes you keep a big glass of ice-cold water at the ready.  Did I mention her love scenes?  My, oh my…long, satisfying, sensual, playful and wanton; this is what romance is all about. 

Those of you who already know and love Ms Jenkins’ work are no doubt shaking your heads in disbelief, wondering what took me so long.  Those who think that historicals are not your cup of tea, get ready for the ride of a lifetime!  If you have friends who are lucky enough to own Ms Jenkins’ books, borrow them.  If your library is forward-thinking enough to stock them, check them out, because they will not be re-issued until the fall.  And when they are, do as I am going to do and get each and every one to savor over and over through the cool fall nights, the frigid winter evenings and the warm rhapsodic afternoons of summer and spring.

Challenging, thought-provoking, instructive and charismatic are not enough superlatives to explain the Beverly Jenkins phenomena.  I cannot wait for her next venture into the past; now she’s got me on tenterhooks the way I am with all of my favorite writers.  But until a new Beverly Jenkins graces the shelves, and until all of her books are re-issued in the fall, I’ll have a couple on hand as a special treat to remind me just what wonderful romance writing is all about.  Yes, I was the last one to get on the plane, but it has been a first-class trip all the same.