Rating:
Published: 1989
Illustrator: Don Case
Imprint or Line: Zebra Heartfire
Published by: Kensington
Genres: Historical Romance, Western Romance, Native American Romance
Pages: 416
Format: Paperback
Buy on: Amazon, ThriftBooks
Reviewed by: Blue Falcon
The Book
This review is of Comanche Love Song a standalone Zebra Heartfire from June 1989 by Cheryl Black.
The Plot
Part 1 of Comanche Love Song
The book begins in Stonewall County, Texas, in 1855. A family is doing chores around their farm. Only one member of the family, a then-two-year-old girl, will be alive by the end of the day.
Fast forward 17 years. U.S. Army Major Walker Grayson meets up with a group of soldiers, who have a captive with them named Silver Dawn. She is the heroine of the book and is the girl–now an adult–mentioned earlier.
Silver Dawn has been raised by the Comanche since they took her from her family at age 2. She tries various times to escape Army custody but is always brought back.
Meanwhile, she and Walker are becoming attracted to each other, later becoming lovers–and married in Comanche tradition.
Soon after their first intimate encounter, Walker takes Silver Dawn to Fort Nacogdoches, Texas, where things don’t go well for her.
Part 2 of Comanche Love Song
The scene then shifts to Louisiana, where we meet Walker’s family. There is the father Samuel, stepmother Kathren, sister Amanda, brother Seth, and Camelia Rhinehart, Walker’s fiance.
Silver becomes aware of the Grayson family drama and starts a little of her own.
In the end, the Grayson family loses several members but gains others when Silver Dawn and Walker add to the family, and they have their Happily Ever After.
Upside
I made a vow to finish every book I purchased with my own money. That vow remains intact.
Downside
Where to begin? Comanche Love Song is a hot mess. First, Walker captures Silver Dawn, then has sex with her despite having a fiance back in Louisiana!
When Walker takes Silver to Louisiana, the book changes to a 1980’s soap opera with mostly unlikeable characters and storylines that are convoluted and beyond stupid.
There is no character development at all.
There is no romance between Silver Dawn and Walker. Basically, the only time they’re together is when they are having sex. They’re apart from each other for about 75% of the book. And most of that is due to Walker locking her up. Yes, a great way to show you love someone is to imprison them.
Sex
The love scenes between Silver Dawn and Walker are fairly mild, don’t generate any heat, and are not erotic.
Violence
Assault, battery, shooting, and killing all take place during Comanche Love Song. The violence is not graphic.
Bottom Line on Comanche Love Song
Comanche Love Song by Cheryl Black has now passed Eugenia’s Embrace by Cassie Edwards as the worst book I’ve ever read.
At least Eugenia’s Embrace had sex scenes going for it. Ms. Black’s book has absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever. I’d give this zero stars if I could.
.5 Star
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| Overall: | 1.2 |
Synopsis:
RHYTHM OF RAPTURE
Though her skin was milky white, lovely Silver Dawn never thought she was anything less than all Comanche. And when she first set eyes on the despicable Major Walker Grayson, the savage beauty could only hate the man who was out to kill her red-skinned grandfather. Yet somehow his green eyes made her pulse hammer with excitement, his rock hard frame made her yearn for his loving touch. And even as her mind vowed to stab the treacherous paleface, her body swore her total surrender!
DANCE OF DESIRE
If the ambitious Major Grayson could kill the infamous Horse Back, he’d be assured of an important position back East. Then he captured the Indian chief’s “daughter”, the wild, spirited Silver Dawn, and Walker calculated he’d earn more prestige by returning the white squaw to civilization. But as the hot-blooded officer struggled to tame her, primal lust made him forget his career. Now all that mattered was dominating her each day, fulfilling her each night, and forever falling under the spell of her… COMANCHE LOVE SONG
COMANCHE LOVE SONG by CHERYL BLACK
Thanks, Blue Falcon. I haven’t read “Comanche Love Song”; I don’t go for romances in which the hero holds the heroine captive. But allow me to make a few comments.
• The initial premise made me think of the classic western film “The Searchers”. But apparently the similarities between the book and the movie end there!
• I understand why you had to rate this novel at minimum half a star. Clearly your real evaluation would be half a star lower. That makes me wonder: What’s the worst romance I’ve ever read? Would it bear comparison with this one? And just what makes a romance really bad? Is it all subjective, one reader’s opinion? Or can we get objective about it, at least in part?
• Finally, and not a moment too soon, does anyone know who did the cover art? Wow, 1980s big hair in the Old West!