Rating:
Published: 1983
Illustrator: Elaine Duillo
Book Series: Aguilar's Fate #1
Published by: Warner Books
Genres: Historical Romance, Bodice Ripper, Western Romance
Pages: 574
Format: Paperback
Buy on: Amazon, AbeBooks
Reviewed by: Introvert Reader
TOTAL SPOILER ALERT ⚠
The Book
I first read Love, Cherish Me many years ago as a teenager, so it’s a long-time favorite.
You have to read this book as a lover of the genre because Rebecca Brandewyne is at her bodice-rippiest.
Rebecca Brandewyne, Author
What I loved about many of Rebecca Brandewyne’s past romances was their baroque style. For example, every so often, she’d pose on the back of the book wearing a dress similar to what the heroine wore on the front cover.
At the beginning of the novel, a poem detailed the love story. Then there was a great list of the cast of characters. The book was broken into several parts. Then to start, there was a prologue, often with the couple together. Finally, the epic novels ended with an epilogue.
And don’t forget the Elaine Duillo cover art. In the 1980s, that was practically de rigeur for a romance diva.
What can I say? I’ve always preferred intricate, elaborate heavy metal or progressive rock rather than streamlined, gritty punk. So it’s no surprise my taste in romances is no different.
The Plot
Part One
Love Cherish Me book is a great western saga. For that reason, you can expect it to be full of murder, sex, death, and trauma. Get your hankies out, because his one is a tearjerker!
The heroine is a Southern belle named Storm Aimee Lesconflair. The hero is a dark stranger people call “Lobo,” or Wolf. On her way out West to marry a stranger, her carriage is held up, and Storm is kidnapped. But her kidnappers make a fatal mistake.
Storm’s life is decided in a fatal card game played by Lobo and her abductors.
Before she knows it, she is violently pulled into the lone gambler/gunslinger’s life.
The tale is epic, set in the epic state of Texas. Storm finds herself in one harrowing situation after another. Villains almost rape her on multiple occasions, but Wolf is there to save her.
Wolf is a dark, sexy hombre of mysterious heritage. Not only does he speak fluent Spanish, but he knows the ways of the Comanche. He also dresses in nothing but black clothes, smokes cheroots, and calls Storm “baby.”
Part Two
For a while, Storm and Lobo have an idyllic life together before circumstances separate them.
Afterward, Storm is forced to make difficult choices to survive. She becomes the unwilling bride of a man she hates.
Then tragedy strikes. Storm is accused of and put on trial for murder.
And most tragically of all, she undergoes the worst pain a mother can feel.
Will she ever find her beloved again?
Final Analysis on Love Cherish, Me
Before finally being reunited with her soul mate, Storm must face the worst a woman can encounter.
Love Cherish, Me is a companion piece to And Gold Was Ours. The latter book was swashbucklingly fun but not as great as this.
The only Brandewyne book I like more than this is her Gothic romance reminiscent of Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, Upon a Moon-Dark Moor.
The conclusion to Love Cherish Me is bittersweet. The book ends with an epilogue of Storm, Lobo, and their family who skirt the fringes of acceptable society. Brandewyne created a masterpiece of a romance here.
Love, Cherish Me wrenches all sorts of emotions from the reader. As hard as it is to describe the complicated feelings it evoked, I am forever glad to have experienced them.
5 Stars
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| Overall: | 4.8 |
SYNOPSIS:
Storm was her name and her destiny… Born on a night when lightning flashed and thunder rolled, the raven-haired beauty was sixteen before the promise of her name became the path of her life… Born to wealth, the belle of five counties wagered away to a middle-aged rancher by her wastrel uncle. On her way to Texas to marry Gabriel North, she was captured by outlaws — and wagered away again by her captor to a blue-eyed bounty hunter, a dark-skinned gunslinger called El Lobo, the wolf. A man who could kill in cold blood, then take her with fire and tenderness when she whispered to him.
LOVE CHERISH ME by REBECCA BRANDEWYNE