Love’s Reckless Rebel is yet another hilarious and wonderful romance by Gina Robins–aka Connie Finch. It’s one of Blue Falcon’s favorites!
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Love's Reckless Rebel by Gina Robins, Connie FeddersonRating:
Published: 1988
Illustrator: Elaine Gignilliat
Imprint or Line: Zebra Lovegram
Published by: Kensington
Genres: Historical Romance, Western Romance
Pages: 512
Format: Paperback
Buy on: Amazon, AbeBooks
Reviewed by: Blue Falcon
TOTAL SPOILER ALERT ⚠
The Book
This review is of Love’s Reckless Rebel, a standalone Zebra Lovegram romance from 1988 by Gina Robins. (That is one of four pen names used by author Connie Feddersen, aka Carol Finch.)
As usual for Ms. Fedderson, under any one of her aliases, humor plays a large role in this romance.
The Plot
Part I
Man can control everything except a woman and a hurricane. Problems arise when these two impossibilities are one and the same.
Love’s Reckless Rebel starts in Galveston, Texas, in 1849. Standing on a dock is Jacquelyn “Jake” Reid. Jacquelyn has just returned to Texas from a three-year exile to New Orleans enforced by her grandfather, Army General Harlan Reid, due to the Mexican-American War.
While in New Orleans, Jacquelyn attended finishing schools—yes, plural—and lived with her aunt Florence. Florence’s taking Jacquelyn in was not an altruistic familial decision but a financial one.
Jacquelyn is supposed to be escorted back to Harlan’s plantation by Jonathan Mason, but he doesn’t show up. When Jacquelyn looks for him, she finds a man in a hotel she thinks is Mason.
Who she finds is Mason “Mace” Gallagher, this book’s hero. Mace is a former Texas Ranger, a cotton commission company owner, and a long-time thorn in Harlan’s side.
When they meet, Mace does not dispel Jacquelyn’s misunderstanding that he is Jonathan Mason for various reasons, one of which is that he is attracted to her.
Jacquelyn and Mace soon become lovers.
When Jacquelyn returns to Texas, she reunites with Harlan, who informs her that the person who escorted her was NOT Jon Mason.
Enraged, She then demands her father allow her to get involved with running the family businesses: the Reid family plantation and cotton commission company, which is a competitor of Mace’s. Against Harlan’s “better judgment”—he is very old-fashioned and militaristic—he agrees to Jacquelyn’s requests.
Part II
The most lonely place in the world is the human heart when love is absent.
Jacquelyn eventually meets the real Jon Mason, who is less of a man now than Mace was when he was born. Despite this, Jacquelyn agrees to marry Jon. This isn’t a love match but rather a way for her to forget that she loves Mace.
Jacquelyn later breaks off the engagement, as she understands that she doesn’t need a man in her life to complete her.
Earlier in the book, Jacquelyn had narrowly escaped two attempts on her life. During the second attack, she was shot. Mace was there to nurse her back to health. Jacquelyn and Mace soon discover these weren’t random acts of violence.
They were acts of a plot involving several people who wanted her dead to obtain money and power.
And the people behind the conspiracy are closer than Jacquelyn thinks.
Part III
Love is something different than delirium, but sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference.
After a spell, Jacquelyn and Mace agree to marry after she learns why he hesitates to love and marry. It’s a sad, tragic story. However, before they can wed, they have a mystery to solve.
The plot thickens when Jacquelyn and Mace find her cousin Malcolm, who was heavily involved in the conspiracy, dead, with Harlan standing over him holding a gun.
Despite this, Harlan insists he didn’t kill Malcolm, although he had plenty of reasons to do so. Jacquelyn soon discovers the real mastermind behind the attempts on her life-among other illegal activities–and is subsequently kidnapped by them.
Mace rescues her from her kidnappers, kills one of her abductors, and brings the other two to get their due justice.
Part IV
Of all human passions, love is the strongest because it simultaneously attacks the head, the heart, and the senses.
Having resolved the mystery and thwarted the threats against her life, Jacquelyn and Mace marry. They have their Happily Ever After.
The Upside
When she writes under the Carol Finch and Gina Robins names, Ms. Feddersen has a template she uses. And it works:
- Feisty, fiery, spirited heroine
- Strong, somewhat alpha hero (closer to bad boys, good men).
- Lots of witty repartees and plenty of LOL moments
All of these elements are on display in Love’s Reckless Rebel.
Jacquelyn and Mace are likable characters with more depth than one may realize. They are well-written and developed characters, and the book flows well, with every piece leading logically to other pieces to form the whole.
Her books aren’t “rom-coms,” but Ms. Feddersen–here as Gina Robins–does include many rom-com elements in her writing, which is something I do appreciate.
The Downside
There’s not much to complain about from my end of the world.
Sex
Readers, are you looking for erotica? This isn’t your author.
As she always does, the love scenes Ms. Feddersen writes as Gina Robins are more about the feelings of the sex act than the mechanics. She does a high level of spiritual, astrophysical plane-type writing in these scenes, and it can be a little over-the-top sometimes.
But here in Love’s Reckless Rebel, it does work. The love scenes are warm and sensual.
Violence
Assault, battery, stabbing, shooting, and killings occur here. None of the violence is graphic.
Bottom Line on Love’s Reckless Rebel
Love’s Reckless Rebel is one of my favorite books from the 1980s.
It is fair to say that it’s also my favorite romance by Connie Feddersen (aka Carol Finch, Gina Robins, and Debra Falcon).
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| Overall: | 5 |
Synopsis
Impetuous Jacquelyn Reid is furious when Mason Gallagher, her escort to her family’s Galveston plantation, is inexcusably late, but when she finally finds him–naked in a bathtub–desire overwhelms her anger.
Love’s Reckless Rebel by Gina Robins