Published: 1989
Imprint or Line: Zebra Lovegram
Genres: Historical Romance, Western Romance
Pages: 448
Format: Paperback
Buy on: Amazon
Reviewed by: Blue Falcon
SPOILER ALERT ⚠
The Book and Characters
This review is of Nebraska Fire by Lauren Wilde, a Zebra Lovegram romance.
The book starts with Elizabeth “Liza” Cameron, looking back on how she came west.
Backstory: Liza is an English immigrant, who sailed from England after her parents passed. Her brother, Dan, died on the trip to New York. Liza arrives in New York and meets a woman, Anne Garrett, and becomes friends with her. Anne accepted a job as a governess for the nephew of Alex Cameron, a rancher from Nebraska. Anne died in an accident. Before passing, she asked Liza to take her place.
Thus, as the book begins, Liza finds herself in Nebraska, where she meets Alex, the hero of the book.
Alex is NOT happy to see Liza, for several reasons. One, she’s younger than he expected. Two, he questions her qualifications to be a governess to his four-year-old nephew, Andy. And three, and most importantly, he’s attracted to her. Liza is also attracted to Alex).
The Plot
Peril soon finds Liza as she is abducted by Kiowa Indians. Alex rescues her and they become lovers. We also learn more about Alex’s history (his parents are deceased. His brother Rob, a ne’er do well, is also deceased. Rob’s wife, Marilee, Andy’s mother, left two years ago).
As they spend more time together, Liza and Alex fall in love. However, he doesn’t tell her that he loves her; this inability to say those three words will cause a rift between them. Liza leaves Alex, but this turns out to be a mistake as she is accosted by one of his former hands, who tries to rape and kill her.
Alex had fired the man after an earlier rape attempt against Liza and beat the man senselessly.
Liza is taken in by Rita, the owner of a brothel, and Liza discovers she is pregnant with Alex’s child. Liza will later give birth to a son.
Alex finds Liza, he tells her he loves her and their son, and they resolve their issues. There had been misconceptions to overcome. Alex left Liza a note stating that he was going to find someone to marry them and that he loved her. She didn’t see the note and thought he was leaving her. It was all a misunderstanding and lack of communication.
Alex and Liza marry and have their Happily Ever After.
Upside
Ms. Wilde is a very good atmospheric author; she made me feel as though I was watching her characters’ lives as opposed to simply reading a book. Liza and Alex are both well-developed characters; Liza is very likable.
Downside
Alex is a bit all over the place. He starts as an obnoxious boor, becomes nice at times, then is obnoxious again and is nice toward the end; these mood swings are jarring and not explained at all. It makes him a somewhat unlikeable character.
Sex
A few love scenes are short and rather rudimentary, a few are more expansive. Ms. Wilde is a practitioner of what I call “soft erotica”. Her writing wouldn’t be called erotica today, but for a mainstream mass-market romance novel, she writes some of her love scenes with enough pepper in the soup to be good.
Violence
Most of the violence takes place “off-screen”. However, there are scenes of assault, attempted rape, and battery. The violence is not graphic.
Bottom Line on Nebraska Fire
Nebraska Fire is not a flawless book, but it is good enough to warrant a 4-star grade. If Alex were a nicer, better hero, it might have crept into the 5-star range.
4 Stars
Synopsis:
RILED RANCHER
What had she done? And why had she ever thought it would work? Taking her best friend’s place as a tutor to Alex Cameron’s nephew had not been a good idea, not at all. And now, staring into the virile rancher’s smoldering steel-gray eyes proved Lisa Wentworth was right. He didn’t want her on his ranch, caring for the young boy. He wanted her gone and out of his coal-black hair. Yet when he held her against his strong muscular chest, his hands caressing her soft, full curves, she felt his hard, lean body tremble, and his warm lips on hers, telling her not to listen to his foolish words . . . but only to the wild beating of his heart that begged her never to leave him . . .
LUSTY LADY
Alex Cameron was absolutely shocked when he found a beautiful, delicate creature standing in the middle of the godforsaken prairie. And beautiful she was with hair that shone like the sun, dark violet eyes that blazed with passion, and a wide, sensuous mouth that was made for kissing. She was a lady, all right. First-class stuff. So what was she doing here? Was she running from the law? Or an irate husband? No matter. Lady or not, she spelled trouble, and he was sending her packing as soon as he could take her luscious body in his arms and lose himself in her sweet Nebraska Fire.
Nebraska Fire by LAUREN WILDE