I was having fun doing these Retro reviews and after watching Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan I started thinking. My mother gave me a love of quite a few things, including Capitan Kirk, and so I’ll put up two books that she gave me to read because they meant something to her. Most of the time when I talk about these two books, other romance readers look at me with a “Huh?” look on their face. Kathleen Woodiwiss people have heard of, but Laurie McBain, not so much. She only wrote seven or eight books and her style is definitely very different, but it works rather well. I just wish Amazon had the covers there for the links, ’cause they’re great. 🙂 And there are spoliers, so if you haven’t read them, you are warned. Though they are over 20 years old.

When the Splendor Falls by Laurie McBain

There’s a lot of back story that is involved in the telling of this tale. With the Civil War as the backdrop, it makes for a complicated tale. The Braedon and Travers families have lived side by side as neighbors in Virgina for a long time. I don’t know how much intermarriage there was, but in this generation you’ve got three Travers marrying Braedons.

Leigh is a tomboy, and about to marry someone else when she meets Neil. Neil’s branch of the Braedon family moved to New Mexico years ago. Neil is an outsider because he and his older sister had been captured by Comanches and only Neil was brought back home after years in their care.

Leigh and Neil see something in each other, but that’s cut short with the start of the Civil War. That’s all in part one. Part two is near the end of the war. Leigh didn’t get married, she’s been taking care of her home, her sister and brother. Her sister’s husband (a Braedon) went MIA at Chattanooga and her brother went blind after Antietam (I think). She’s about to get overrun by Yankees when Neil shows up with his guerrilla band, marries her and sends the whole family away to New Mexico to save them.

When in New Mexico Leigh waits for Neil to come back. Her brother falls for one of Neil’s half sisters, Leigh has to fend off talk from Neil’s wannabe mistress and when Neil gets back she’s dealing with being in love with him and not knowing how to treat it. There’s also some intrigue with a Mexican who’s trying to take advantage of the confusion from the Civil War.

Even though there’s so many secondary characters, subplots and lots of history going on the best part is the pay off when Leigh and Neil realize they care so much about each other. Leigh jumps in and risks her life because she thinks that someone is going to shoot Neil. It’s unfounded and she leaves in humiliation from the incident, but Neil chases her home and asks her about it. He then tells her he’s always loved her, hasn’t she known? It’s been on her wedding ring the whole time and she didn’t know it.

They hug, kiss, and make sweet, sweet love. Though they do spend probably about half the book apart, the ending definitely does make up for it. As far as Civil War romances go, I like Ashes in the Wind better, but this is one of my mother’s favorites and it’s one that alot of people haven’t heard of so I felt the need to discuss it.

The Flame and the Flower by Kathleen Woodiwiss

The Flower

Doomed to a life of unending toil, Heather Simmons fears for her innocence–until a shocking, desperate act forces her to flee. . . and to seek refuge in the arms of a virile and dangerous stranger.

The Flame

A lusty adventurer married to the sea, Captain Brandon Birmingham courts scorn and peril when he abducts the beautiful fugitive from the tumultuous London dockside. But no power on Earth can compel him to relinquish his exquisite prize. For he is determined to make the sapphire-eyed prize. For he is determined to make the sapphire-eyed lovely his woman. . .and to carry her off to far, uncharted realms of sensuous, passionate love.

So this one is classic bodice ripper if I ever read one (it was originally published in 1972, if memory serves). It was my mom’s first one and there’s so much that happens in the first couple of chapters it’s a bit overwhelming. Oh, and Brandon is 35 and Heather is 18.

So Heather is tossed out of her home and she’s mistaken for a dockside doxy and Brandon has his way with her. She runs back home, finds out she’s pregnant, her harridan of a mother (or something. . .) track down Brandon, she’s married to him and he takes her back to America. There’s a sea voyage, she gets ill, comes back, has the baby and Brandon treats her like crap most of the time. How she falls for him, I don’t know. Anyway, someone is chasing her across the Atlantic and she gets kidnapped, I think for money or something . . . It’s been a really long time since I read this one and the details are rather shakey.

For my mother, this being her first romance novel, it holds as special place. For me, not so much. I read it and it does have some redeeming qualities. Brandon is a super-Alpha hero and so you can’t help but be in awe of him half the time, especially when he realizes he loves Heather and stops acting like a jerk.