Ashes in the Wind (1979)

I read this first when I was a young teenager (maybe 1997ish), and I loved it. I remember reading it three or four times before I lent it to a friend who promptly lost it. Out of nowhere, I remembered the title recently, and I bought an eBook of the title.

Boy, how times have changed.

Where I once loved the dialogue and the buildup in the romance, as an adult, I find it extremely difficult to find anything positive about the relationship between the main characters. After she saves his life, he drunkenly rapes her (though the author clearly doesn't think he's committed rape). Then, they bicker for several hundred pages without ever really establishing a connection.

I really do like belligerent sexual tension, but jeez, talk about melodrama. If you're looking for a 70s/80s Romance novel, I suppose I'd recommend it. The social mores definitely belong in a bygone age. If you're looking for a classic Romance? Just go ahead and read Gone with the Wind. You'll thank yourself. ( )

This is the ultimate war story. Heroine, forced to run and pretend to be a boy, hides in plain view. The hero, finds out he's a she and can't get her out of his mind. This is one great read. ( )

In a sweeping romantic tale set in Minnesota and New Orleans during the Civil War, Woodiwiss delivers heartache, laughter, and poignancy.
Even though this story is riddled with implausibility, frustrating misunderstandings, and plain fool-headedness, it's entertaining to read and I couldn't put it down. However, I am glad that I never attempted to read it as a teenager, when I was reading romance novels mostly for the steamy bits, because the book is practically devoid of them. ( )

I emnjoy reading this writer but the plots are always the same. You can almost always figure that the couple w9ill get together in the end - it is just the struggles to get there ( )

First romance novelist I read as a young teen - no one does it better. ( )