In the Midnight Rain

This is a really hard book to rate. On the one hand, I really enjoyed the romance between Ellie the biographer looking for her roots and Blue the vaguely alcoholic botanist haunted by his past. I liked how well the mystery plot was woven into the romance and how unraveling Mabel's story was key to understanding who Ellie was. I also enjoyed the look at race in the South without making a morality play out of it.

On the other hand, though, it was an uneven book. The author introduces the mystery plot rather inelegantly, introducing the reader to so many characters so quickly that I had trouble keeping everyone straight throughout the book. The mystery itself begs too much of the reader's suspension of disbelief (Mabel has lived in town all this time under an assumed name and hasn't been recognized, despite being a great beauty, a famous singer and suspected of murder. Uh-huh. Right.) and so falls a bit flat at the end. Then, after the romance and book being up to its eyeballs in true-to-life emotion, the romance arc takes a hard turn for the conventional, serving up safe tropes that just felt out of place and out of character. After seeing how profoundly troubled Blue is for 99% of the book, a grand gesture in the final 1% didn't tie up their HEA for me. I wanted to see that resolution myself, not be assured of it by romance conventions.

And so, this book was a mixed bag. Slow at the beginning, an incredibly compelling middle that kept me reading all night, then an underwhelming ending. I'd say it's between a 3* and a 4*. ( )

Having only read this author's historical novels under her real name, Barbara Samuel, this contemporary was a revelation. It's a story of biographer Ellie Conner, heading to a small town in the American South to do research for a book on the short, but amazing career of a black blues singer. Ellie stays in the guest house of Dr. "Blue" Reynard, a man she has befriended on the internet and he helps introduce her to all the people who may help her in her research. They had become friends from a distance, but now they find themselves attracted to each other, and the romance plays a huge part in the story that is not resolved until the very end.

Ellie has a secret though. She also hopes to finally learn the identity of her father after her flower-child mother spent a summer in this small town. Her search for answers about the blues singer who disappeared just when her career was starting to take off and for a father who was never named by her deceased mother, takes her on a frustrating and heart-wrenching journey not to be missed.

Though the story seemed a bit slow and frustrating in the middle, the last third of the book will keep you enthralled as the story takes unexpected twists and turns. Reaching the end was a very emotional process not only for the characters but for me too. I know I will think of this story for many years to come. ( )

Lots of atmosphere is what I remember about this book. A writer researchilng a blues singer sets up temporary residence in that singer's Texas hometown. There she encounters an amazingly sexy 'landlord' and fellow blues fan, as well as several clues to her own past heritage. The blues aspect and the way the author painted scenes made this a memorable read. ( )