Beverly Jenkins does it again! I loved loved loved these characters--even though they're quite opposite in their personalities, their love sparked on the page and kept me rapt the whole time. Spring is an unusual heroine and I loved that she didn't want kids and owned her own ranch and made her own way in the world!

4.5/5 stars

** I received this as an E-ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review, Thank you!**

This was fantastic. I had a great time reading this book. This is the first book I've read from Beverly Jenkins and I can't wait to pick up her backlist. My only wish is that there was a little bit more tension between the two main characters. This is totally personal preference. I really did like our main character, she was badass and didn't take shit from anyone. Overall it was great. I completely enjoyed myself and highly recommend picking up this book.

QUEEN BEV!!!!! I love everything this woman writes. This latest is full of heat and the characters are some of her best. I will be thinking about this book a lot over the coming weeks! Highly recommend.

I loved this book! It showed why Ms. Bev is thee queen of historicals. Like always I learned new facts of #MYHISTORY. This reason alone is cause to read a BEVERLY JENKINS book. The story was definitely one of love and understanding. I like how Garrett accepted for Spring for who she was and still loved her like fish love the water. Being true to oneself and being unapologetic about it is a lesson I received from this story. I would definitely recommend this book to everyone. I can’t wait to see what’s next for the town of Paradise.

Wild Rain
Women Who Dare
by Beverly Jenkins
Avon and Harper Voyager
You Are Auto-Approved
Avon
OwnVoices | Romance
Pub Date 09 Feb 2021 | Archive Date 06 Apr 2021

Thanks to Avon and Harper Voyager for the ARC of this book. I liked that the man went west for the woman who was the rancher. Not your typical western romance. I wanted to read this because I have heard so much about the author, Beverly Jenkins.

4 star

This book was horrible and I was not able to through 1/4th of it because of the choice of the heroine to sleep with two creepy men instead of staying with her godfather until her brother returned to the area. She also could have borrowed money from her godfather to travel to Washington D.C. with a promise to pay it back. This book is not a romance. It is general fiction. At the very minimum, the author should have informed us that this book has elements that do not conform to a classical romance.

I could not put this book down and easily could have read it in a single sitting but made myself slow down and savor it. This felt like Ms. Bev sitting next to me telling me a story.

Wild Rain is the second in the Women Who Dare collection, but does not follow Rebel, the first in the collection. Wild Rain follows the story told in Tempest, the third in Beverly Jenkins' Old West series. Spring Lee is the sister of Dr. Lee from Tempest. She's a strong, independent, kick ass woman. She has her own land and has business partners. Her story is difficult and heartbreaking but she is a survivor. She discovers Garrett McCray in a blizzard. Garrett is a newspaper man who has come to Paradise, Wyoming, to interview her brother. Garrett is a true cinnamon roll hero and they are gorgeous together. A whole cast of characters, good and bad, makes up Paradise and the small western town comes alive.

This book is beautiful. Whether it's a character's thoughts about life as a Black person in the post-Civil War United States, the value of education, the roles of women, the beauty of the view of the mountains, or how travel opens one's eyes, every bit of it grabs you. Often I'd just stop after a passage, just to absorb the poetry of it. As is usual with Ms. Bev's books, you also learn as the story goes, and her notes provide resources for those who want to know more about the points of history she weaves into her narratives.

Spring and Garrett are the perfect opposite attracts romance. He's a Washington, DC lawyer, writing for his father's sundown newspaper, but who prefers to work as a carpenter. He was born enslaved and served in the Union Navy during the War. He opens doors for women, and is thoughtful. Spring is used to be judged, standing on her own two feet, literally fighting for everything. They are a perfect foil for each other, and no one is asking anyone to change. They simply fit and it is perfect. Sexy times are on the page, hot and perfectly set within the story, including when they just need to hold each other. Sigh, love it.

Spring is also a childless by choice heroine and that is unapologetically handled here, I loved it. Birth control is used and consent is explicit. I am thrilled to see this in more romance, thank you!

There is a climactic point at the end that simply made me cry. That is how much this book just reaches in and grabs your heart.

I can't recommend this one enough. It's going on the keeper shelf and I know I'll reread it.

CW: sexual assault, bigotry towards Black and First Nations people, difficult family relationships, gunshot injuries

Spring Rain Lee is a fantastic character, and I am so glad Beverly Jenkins gave Spring her own story after introducing her in Tempest.

At one point in the story, one of the characters compares romancing her to trying to capture wind. At the time in which this novel is set (post-Civil War), an uncompromising, confident, and independent woman probably seemed like a force of nature. Spring is very human, though, with pain and confusion rooted in a difficult past. When she meets Garrett, a part-time newspaper reporter, part-time carpenter who has come to Paradise, WY to interview her brother, she has emerged from those past painful experiences as a woman prepared to live as she wants to live. There is room in her life for Garrett, but on her terms. Smart man that he is, Garrett recognizes that if he's going to love this woman, he will have to love her without trying to change her.

Spring is exceedingly loveable, which Garrett recognizes early on. He accepts her she is, no judgments, because as different as she is from the women he knew back in DC (and prickly to boot), she is astoundingly capable, brave, and determined. Part of her courage is in allowing Garrett to love her in a way she's not been loved and cared for in the past, and recognizing that this does not make her weak. She makes room for him in her life, and their romance seems so natural.

All of this is set against some peril for Garrett and Spring, as an antagonist from her past has arrived in town determined to stir up trouble for her and Garrett.

This a well-paced novel with the right blend of action and quieter moments in which the romance develops. Oh, and a bonus is that we get to see Regan, Colt, and the other residents of Paradise again.

I really enjoyed Spring and Garrett as individual characters, and the contrast they made as a couple: Garrett steady and open and instantly enamored with Spring, while she is independent and hard and unwilling to ever get married. What I didn't love was how quickly their romance seemed to develop. It felt like he was instantly in love, which seemed abrupt even if it made sense with the time period. And Spring, who is independent at her core, seemed to soften to him very quickly, and fall in love over a short period of time as well. I would have preferred a longer, slower burn.

However, I loved the setting. This felt well-researched and lived in, like I understood exactly how the town worked and how life in general was during that time period. There were a couple of elements that felt a little clunky, like they were there to provide exposition to the reader without feeling completely natural in the mouths of the characters. But I will still definitely check out more Beverly Jenkins in the future.

I really enjoyed that it was the man coming west and meeting the woman who was a rough rancher. It was a nice twist on usually western romance format. Good side characters and fun, interesting relationships.

Loved reading the amazing and captivating romance story. When a reporter, Garrett McCray comes to town to interview Dr. Colten Lee, he gets stuck in a snow blizzard, thrown from his horse, and rescued by Spring Lee, a woman rancher living on her own. Garrett has never met anyone as intriguing as Spring. Read the highly recommended, wonderfully written, and a must read love story.
I reviewed a copy of the book through NetGalley.

My first Beverly Jenkins novel and it won't be my last. Set in a small frontier town in Wyoming after the Civil War. Garret comes from the east to interview the black town doctor for his fathers newspaper. Lost in a snowstorm he is rescued by Spring who is like no woman he has ever met before. She is free born with family coming from Canada. She owns and runs her own small horse ranch and answers only to herself. In coming to know her he learns of the hard choices she has had to make to be where she is today. He has his own past escaping from slavery as a boy and joining the north's navy during the war.

The story is well written with a real feel for frontier life, rules and justice. Jenkins is a seasoned professional writer and at the end documents some of the sources for her story. As a descendant of pioneers to the west I can't help but wonder how my ancestors would have treated people of color, wether Native American or black. While racism and treatment of woman are discussed this is more importantly a lovely romance. It is also second in a series but can be read on its own. Thank you NetGalley and Harper Collins Publishers for an ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley for the e-ARC.

My first Beverly Jenkins. Definitely different historical romance than usual. Takes place in the Wyoming Territory between an independent woman, Spring Lee, and a lawyer/carpenter/journalist, Garrett Mc Cray, visiting the town.

Sweet love story that thaws Spring's heart and leads McCray to start a new life in the West.

This romance was superb, sweet, romantic, sexy — Ms Bev is the queen.

Spring is a horse girl, rancher, denim-wearing heroine who meets one day a cinnamon roll, bookish, newspaper hero, Garrett, in a blizzard. She saves him after falling off his horse! He says he fell in love with her from that moment on.

This was so great and ugh the feels, the feels. Their relationship happened so naturally like every Beverly Jenkins book. Spring and Garrett brought me back to Regan and Colt and that little town. It was very good and I think many many will enjoy this book!

Also nice to read more and more about heroines who don’t want children and where the hero or the circumstances in the story don’t make her change her mind. Spring doesn’t want to get married and doesn’t want children and that’s okay! I’m so happy Garrett was there to make her happy in any way possible and he just wanted to wake up beside her every morning. Love these two!

Wild Rain caught my attention from the beginning and held it throughout the book. The characters and setting are interesting and well written. This book was a great diversion from current life and I will look for others by this author.

You know you’re in the hands of a master when you part the covers of a Beverly Jenkins book.  Wild Rain is no exception to that rule, providing us with a wonderful romance worth falling into impassioned love with.

Spring Lee is a self-possessed woman who lives on her own terms on her own land, ranching on a plot neighboring that of her doctor brother and his bride (see book three in Jenkins’ Old West series, Tempest). She is perfectly content with her life and sees no need to add a husband or family to it.

Reporter Garrett McCray is hoping to shadow Colton Lee for an article he’s writing on Black doctors practicing out west for the Washington, D.C.-based Washington Wasp.  While riding in to interview Colton, he’s thrown from his horse and stuck in the middle of a blizzard with an injured knee. Spring spies him on her way home and offers him a ride to safety in her cabin. She offers him medicinal tea – he heats stew for them to eat.  His reporter’s curiosity bemuses her, and he is fascinated by her directness.  The banter begins.  Spring likes pants, her horses, and plain talk; Garrett has never met a woman like her before.  He’s soon as fascinated with Spring as he is with his article’s subject, and Spring begins to warm to Garrett’s honest curiosity and gentle ways.

But as Spring and Garrett get closer, complications arise. Spring must come to grips with her grandfather’s impending death – and the awful and understandable reason why they have been estranged for so many years.  Garrett, too, must grapple with the fact that he has a job back east –and that he and Spring might, in the end, want different things from life.

Jenkins never hesitates to give the reader just what they want and Wild Rain is a perfect, touching and romantic tale.

Spring is a wonderful heroine, self-reliant, with a dry sense of wit that is very appealing.  Her independence has its basis in a heartbreaking reason, but Garrett helps to heal her heart.

Garrett is sweet, and even more importantly, he has the curiosity and instincts of a reporter. So many authors forget to make their reporter characters sound like actual journalists who are interested in people or places or events, but Jenkins does that brilliantly.

The romance builds slowly and sweetly between them, with Garrett patiently convincing Spring to open up, while Spring’s unique ways charm Garrett utterly. They make adult choices and slowly open up to each other.

You know you’re in for impeccable research when you read a Jenkins romance, and her portrayal of the rise of Jim Crow in Wyoming and the aftermath of native tribes being driven off their land and into reservations is outstanding.  The period and flavor of the era is fully intact.

An excellent romance with a wonderful and memorable heroine, Wild Rain gets my highest recommendation.

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A really solid addition to Beverly Jenkins historical lineup! This book features Spring, a character introduced in one of Ms. Jenkins previous novels. Spring is strong-willed, independent, and a female rancher. Garrett is a reporter who comes to her town to interview her brother, the town doctor. Garrett and Spring are such a sweet couple-there is so much respect between the two and there is so much backstory from both of them that made this a novel with so much depth. Basically what I have come to expect from a Beverly Jenkins novel: well-researched and characters to remember. I will definitely be remembering and recommending this one to patrons that enjoy historical.

4.5 stars

Garrett McCray heads to Wyoming to interview a doctor for his fathers newspaper back east. He thinks Doctor Colton Lee will be the most interesting part of his trip, until he meets his sister, Spring. Spring is a rancher who likes her independent life. But after meeting Garrett, she might change her mind about having a partner.

I really enjoyed this one! I can always count on Mrs Jenkins to write a historical romance that I don’t want to put down. I was so excited to read this book once I realized that Spring Lee is the sister of Dr. Colton Lee, the hero from Tempest. I loved Tempest and though she was a great side character so I couldn’t wait to find more about her.

Spring is fiercely independent. She has no plans to get married and prefers her life of solitude. After learning more about her past, I don’t blame her for staying independent and partnerless. She definitely has a good reason for it. She may have physically saved Garrett but I think he saved her mentally and emotionally. He helps feel comfortable enough to just talk about her past with him, and her brother.

“You are diamond-hard in mind and spirit. You glow inside with the fire of rubies. And you’re as vibrant as a sapphire when we make love.”

Garrett was a cinnamon roll. He was sweet, kind, and bookish. I adored him. He shows Spring how amazing of a woman she is and worships her like she is a goddess. I really hope these two show up in future books because I couldn't get enough of them.

I can’t wait for the next book because I know it will be so good. In the meantime, I will cope by reading her backlog of books.

I just loved reading this book. I am glad that this book here explores Spring Lee, a character from Tempest. I was interested in her story since reading Tempest and I'm glad Jenkins' wrote it. Spring is definitely her own character, who often stands her ground regardless of what other's think. How her character acts is reflective of her background -- forced into an unwanted situation. Thankfully you get just the bits and pieces of it without it feeling repetitive. Spring's opposite in the book Garrett McCray was just a wonderful! He kept to his gentlemanly ways and never tried to alter Spring's character and when he does talk about them having kids, he respects Spring's decision to not have them. He realizes his love for her is just enough.
The history in these books from Jenkins makes everything feel more real and it's great that she includes information for the reader to check out at the end.

WILD RAIN is great historically representative slow burn romance between a lady rancher and a city slicker reporter. I loved seeing the diversity of the west as it really was, and the chemistry between the two leads sizzled. When can I get more of this series?