Forbidden

Oh wow, I have all the feels, and I do mean ALL the feels, for this book!This is my first book by this author, first of trilogy, and now I really can’t wait to read the other two in the series! And beyond, as I know she has an entire treasure trove of stories out there to dive into :)Before I go on, I'm going to talk about elements of plot in this review. Mostly I don't think they're very spoilery, they're things mostly revealed or hinted at in the blurb, the Prologue, or both. But if you're acutely spoiler averse, this is your cue that this review may not be for you. :)This is the story of Eddy Carmichael, a young black woman circa 1870, on her way from Denver to San Francisco where she hopes to open a restaurant. But a series of misfortunes results in a detour to Virginia City, Nevada, and to a fateful encounter with Rhine Fontaine, who is not only handsome, charming, honorable, and kind. He is possibly the richest man in town, and he’s also a white man – or, so it appears. Which makes the attraction instantly sparking between the two of them a problem for both, due to the times. Marriage between whites and persons of color was forbidden then in most states, and Eddy Carmichael is a woman with far too much self-respect to become a wealthy white man’s mistress. What she doesn’t know and the reader does, is that Rhine Fontaine, to whom we’ve already been introduced in the Prologue set 5 years before these events, is in reality a black man and a former slave, born on a Georgia plantation. With the end of slavery following the Civil War, because he is very light skinned, Rhine has been able to pass as white, and has chosen to do so. And in doing so he’s risen to a position of power & respect in the white community, a position he consistently uses to support his own people at every opportunity. But his choice has also come with a price, and this story is as much the story of Rhine coming to terms with that & rethinking his choices, and the story of Eddy coming into her own as an individual and a member of a community, as it is the story of Eddy & Rhine’s relationship.It’s very much a slow burn, both in terms of the story & the romance, so it took a while for me to realize how truly awesome this book is. I didn’t mind, I just took it as a sort of leisurely read, figured I’d probably be giving it a four star rating. But somewhere just past the mid-point things really caught fire in this story and I ended up finding it just incredibly romantic, meltingly sexy, and more than anything, powerfully moving. And no question, it’s a solid 5-star read for me.The reason it’s such a slow-burn is that quite a bit of time is spent in setting up the story, introducing us to a fairly large cast of characters – to an entire community, really – and in introducing them to each other, allowing relationships to form and build. Quite a lot is also spent in allowing the main character, Eddy, find her place in her new community, and to blossom in a way a life of hardship has never allowed her to do before. Laying this groundwork is necessary and there’s a big payoff later in the story, a greater emotional impact to the things that happen, for having this deeper sense of knowledge of the characters and their lives. But it does mean that much of the earlier story proceeds at a sort of pedestrian pace.Once this story really hits its stride, however, that all changes; and the story fairly explodes with drama and feeling. The building love story between Eddy and Rhine deepens, their relationship becomes touchingly caring, and then passionately romantic & sexy, whoa, in a deliciously seductive way I have to confess I’m particularly fond of. It’s a bit of an old-fashioned style of sexy, I suppose, sensuous in detail without being explicit, but I found it no less affecting for that. But the power of this story goes far beyond sex & romance. To be able to have Eddy in his life in the way he wants her, in the way that respects her as she deserves, Rhine must make a courageous, life-changing decision. This becomes a catalyst for ensuing events. Reactions to this by the other characters of both races show their true colors in ways that have nothing to do with race and everything to do with human decency, courage, compassion, or the lack thereof. And with true self-respect, vs false-pride.This book was exciting, swoony with sexy romance feels, made me laugh out loud, gave me such fond warm fuzzies for the characters I wanted to reach into the book & hug them at times, moved me to anger, then to cheer each time the good guys gave the bad guys their well-deserved comeuppances, and moved me to tears many, many times, tears of joy, of compassion, of pride in the courage of these characters, and just for those little moments of human resonance, where something happens and you’re like, yes, I know exactly how that feels.This is a great story, and if you like slow-burn romance and don’t mind a slow buildup, I would unreservedly recommend this to everyone.As a bonus, there are some really cool notes on the research for this story at the end, with some fascinating stuff about the true bits of history that inspired parts of this story. Also, I see that Rhine Fontaine appeared as a character in a much earlier novel, Through the Storm, so now I need to go back & read that one too!Meanwhile, on to the next book in the trilogy, Breathless!

As a nod to black history month, my romance group decided it would be fun to read a historical romance novel featuring two characters of black ancestry. We chose this book. I was really excited about this pick, because I've quickly grown to love Beverly Jenkins's work. Her writing style is reminiscent of Lisa Kleypas and Courtney Milan. Her headstrong heroines and swoony males, remind me of Kleypas, as well as how much attention she pays to the side characters, even having them walk in and out of later books. She reminds me of Courtney Milan in how she focuses her efforts on empowered women and people of color, which is so important because of how those narratives are often pushed aside.FORBIDDEN is about a black woman named Eddy Carmichael. Both her parents are dead and she's estranged from her prostitute sister. After being robbed, she decides to head out to San Francisco while depending on the kindness of strangers to get there because her sister won't give her a dime. Of course, she gets robbed again, and then left for dead in the middle of the desert by a con artist just as soon as he discovers she won't trade him her body.Rhine Fontaine, the hero, is the one who finds her and helps nurse her back to health. Rhine, the dreamboat on the cover, is a wealthy business owner and an active player in Nevada's Republican political scene. He's also the son of a slave, and has been "passing" for White for all these years because of the many opportunities it offers him that he wouldn't have access to otherwise. Rhine never questioned that decision until he meets Eddy and finds her much more appealing than his fiancee, a white society woman who is absolutely determined to wrap him around her finger.I was actually picturing the hero and heroine in my head as Tiana and Naveen from The Princess and the Frog. Eddy is an excellent cook (oh my God, the food descriptions in this book) and wants to one day have her own business or at the very least be totally self-reliant. Rhine, on the other hand, is a smooth-talking ladies' man who knows he is good looking and entirely too used to getting his way because of it. I wasn't completely sold on the romance between them at first because when Rhine meets Eddy, he's already engaged to another woman and makes advances towards her anyway. She turns him down and in the end, he decides to break things off with Natalie, his fiance, not just to be with Eddy (although mostly) but also because he realizes that she isn't a nice person.Funny, how it often takes another woman to make dudes realize that in fiction...I've only read two books by Jenkins, the other was DESTINY'S EMBRACE, but I'm already noticing some common themes. Jenkins seems to favor the "virgin and the rake" trope: both heroes in these books were man-whores, and both heroines were virgins. The heroine is both these books is so beautiful that she literally (especially in the case of DESTINY'S) has to fight off a line of suitors. Jenkins is also a fan of history, so a significant portion of the book usually focuses on some aspect of that - well outside the degree necessary for simply setting the scene. DESTINY'S EMBRACE talks a lot about the history of California, especially in Yolo County. FORBIDDEN discusses Republican and Democratic politics in the U.S. before they switched platforms, as well as racism.I'll admit that the ending made me raise my eyebrows a bit because it felt so dramatic. But given what I knew about Natalie's pride and her desire for others to see her as superior, I guess it felt like what happened could have happened. Maybe. I also felt like Rhine's "big reveal" was rather anticlimactic. A lot of people owed him money and probably resented his power. Given what I know about bigotry and cognitive dissonance, I'm sure that far more people would have been quick to attempt petty revenge once he told everyone the truth about his heritage. That said, it sure was satisfying to see Rhine anticipate their every move and put them all in their place. Take that, bigots!FORBIDDEN was a quick, fun read. It had some problems, sure, but I loved the characters and it has some pretty steamy scenes between the hero and the heroine that were much better written than the ones in DESTINY'S EMBRACE. Plus, I haven't been feeling well lately so it was nice to read something light. The research Jenkins did for this book was obvious, as was the care she put into developing the secondary characters and making them all feel three-dimensional. Reading this reminded me that I still have THROUGH THE STORM to read, which is about Rhine's younger sister, Sable. Maybe I'll pick that one up next. There may be a Rhine cameo in it for me. ;)3.5 out of 5 stars

Love the history. Story line keeps you reading. You will fall in love with thecharacters. It was wonderful reading this book again, considering I have a large collection of Beverly Jenkins books in my home library I also highly recommend my most favorite book, Indigo.

This book weaves romance into a compelling, well-researched story about the lives of Black people in the West following Reconstruction. Not only was the love story sweet and fulfilling, the rest of the story was engrossing and well-written instead. It’s nice to read a book that features Black joy instead of Black suffering. I’m looking forward to reading more of this author’s work.On a steaminess scale of 1 to 5 I give this a 2, but while the love scenes aren’t explicit or long, they’re still compelling.

Perfectly written. This story of love allows a woman to dream of being desired. Ready for the next one to enjoy

This book was really good. It was filled with plot twists and a lot of endearing moments. I can't wait to read the next book in the series.

Beverly Jenkins doesn’t disappoint. Love the knowledge gained by reading her novels. Tasteful love scenes. Love the exploration of passing exhibited in this novel.

Very romantic! I loved the plot, storyline and characters! Everything about this book left me intrigued and wanting of more.

I usually love the books that Beverly Jenkins writes, but I was seriously disappointed with this one and I found myself skipping pages and I couldn't get into this story. Honestly, where was the romance between these two characters? She was probably better off ending up with Zeke. Plus the ending did my nut in!! You confess to a crowd of white people that you have been pretending to be white for years, therefore deceiving them and their closed minded views of people that they thought were no better than dogs, and then decide to stay in that place? Hell no!! I'm sorry to say that I don't believe that they would have had a happy ending like the others, as I honestly think that they would have probably hanged him or set his business on fire with him inside. Very disappointed Ms Jenkins and I hope that if you do write another one, it will be filled with the humour, anticipation, romance (let's not forget the passion) and history that we have all come to love from your books.

The first time I tried to read this, I couldn't get past the first few pages. I put it away, came back to it some weeks later, and fell in headfirst. It's now my favourite by Jenkins, and that's saying something. The subject of passing and identity could've been handled so poorly, but it was, of course, perfectly done. I adored both hero and heroine, and I especially loved the heroine's spirit, attitude, and voice. Five stars!

Great writer, her Blessings anthology got me through the pandemic five stars. Not a fan of this genre, overly manly men, breast heaving women, but marvellous to have black characters.

enjoyable.

Loved it