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. 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.

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. I was actually picturing the hero and heroine in my head as Tiana and Naveen from The Princess and the Frog. 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. 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, the dreamboat on the cover, is a wealthy business owner and an active player in Nevada's Republican political scene. Rhine Fontaine, the hero, is the one who finds her and helps nurse her back to health. 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.

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. Both her parents are dead and she's estranged from her prostitute sister. 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.įORBIDDEN is about a black woman named Eddy Carmichael. 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.

Her writing style is reminiscent of Lisa Kleypas and Courtney Milan. I was really excited about this pick, because I've quickly grown to love Beverly Jenkins's work. For more info about what this is, click here.Īs 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. I read this book for the Unapologetic Romance Readers' New Years 2017 Reading Challenge.

Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins