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The Rebel
It is part of the , An Unforgettable Lady #3 series and is a in Paperback edition on June 28, 2011 and has 298 pages.
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Other books in this series include [books_series]
First in the Moorehouse Legacy romance series centered in an aging bed and breakfast in the Adirondacks. Also known as Beauty and the Black Sheep.
My Take
Not particularly deep but definitely a sweet introspection on loss and determination. Frankie Moorehouse has been slaving over the slow deterioration of her family home as she struggles to make a going concern of it as a bed and breakfast while Nate Walker is set on building a career and his reputation as a chef. Without his family’s money.
Bird/Ward’s characters pull you in through Frankie’s strength of will and passion for taking care of her family and Nate’s skill in the kitchen. I also like the honesty between them. They each have suffered in their pasts and it does take a lot to draw them out but Nate has a patience one wouldn’t expect in a man of his looks.
Bird/Ward painted a memorable and detailed story with empathic characters using an economy of words.
The Story
Frankie Moorehouse is determined to keep her family home in the family. Whatever it takes. Yet, when facing disaster the night her chef quits and being saved spectacularly by Nate Walker, is she grateful? Hell, no! She practically kicks him out of the house. And, in a minute’s reflection, goes running after him.
The Characters
Francine “Frankie” Moorehouse has been struggling for a decade to maintain the B&B started by her parents when they converted the family home, well, mansion really. In a pair of freak accidents, Frankie lost her parents to the lake abutting the house one night and she was determined from that point on to take care of her family. Joy is her gorgeous younger sister with a secret yearning for the playboy of the area, Gray Bennett, and an incredible talent for soothing their grandmother. Grand Em is in the throes of dementia and, in her more lucid moments, accepting of Frankie’s eventual need to place her in a home. Unfortunately, Grand Em hasn’t many lucid moments. Alex Moorehouse is the brother who ran away to play sailor.
Nate Walker is the eldest son of a very distinguished family — his brother is governor of Massachusetts — but when Nate threw off the path the family had planned for him, they disowned him. Nate’s okay with that for he is determined to make his own way, to carve his own destiny if you will.
The Cover
The cover is sweet as well. There’s just the chin of a beautiful woman as she stands behind a Nate whose face is turned to us but his eyes are looking up at her, her arms wrapped around him.
The title makes more sense if you read the letter to the reader from Bird/Ward, especially if you are more familiar with her Black Dagger Brotherhood series, for Nate defines Rebel in Bird’s eyes.
