Arizona Ecstasy [Paperback]

F. Rosanne Bittner (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 444 pages
• Publisher: Zebra (November 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0821728105
• ISBN-13: 978-0821728109
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,241,322 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Welcome! I'm glad to be in touch with you, especially if you love American history and America's Old West of the 1800's. I hope you enjoy stories about that time period, as well as Native American stories. It's what I love to write and currently I've had 57 novels published over the past 28 years. I am still writing and won't stop until the Good Lord requires it. Please check out my web site at www.rosannebittner.com for all the information you could ask for about my books. You can also visit me on Facebook.

I grew up on westerns. They dominated television - shows like The Big Valley, Cheyenne, Wagon Train, Roy Rogers, The Lone Ranger, Rawhide, Bonanza, Have Gun/Will Travel, The Rifleman, Wanted - Dead or Alive, and of course the famous Gunsmoke, which I still watch today on TV Land as well as on the Western Channel. I love the big western stars like John Wayne, Clint Eastwood and James Stewart. When I was a teen my idol was James Arness (Matt Dillon of Gunsmoke) instead of Elvis and the like. My all-time favorite western movies are The Guns of Josie Wales, Pale Rider and Hang 'Em High (all starring Clint Eastwood) - The Searchers, Rooster Cogburn and The Shootist (John Wayne). When I was eighteen and watched How The West Was Won, I knew that some day I would write stories about that glorious time period of America's history. Books that deeply impressed me are A Lantern In Her Hand by Bess Streeter Aldrich, and The Proud Breed, by Celeste de Blasis.

No other nation has exploded in exploration and settlement like America, and to this day our Native Americans still suffer culture shock. When I read Dee Brown's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (a must read for anyone who wants to know the truth about America's natives and how they suffered as we settled the West), I knew I also had to tell stories of America's growth through the eyes of the Native Americans, because so much of what we were (and still are) taught in school is completely slanted and mostly untrue. It certainly was NOT all Indian/bad-guy and Soldier good-guy. Many lies were told, many promises broken, and our government horribly abused the Native Americans. But that is another story, and I try to get some of it across in my books.

I also strive to tell an abiding love story between two people whose love holds them together through the trials and tribulations of settling America's frontiers. It took grit and bravery to head into rugged, unknown territory, knowing you will leave family behind whom you will probably never see again. Free land, gold and a better life were strong temptations for men, as well as for many brave-hearted women. I think the best books you can read for a truthful depiction of this country's growth and its affect on Native Americans is Dee Brown's book mentioned above, and the book Disinherited, by Dale Van Every. Also, the true and powerful history of this country as faced by red man and white alike is cuttingly depicted in any book you can get your hands on written by Allan Eckert.

I have lived in Michigan my whole life, but I truly believe that somehow I have a past spirit who lives or lived in the Old West, especially perhaps Colorado, which I love more than any other place in America. I yearn to be there, and I feel I "belong" in the Rocky Mountains. When I go there I feel so "at home." However, the family business as well as our two sons and our grandsons all live close by here in Michigan. I wouldn't leave them. But my husband and I have traveled the West for years and I have visited just about every place mentioned in my books. I am also very active here with fund-raising community projects and am Treasurer for our Mid-Michigan Romance Writers of America. Be sure to look them up on the internet, especially in late winter, for news about our group's annual Retreat from Harsh Reality. It's a wonderful experience for any writer.

As I mentioned above, watch my web site and Facebook for news about any new books coming, and about many of my past titles that will soon be printed in trade paperback and as e-books!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Read more like propaganda than a romance novel, February 16, 2006

By 

Gemma "bookworm" (Alberta, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Arizona Ecstasy (Paperback)

From the back cover:

Arizona Bride...

Lovely Lisa Powers hated the Indian who captured her. He had killed her mother, ransacked her wagon and now planned to plunder her virtue. But as days in the arid Southwest became weeks and months, the fair-skinned Illinois beauty turned to the Apache brave first for survival, then for love. And with only the sky and the desert to witness, Lisa declared that in her heart he was her husband and for all time she would be his wife.

Arizona Heartbreak...

Because he was a half-breed, the warrior Chaco knew the misery that could result from loving a white woman. He told himself that she was evil, that her kind killed Indians, that her life would be awful as a nomadic Apache squaw. Still, his strong hands couldn't help but fondle her; his sensual lips had to fully taste her. And even though he sensed he'd one day send her back to her people, Chaco couldn't resist stealing each breathless moment of their Arizona Ecstasy.

The sequel to Arizona Bride.

And my review:

While this was a sequel book, I hadn't read "Arizona Bride", but I wasn't lost at all. I think this book worked just fine as a stand-alone.

I normally love the works of Rosanne Bittner. While I haven't found many keepers amoung them, I've always found them entertaining for a one-time read.

But lately, I've been getting very dissapointed in her. I was unable to finish this book, as well as another of hers, "Love's Bounty". Since this book was written in 1989, maybe it's just a case of it feeling 'dated'. I don't know.

My problem with this book was that the romance part of it didn't even begin until over a quarter of the way through. I shouldn't have to read over 100 pages before the heroine even appears. (Well, she appears in the very beginning, but for about 2 pages, then disappears for the next 100 pages.) If I'd wanted to read a book that was focused on the struggles of a half-Apache, half-white boy growing up in a white world that despises him, I wouldn't have picked up a romance. I want ROMANCE in my romance novel, and this just wasn't giving it to me.

My biggest complaint was the author's posturing on the issue of what was done to the Indians. Now, I'm not in any way a bigot (it'd be kind of hard for me to be, considering that I'm only half-white and in an interacial marriage!), but I found the author's continuous repetition of how great the Indians were and how awful the whites were to them to be tedious and annoying.

I do agree that what the majority of whites (and their government) did to Indians was appalling and very wrong; however, I don't want the view shoved down my throat. I wanted to read a piece of romantic fiction, not something that should be titled "Why Indians Were So Great, and How White People Were So Evil". I kind of felt like the author should have made her point, and then moved on, instead of repeatedly harping on it.

Also, the hero seemed to be quite one-dimensional in his hatred of white people. Yes, it was understandable, given how he was treated. However, he was portrayed as being completely justified in his prejudice towards whites, while the white prejudice towards Indians was portrayed as disordered and horribly wrong. Ummm, isn't that a bit of a double standard? All prejudice and racism is wrong, not wrong for just one side. The hero hates all white people for being racist against him - well, isn't that view in itself racist? Not all white people thought that way, even in those days.

I was unable to finish this, as this one-sided presentation of the issue got to be too irritating for me to go on. I will try some of Rosanne Bittner's other books, but she is fast dropping off my list of auto-buy authors.

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved It!, March 27, 2011

By 

tameaka looney (Gadsden) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Arizona Ecstasy (Paperback)

Everything was great! The book came on time and it was great! It wasn't all torn up or falling apart so i'm very satisfied.