In the Midnight Rain [Kindle Edition]

Barbara Samuel (Author), Ruth Wind (Author)

Book Description

A RITA award finalist for Best Contemporary Romance from Romance Writers of America. Barbara Samuel's first women's fiction, writing as Ruth Wind.

Looking for the Past...

Ellie Connor is a biographer with a special talent for piecing together fragments of the past. Her latest project, though, promises to be her most challenging—and personal. Not only is she researching the life of a blues singer who disappeared mysteriously forty years ago, but Ellie is also trying to find the truth about the parents she never knew. The love child of a restless woman who died young and an anonymous father, Ellie has little to go on but a faded postcard her mother sent from a small East Texas town—the hometown of her latest subject.

Could Mean Finding Her Future...

It is there that Ellie meets Blue Reynard, a man with deep roots and wide connections who may help her find answers. With a piercing gaze and cool grin, Blue is as sultry and seductive as the Southern night air. Beneath his charming surface, however, lies a soul damaged by loss. Despite her better judgment, Ellie finds herself irresistibly drawn to Blue's passion—and his pain. But Ellie's been lured by sweet talk and hot kisses before. How can she possibly stay with Blue when every instinct tells her to run?

****
REVIEWS
4-1/2 stars GOLD
With a writing style that is both lyrical and evocative, Ruth Wind makes her much-anticipated mainstream debut. Ms. Wind, (aka Barbara Samuel) seems born to produce novels that enrich us with their complex emotions and dramatic characterizations. A must-read book! -- Reviewed By: Jill M. Smith at Romantic Times Magazine

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

On a quest both professional and personal, biographer Ellie Connor accepts the invitation of experimental botanist and music lover Laurence "Blue" Reynard and heads for Pine Bend, TX, to gather information on an obscure Thirties blues singer and, if she can, learn something about her unknown father. However, her search nets her far more than she expects, and Ellie is suddenly faced with a surprising family, the answer to a mysterious disappearance, and a love she never hoped to find. Compelling, complex protagonists, three-dimensional secondary characters, and a simmering sexual tension result in an intense, poignant, and beautifully rendered romance that is also filled with rural small- town ambiance and threaded with descriptions so vivid that the seductive sounds of the blues and the sultry heat of a Southern summer almost rise from the pages. Wind (Rio Grande Wedding), who also writes as Barbara Samuel, is a RITA Award-winning author and lives in the Southwest.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"A beautifully told story that explores the importance of family and the healing power of love." -- --Kristin Hannah

"A magnificent story as warm and rich as a Southern night." -- --Deborah Smith

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 592 KB
• Print Length: 420 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0061030120
• Publisher: Amazon.com (September 19, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B003ODIYWG
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #53,574 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

56 of 57 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars LOVE: Lost, Found and Held on to...Don't Miss this one! April 23, 2000

By Book Reader

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Ellie and Blue have been internet writting buddies for a year. Ellie is a biographer, interested in Mabel Beauvais, a blues singer of the fifties/sixties who walked away from her fame. Blue, Dr. Reynard with a PhD in Botany, offers the cottage on his property as a center for Ellie's investigation into Mabel's life. Blue lives in Mabel's home town which offers a treasure trove of information as to who this wonderful blues singer was and what might have happened to her. Ellie (real name Velvet Sunset) is on a parallel quest, to find her unknown father. Yet this summer will give her the chance to discover more about herself than about Mabel or the missing man who fathered her. For Blue, meeting Ellie breaks down walls of protection errected around his life;One filled with loss of his parents, early and his wife five years ago. Driven by the relationship building between these finely carved characters, Ruth Wind has fashioned a deep, pulsating love story. With the background of sultery southern nights, a forest of orchids, the warmth of great blues music and emerging passion between two great romance characters, this book is a must read for everyone. If you love character driven story lines, self discovery, and deep devotion this is your kind of story. Great tale of love, lost, found and held on to. DON'T MISS THIS ONE!

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Ruth Wind - Where have you been all my life? May 26, 2000

By Suzanne B. Kelly

Format:Mass Market Paperback

I am one of those people who never pays any attention to "category" romances - just breeze right by them--so this book was my first exposure to Ruth Wind. Boy, have I been missing out! She is a fabulous writer, with the ability to wrap a location around you, people it with believable characters, and even give you a sound track to go with it. I devoured this book in two days, with the house practically falling down around me, but I couldn't stop until I had all the answers. I loved the characters--small town, but not cliches or caricatures, and I loved Pine Bend, with it's heat and its food, it's sorrows and its secrets. I can't get enough of Pine Bend, and I can't get enough of Ruth Wind. Anyone who is getting tired of romantic suspense, or who wants something a little more in-depth and darker-edged than Krentz or Roberts, look no further.

39 of 43 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful story April 23, 2000

By Harriet Klausner #1 HALL OF FAME

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Biographer Ellie Connor sees an opportunity to provide personal comfort to herself while researching the life of blues singer Mabel Beauvais. Ellie heads to Pine Bend, Texas where Mabel simply vanished while on the verge of superstardom. Over three decades ago, her mother became pregnant in the town, but never revealed the identity of Ellie's father.

Ellie stays at the home of attractive widower Blue Reynard, an individual she met via E-mail. As Ellie makes inquiries into the life and disappearance of Mabel, she hesitates about searching for her own roots even though she knows she needs closure. Even more stirring to her already over-boiling emotions, Ellie and Blue begin to fall in love. She is not sure she can deal with her feelings for him and her search for her father while he has never recovered from the death of his first wife.

IN THE MIDNIGHT RAIN is a poignant contemporary romance that shows how talented an author Ruth Wind is. The gut-wrenching tale will evoke strong emotions from the audience, who will want Ellie to find what she truly seeks. The charcaters are complex as they demonstrate how complicated modern day relationships have become even between two people. In her mainstream debut, Ms. Wind blows away much of the competition with a remarkable rousing drama that touches the inner soul of the reader.

Harriet Klausner