The Renegades: Rafe [Mass Market Paperback]

Genell Dellin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2001

The Renegade
Half-Choctaw Rafe Aigner is no man to trifle with: dark and dangerous, he's survived by his wits and the turn of the cards. But now he has a young son who needs him, so the time has come to settle down. Fate has brought him to Texas, and Lady Luck has won him the San Antonio Star. But when Rafe discovers that the woman running his newspaper is the woman who once owned his heart, he's shocked -- and furious.The Woman
If she hadn't believed Rafe was dead, Madeleine Calhoun never would have married the fool who lost her beloved San Antonio Star -- and then his life -- in a card game. Now Rafe is back -- changed by a harsh world into a dangerous stranger the young widow barely recognizes. Yet her heart still knows him and her traitorous body feels weak with wanting him. Will she ever be able to win back his betrayed trust...and get him to wager his hardened heart on their love once more?

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Genell Dellin is a native Oklahoman who, except for some college years in Texas, has never lived in any other state. Her present home is not far from the long-ago border between the Cherokee Nation and the Cherokee Strip.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Avon Books (June 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380818493
• ISBN-13: 978-0380818495
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,078,621 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heartwarming reconstuction romance, June 5, 2001

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Renegades: Rafe (Mass Market Paperback)

In 1862 New Orleans, Rafe Aigner pleads with his beloved Madeleine Calhoun to elope with him. Although she loves Rafe, Maddie feels obligated to care for her ailing father, who has no one else, and to run the family newspaper for him. She tells him that she loves him, yet cannot run off to Texas with him, but will remain here until he returns.

Years later, Rafe wins a San Antonio newspaper in a card game. Accompanied by his nine-year-old son, Rafe travels to San Antonio to decide what to do with the paper. To his shock, he finds Maddie running his newspaper. Maddie thought Rafe died during the Civil War and is stunned that her now deceased husband gambled away the paper. Rafe feels Maddie betrayed their love by not waiting for him, but agrees to give her three years to turn a profit. As they both care for his son, their old love rekindles, but will he understand that she did wait until she thought he was dead and she had no other option?

THE RENEGADES: RAFE is a warm Reconstruction Era romance that uses strong lead protagonists to tell an engaging tale. The secondary cast provides the audience insight into Rafe and Maddie. Though the exciting plot depends a bit too much on coincidence, sub-genre fans will fully enjoy Genell Dellinís gripping novel that hooks her readers from the start to the finish and encourages them to seek previous Renegade books (see the stories of COLE and NICK).

Harriet Klausner

4.0 out of 5 stars Exciting Western Romance, June 11, 2001

By 

Sheri Melnick (Enola, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Renegades: Rafe (Mass Market Paperback)

Rafe Aigner is a professional gambler living in Texas in 1874 when he wins a newspaper in a poker game. The newspaper is the San Antonio Star, and it belonged to the newly widowed Madeleine Calhoun.

Rafe remembers Madeleine from New Orleans twelve years before when he asked her to run away with him and marry him, but she refused, reluctant to leave her father and his newspaper business. Promising that she would wait for him, Maddie let Rafe leave. Upon seeing reports of his death, Maddie was devestated and finally married Sutton Calhoun after she was left alone and penniless when her father died.

While Madeleine is happy to see Rafe, he is angry with her for not waiting for him all those years ago, especially when he finally made his way back to New Orleans only to find her married to another man. Unfortunately for Rafe, he is forced to lean on Maddie as he needs someone to look after his son Juanito, a boy that Maddie seems to bond to almost instantly.

Madeleine is such a likeable heroine, having lived the life of a southern belle only to lose so much in the Civil War and later, after her husband gambled away most of her inheritance. She survived to become stronger, strong enough to take a chance on Rafe when he walks back into her life again, though she knows that she could have her heart broken if he chooses to leave and take Juanito with him.

The unsettled nature of the relationship between Rafe and Maddie keeps the reader hooked. Rafe is so unwilling to let himself be loved, having hardened his heart long ago because of Madeleine's apparent betrayal. Unlike so many romance novels, where attraction is paramount, Rafe and Maddie establish a new friendship through their love for his son which leads them to fall in love all over again. Readers will want to explore the two previous installments in this series: THE RENEGADES: COLE and THE RENEGADES: NICK.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars VERY DISAPPOINTING, November 21, 2005

By 

stacey renee (rochester new york) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Renegades: Rafe (Mass Market Paperback)

HAVING JUST READ 2 WONDERFUL DEELIN BOOKS, I WAS VERY DISAPPOINTED IN THIS ONE. IT STARTED OUT WELL BUT WENT NOWHERE.