Until Tomorrow [Paperback]

Jill Marie Landis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1994

Stumbling upon a newborn baby, the sole survivor of a wagon train ambush, Civil War veteran Dake Reed brings the child to the first house he can find, the lonely Kansas homestead of the beautiful Cara James.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Returning home after seven years with the Union army, Southern born Dake Reed comes upon an overturned wagon and a dying woman who has just given birth to a baby boy. Desperate to find care for the child, Dake enlists the aid of the first woman he comes across--Cara James. Cara is hard-pressed to deny him; she wants to start a doll-making business in California and the money Dake offers her to care for the child as he searches for its relatives will help Cara achieve her dream. The pair are an unlikely match--Dake's surroundings are neat and orderly while Cara's room "looked as if she'd stirred it with a stick," but their love for the baby Clay transcends all else. After arriving at Riverglen, his war-torn Southern plantation, Dake is branded a "turn-coat" and blamed for the murder of his crippled brother. Minna, his brother's fiance, provides an alibi, but readers soon learn that Minna has all the qualities of razor blades hidden in a cream puff. When a dark secret concerning little Clay's heritage is revealed, the baby's safety becomes a fearful concern. In her latest, Landis ( Past Promises ) does what she does best by creating characters of great dimension, compassion, and strength.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 1 pages
• Publisher: Jove (July 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0515114030
• ISBN-13: 978-0515114034
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #495,618 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good beginning, but the second half dragged, January 2, 2007

By 

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

This review is from: Until Tomorrow (Paperback)

From the back cover:

Woman of the prairie...

Alone on her Kansas homestead, Cara James passed the time making rag dolls--and dreamed of a better life in California.

Man of the battlefields...

Traveling home from the Civil War, Dake Reed came across an ambushed wagon--and a newborn baby in need of care.

Bringing the child to the first house he found across the lonely prairie, Dake turned to Cara--a backwoods young woman who lived by her grandma's saying and her pioneer instincts. Together they embarked on a journey to fulfill the heart's greatest promises: a place to call home--and a love that lasts forever and a day...

And my review:

The first half of this story was really good. The author created loveable and well-rounded characters. They had their flaws, but they were basically good people. After all, who couldn't admire the Southern man who was willing to face the hatred and scorn of his neighbours and friends to fight for an end to slavery, because he knew it was the right thing to do? Or the man who was willing to take on the responsibility of caring for someone else's baby? Or the woman who was willing to help him in these endeavors? Finding two likeable lead characters can be really rare in romance writing these days. I liked watching the "everything in its place" military man fall for the offbeat woman who had no sense of time and didn't like to wear shoes.

However, by the second half of the story, things started to drag. The characters were in love and wanted to get married. It would have been a find place to wrap up the story, in my opinion. But instead, the author decided to drag it out. One bad thing after another happened without any relief in between painful incidents. It just got to be really annoying after a while. It felt like the story came to a climax was too many times. By the last encounter with the villian (who was totally obvious to me two pages after meeting that character) I just wanted the book to be over already. It felt like the author had to reach a certain page count, or something. I ended up skimming the last 100 pages to see how the story ended (and of course, there were no real surprises).

I find that this is often the case with Landis' novels--they start off strong, then the magic and momentum starts to die by the middle of the book, and pretty much completely fizzles out by the end. I've yet to read one of her books that had really moved me by the time I finished it. I don't recommend UNTIL TOMORROW. There are better romances out there.

***One last caveat--though it is a historically accurate term, and was considered politically correct at the time that this book was published (1994), some readers might be offended by the frequent use of the words "negro" and "black" to refer to African-Americans, as well as a few other blatant ethnic slurs spoken by racist characters throughout the story.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars What was the author thinking?, December 3, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Until Tomorrow (Paperback)

Having never given a book a one-star rating, I paused before doing so - but not for very long. I thought that if I could find any redeeming value in the book, I could at least give it two stars. My aunt had recommended this author, so I was eager to try one of her books. Must have picked up the wrong one. The story is about Dake, a native of Alabama, who fights for the Union during the war and then begins back home for the south after the war is over. On the way, he finds the bodies of three people who were ambushed on a Kansas trail. One of the victims is a white southern lady who is relieved because someone is there to save her newborn baby boy. She tells him who she is and where she is from - Alabama. After the woman dies, Dake gathers up a quilt and the woman's bracelet so he'll have proof of the baby's identity. He now is left with the arduous task of caring for a newborn and vows to return him to his family in Alabama. Dake travels to the nearest cabin and ends up hiring its occupant, Cara, to travel with him to Alabama and take care of the baby. With this premise, the story had a lot of promise. But as soon as they arrive back in the south it becomes predictible and often insulting - the southerners are mean, evil and immoral and in need of Yanks to save them. I struggled through the book hoping that I would find some of the excitement I had felt when I first began the book. The characters never had a "spark" and a lot of the plot seemed contrived.

2.0 out of 5 stars Not a keeper for me., April 16, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Until Tomorrow (Paperback)

The story is outlined in depth by another reader and it's a good plot/story line actually. My problem is that I really liked the second half of the book when the plot thickened and characters became real but I hated the first half. The "heroine" starts off as a real turn off with her backwoodsy, live in a cave, dirty feet, etc...unreality. By the middle of the book she gets cleaned up some and becomes more appealing. I liked the hero from the beginning so I stayed with it until it got better but I wouldn't read it a second time.