From Publishers Weekly
Taking two minor players from earlier novels (
Something Like Love and
A Chance at Love), Jenkins pulls together a clever story of crime, class, race and redemption in late 19th-century America. After Black Seminole Teresa July's bank robbing career is cut short by a three-year prison sentence, Teresa is released to the probationary care of the wealthy Molly Nance, a compassionate Philadelphia woman charged with turning the young, tempestuous bandit into a respectable 19th-century lady. For Teresa, forsaking her beloved leathers and pistols for dresses and manners is a small challenge compared to dealing with Molly's son, Madison. Heart-stoppingly handsome, this polished gambler-turned-banker regularly ignites Teresa's fiery temper with his arrogance. As Molly realizes how well suited the two are for each other, she conspires to keep throwing them together until they realize their own hearts. As the fish-out-of-water hijinks come to their apex, Jenkins turns the tables on her characters, throwing Molly and Madison in with Teresa's boisterous frontier clan just in time for a threat from Teresa's past to resurface. Jenkins's sassy heroines, well-drawn secondary characters and seamless incorporation of black history result in a fresh, winning historical.
(May) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Teresa July once ran free as a train robber but was eventually caught and sent to prison. Given a second chance for good behavior, she's paroled at the home of Molly Nance, much to the chagrin of her son, Madison. Madison appreciates his mother's desire to help others, but she's been hurt once by a parolee, and he won't let Teresa do the same. But Teresa surprises him in more ways than one, and Madison begins to hope she'll stick around. Pairing up two secondary characters from prior works (
Something like Love, 2005;
A Chance at Love, 2002), Jenkins delivers a tale much like her heroine: sassy, brassy, and bold. Watching starchy Madison and free-thinking Teresa spar is pure delight, and their passion lights up the pages like, well, July fireworks. Jenkins even offers well-conveyed history, delving into the culture of Black Seminoles and African American life in late-nineteenth-century Philadelphia.
Nina DavisCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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