Wild Rain: Women Who Dare

Written by Beverly Jenkins

Narrated by Kim Staunton

USA Today bestselling author Beverly Jenkins continues her captivating Women Who Dare series with a female rancher who forges her own path in the wake of the Civil War… 

Banished by her grandfather at the age of eighteen, Spring Lee has survived scandal to claim her own little slice of Paradise, Wyoming. She’s proud of working her ranch alone and unwilling to share it with a stranger—especially one like Garrett McCray, who makes her second-guess her resolve to avoid men. 

Garrett escaped slavery years ago and is now a reporter in Washington. He’s traveled west to interview Dr. Colton Lee for an article, yet it’s Lee’s fearless sister, Spring, who captures his interest. Clad in denim and buckskins instead of dresses, she’s the most fascinating woman he’s ever met. And he’s certain she also feels the connection that sizzles between them. 

But when a shadow from Spring’s past returns, all is on the line: her ranch, her safety—and this wild, fierce love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: Feb 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9780062861733

Beverly Jenkins

Beverly Jenkins is the recipient of the 2018 Michigan Author Award by the Michigan Library Association, the 2017 Romance Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as the 2016 Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award for historical romance. She has been nominated for the NAACP Image Award in Literature, was featured in both the documentary Love Between the Covers and on CBS Sunday Morning. Since the publication of Night Song in 1994, she has been leading the charge for inclusive romance, and has been a constant darling of reviewers, fans, and her peers alike, garnering accolades for her work from the likes of The Wall Street Journal, People Magazine, and NPR. To read more about Beverly, visit her at www.BeverlyJenkins.net.  

Reviews for Wild Rain

[Nicole Ekotson · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have never read a Beverly Jenkins book, and I have never read a historical romance. This book was a great introduction to both. Absolutely loved it. I've never felt so many strong emotions in a book. You know a book is good when you literally feel for the characters. I would give this book 10 stars if I could!

[Andrea Author · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

When rancher Spring saves newcomer Garrett during a Wyoming blizzard, they're forced to spend a few days alone together in her cabin. Garrett is fascinated by this fearless woman who's unlike anyone he's ever known. Spring likes her independence and isn't about to give up her chosen lifestyle for a man. But when Garrett stands up for her against a man who brutalized her in the past, Spring begins to imagine how the comfort of a partner might bring joy to her life. Can Garrett thaw Spring's frozen heart?

Ms. Bev's masterful storytelling made this book a pleasure to read. Right from the beginning, you know you're in the hands of a consummate professional. You can simply relax and go where the story takes you, like floating on a lazy river on a warm summer day. It doesn't even make sense to analyze things like character and setting and plot and pacing—it's a holistic experience, and it all just works. If you like a good story, this book is for you.

Thanks, NetGalley, for the ARC I received. This is my honest and voluntary review.

[Nicole Pogue · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A beautiful love story set under the big Wyoming sky.

[Marta Conlon · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I loved revisiting these characters and this setting and meeting the new folks. I love the optimism mixed with harsh realism in these stories and the strength of the women and their communities. Another lovely story.

[Jaden Hall · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Loved it! The narroration was great as always and the story was wonderful. I love Garrett and Spring!

[Paige Madison · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Loved it! Probably one of my favorite books from Ms. Jenkins.

[Marc Denis · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Loved Beverly’s story lines as always and this book was no less entertaining.

[Nichole Brower · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

It was so predictable the entire way and no real breaking point. I usually love all beverly jenkins books but this one is not it.

[wyvernfriend · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Colton Lee has come to Wyoming to interview a black doctor there, for his father's black newspaper. When he gets lost in a snowstorm he encounters the Doctor's sister Spring and the two of them begin to spark. He has plans for his future back home back east but she has carved a life out in Wyoming for herself that she is determined to maintain. Can they work a relationship, particularly when their families get involved.Good fun with a very determined and competent female lead.

[yonitdm · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I love this book, and each of Beverly Jenkins books includes a tantaling glimpse into other characters that now I need to go find lol.

[jorgeousjotts · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was decent, but I couldn't really get into it. The heroine is quite hardened and prickly, and her background excuses it somewhat, but I felt like I was kept on the outside of her shell most of the time, and wasn't able to know her that well, so I didn't entirely warm to her. The hero and supporting characters were fine. I disliked the showdown scene near the very end, but mostly I didn't *dislike* the book, so much as I just felt pretty mildly about it. Not as engaged as I would want. Others seem to have taken to it though, so it could largely just be me.

* Major spoilers for the scene I disliked If ever you have reason to believe someone hates you enough to rape, beat, and potentially kill you, and they've shot you in one leg but you actually reach your own gun anyway (which you're skilled with)- if they then tell you to 'drop the gun or they'll shoot you in your other leg', %&$#ing let them!!! And while they're doing that, shoot them in the head! Do NOT actually toss your gun away! An additional leg wound will be the least of your concerns when you're unarmed and completely at a psychopath's mercy! AND, if you then miraculously see an ally coming up on them out of their line of sight definitely DO NOT call their attention to them so they can shoot them a few times too! WtF?!? Even at that point I expected her to scramble for her own gun while he was distracted, but it isn't mentioned if she did, so as far as I know she just passively sat there watching the scene play out, all their lives on the line What is the point of her being all tough and hardened and casually counting off the bones she's broken, if she's just going to fall into dumb damsel mode the second her life is on the line?? I would have been less disappointed if she had just burst into tears and then fainted(!), at least those would be honest physical reactions to fear that she probably couldn't control, rather than two absolutely bone-headed choices that further put her own life, and someone else's(!), into the hands of an absolute monster! Argh...

[whiskeyinthejar-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.Spring Lee was seemingly as untamed as the Wyoming mountains, and frankly, just as impressive.Second in the Women Who Dare series, Wild Rain, returns to the town of Paradise in the Wyoming Territory. Frequent readers of Ms. Jenkins will recognize a lot of characters and relations of former stars from previous books but I would only suggest Tempest, book three in the Old West series, as a possible book that you might want to read before this. The staring heroine here is Spring Lee, the sister of Dr. Colton Lee from Tempest but our hero Garrett McCray is a new character from out east, coming to interview Colton for his father's sundown newspaper. Spring comes upon Garrett after he is thrown from his horse and with an early spring blizzard, normally surly Spring lets Garrett stay at her cabin until his knee heals.He’d left her feeling treasured, desired, something she’d never experienced before. It awakened a long-buried part of herself to the possibility of what could be, and that scared her.Spring was the star of the show for me, she's fiercely and competently independent, strong willed, has some bite, and a little bit of vulnerability. When she was eighteen her grandfather threw her out of the house when she wouldn't marry the man he'd chosen for her. She ends up working on a ranch where the owner makes her trade sexual favors for the job and even “shares” her with his son. There's no flashbacks to this but the few times Spring thinks back to it, clearly shows how traumatic it was for her but how she survived and fought for the independent life she has now. Spring is one of those heroines who is deeply clear, what you see is what you get but there's an ocean to her thoughts and feelings. Being enslaved, who he wanted to be had been beyond his grasp. Now free, his life, ambitions, and dreams were his own. He’d not turn the reins over to anyone else.Spring was such a strong character that Garrett paled in comparison. A little farther into the book, we learn that he ran away from enslavement when he was fourteen and joined the Union Navy, read law because that was what his father wanted but ultimately became a carpenter for his own self-fulfillment. The author calls him a “cinnamon roll” hero and while he sweetly loved Spring and introduces her to foreplay and desire, he was too blankly just there for a lot of the story. There was some instant love going on too, he's ready to move out west to be with Spring already at around the 40% mark. She’d chosen him for now, so he contented himself with holding her close and listening to the rain.As always, Ms. Jenkins shines with her family dynamics and the second half provides that with Garrett having a heart-to-heart with his father about how he wants to live his life his way (it's a pretty emotional conversation as Garrett's father explains why he tries to control and hold so tightly to his two children) and Spring having to deal with unresolved issues with her grandfather. There's some drama with the son of the man Spring worked for, which I thought added good angst, but he brought along another character that wanted to build a saw mill and that whole storyline and its characters never felt settled in right and broke up some cohesive story structure for me. Along with emotional family dynamics, you'll always get interesting historical portions that help create a feel for the setting and characters. There's mention of sundown newspapers, the Sandy Creek Massacre, a Civil War ship battle, and the beginning of Jim Crow. Being around Garrett McCray had altered her thinking about life and her place in it in ways that were new and challenging: from how she defined respect, to what she deserved from a man in bed. In his calm, quiet way he’d changed her, not necessarily into a better person but a different one.With Spring and Garrett's love feeling too instant for me, I never fully felt the emotion in their bedroom scenes and those were what was left to carry the heft of their relationship in the second half. There's some ending angst with Spring not wanting children that gets resolved fairly quickly but still in a way that left me feeling their relationship was more of a happily for now instead of a happy sigh ever after. Ms. Jenkins does the old west vibe wonderfully, this couple just didn't strike any heavy emotionally chords for me.

[bookdivasreads · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was rather late to discovering Beverly Jenkins, but when I did I rapidly devoured every title of hers I could find. I'm a huge fan of her contemporary fiction the "Blessings" series (and it's being developed into a television show). But I was introduced to her via her historical fiction and I reread all of them every year. (Yes, you read that correctly. I re-read all of her historical fiction titles every year!) I kicked off this year by re-reading her "Old West" series, and I'm glad I did because book three of that series introduced us to the Lees of Wyoming, Dr. Colton Lee, his sister, Spring Lee, and their cantankerous grandfather, Lee. Although it wasn't necessary to read Tempest before reading Wild Rain, it helped to refresh my memory a bit. (Hey, you try reading 450+ books a year and see if you can remember all of the details of every book read!)Wild Rain is the second book in the Women Who Dare series and the action takes place a few months after Tempest ended. Tempest featured Colton Lee and his relationship with his wife, Regan Carmichael Lee. Wild Rain centers on Spring Lee, her developing relationship with Garrett McCray, a reporter from the East trying to help his father's sundown newspaper survive by bringing in stories of intriguing people of color from the US territories, namely Dr. Colton Lee. However, once Garrett McCray arrives in Wyoming territory, he finds that he is ill-prepared for riding horseback most of the day, days filled with snow, and his encounters with the unique Spring Rain Lee. Spring winds up saving Garrett on numerous occasions and introduces him to the folks in and around Paradise. Just when it seems as if Garrett is beginning to acclimate himself to life in Paradise and spending time with Spring, someone from her past makes an appearance in town and revives stories that belittle and demean her as a woman of worth. Can Garrett accept his attraction to a woman willing to stand up for herself and go against the norms of the time or will he succumb to his family wishes and return to D.C. and a life filled with constraints?Although I had been looking forward to the next installment in the Women Who Dare series by Beverly Jenkins, I had no idea it was centered on a character from a previous book. Yes, I should have known and would have known if I had just read the synopsis. But all I saw was a new Beverly Jenkins book, historical fiction, and it was "hey, count me in!" Readers were introduced to a bit of Spring Lee's backstory in the book Tempest, but Ms. Jenkins provides quite a bit more in Wild Rain. We're also provided more information about Colton and Spring's paternal grandmother, and parents. It was quite nice getting to know more about Spring and her family heritage and it helped to explain why she made the decisions made in the past and why she lives as she does in the present. To say that Spring had a bit of a harsh upbringing after her parents' death would be a major understatement and most of that rests with her paternal grandfather, Ben. Garrett McCray was an interesting male protagonist. He was a former slave, former sailor during the Civil War, a skilled carpenter, and a reporter for a sundown newspaper (a newspaper that people worked on a part-time basis after they worked their full-time jobs, usually after the sun went down). Initially, Garrett was taken aback by Spring's lack of a male guardian, the fact that she owned and operated her own ranch, wore what he considered male clothing meaning denim, and went into saloons, but he grows to respect and love her for exactly who she is. Ms. Jenkins always provides interesting tidbits of Black American history in her fiction and her books usually feature an author's note at the end with a list of suggested reading. Wild Rain is a romance so of course, it has a HEA, but you'll need to read it to find out how the couple arrives at their "Happy Ever After." There's plenty of drama and even trauma before they get there. If you've read Tempest, then you'll definitely want to read Wild Rain. If you read Rebel, book 1 in the Women Who Dare series, then you should grab a copy of Wild Rain to read. If you enjoy reading historical romance or simply well-crafted romance, then I suggest you grab a copy of Wild Rain to read. For all you Ms. Bevy fans, I don't even have to tell you anything because I know you already have this one on your TBR list or you've pre-ordered it. I'll be ordering a print copy to give to my 86-y.o. mother now that I have her hooked on reading Ms. Bevy's books. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.Happy Reading, y'all!