The Rake’s Bride
Dry Bayou Brides ,
#5
by Lynn Winchester
Date of
Publication: June 27th
2017
Publisher:
Charizomai Press, LLC
Cover
Artist: Dar Albert
Genre:
Historical Western Romance
Tagline: Lies, Fate, Redemption…
The
Book Junkie Reads . . . Review of . . . THE RAKE’S BRIDE (Dry Bayou Brides, #5)
. . . This won me over immediately.
Lies. Fate. Deception. Redemption. Love. It says it all with these simple, yet
complex words. This read was on filled with the turmoil of its characters. Both
Jean-Luc and Isabeau were hurting and in pain. The both sought to become
something or someone different to only forget. The both choose to move forward
with their lives in order to forget. But no one must have told them that the
past has a way of catching up to you when you least expect it. Neither was excepting
the other and they both got a huge surprise. I loved watching these to fall in
love. Fight the love. Fight the deception. Fight for redemption.
Highly recommended if you are
looking for a read that give you depth, angst, love, all within the pages of a historical
read. These brides of the Dry Bayou are worth their weight in gold.
Dry Bayou Brides series:
The Shepherd’s Daughter – Dry Bayou Brides, #1
The Seamstress – Dry Bayou Brides, #2
The Widow – Dry Bayou Brides, #3
The Rogue’s Bride – Dry Bayou Brides, #4
The Rake’s Bride – Dry Bayou Brides, #5
BLURB
Jean-Luc La Fontaine is tired of
sowing his wild oats. So, after a disastrous summer in France, he’s back in Dry
Bayou, ordering himself a mail-order bride. A new wife will help him forget
about the siren with sapphire eyes…
Intelligence, wealth, prestige…
It means nothing when you fall in love with the wrong man. So, when scandal
chases Isabeau Montefret from France, she runs to America, determined to forget
the man with the wicked smile. Isabeau hoped becoming a mail-order bride was
the answer to her problems. She’d change her name, start a new life, and lose
herself in a small town. When she discovers that the man who disappeared with
her heart is the man she agreed to marry, Isabeau settles in for the fight of
her life.
When the one woman he’d left
France to forget arrives in town, claiming she’s his new bride, Jean-Luc
doesn't know what to feel. But when pain gives way to the truth, he must risk
keeping a dark secret, one that would steal every chance at happiness. Isabeau
once made him believe in happily ever after, now he must learn how to keep his
new bride at a distance, lest he lose everything.
Can Jean-Luc be a true husband to
the woman he's been deceiving? Can Isabeau convince Jean-Luc she’s his one true
love? Will these two rediscover what they had once upon a summertime?
Buy Link: Amazon
Her
thoughts in turmoil, Isabeau watched through the window as two wagons and
twelve people passed by on the dusty yet well-maintained streets. While Dry
Bayou was a relatively small town—at least compared to Paris or New York
City—it was filled with colorful people, smiling children, and plenty of
busyness. At least from what she could see through the window.
Having
shut herself in her room since her arrival two days before, she had no real
idea of the town. But would it matter once she told him she was the woman he
was marrying tomorrow? Was she marrying him tomorrow? From
what she could gather from his snide comments and hard, glinting expression,
he had abandoned her in France… because he’d come upon Louis
molesting her in the garden and had thought she’d encouraged the lizard’s
advances. The man she loved had turned tail and left her, without a word,
without asking her if what he’d seen was the truth. He hadn’t even had the
decency to tell her to her face that he didn’t trust her, that his love was faithless.
Her
stomach began waltzing behind the hands pressed to her belly. How could she
marry a man who’d cared so little for her? No, that’s not true. He
loved me once. He still loves me. He must. But he’d never said it,
never told her he loved her. Though, his words, his promises, his caresses… he
must’ve at least cared for her.
With that
thought in her head, she turned to face him, and what she’d planned to say
stalled behind her lips. His dark eyes were hooded, his lips turned down, and
his expression burned through her. What was he thinking? What was he feeling?
Had she been wrong to assume he still wanted anything to do with her?
If there
was one thing she remembered about him it was that he appreciated her
frankness, that she never hid behind empty words or flattering phrases. Though
Jean-Luc had taken on a new name, he was still the Luc she’d known. She was
still the Marielle he’d known. The Marielle he’d asked to meet in the garden.
“Luc,”
she began, taking a step forward, her heart calling out to him. “I don’t know
why you left, but…” She took another step forward, her throat closing around
her hard-won resolve. She swallowed and took another step, her toes now
touching the tips of his boots. “I believe we’ve been given the chance to start
anew.” She met his blank gaze and nearly faltered. “I know you cared for me
once.”
His sharp
intake of breath brought her gaze to his lips.
She
smiled then, a slow, knowing smile. A smile she’d used on him on occasion, to
get what she’d wanted. She reached trembling hands and laid them on his chest.
His heartbeat thudded against her palms, an erratic pounding she felt in her
bones. “Kiss me, Luc,” her voice was stronger than she’d anticipated, but she
was glad of it because next, he pushed away from her and strode across the
room, his large hands balled into fists at his sides.
“God,
Isabeau, why are you here? What do you want from me?” His words were guttural
as if pulled up from a gravel pit. Every line of his face deepened in fury, and
his eyes darkened to ebony.
Steadying
herself against the desk, she forced slow, deep breaths into her lungs. But the
more she watched him, the tighter her chest became, and the harder it was to
breathe. She couldn’t understand his animosity. What had she done to make him
look at her like that? Wracking her mind, she thought back on every moment they
spent together in Locronan. There’d been laughter and long conversations about
everything and nothing. She couldn’t remember a time with him that wasn’t
special. So, what happened? How could a man change so much in eight months?
Taking a
deep breath, she met his gaze, noticing the tension in his body, the flat line
of his mouth, the impatience in his stance. He was waiting for her to answer.
“I want to prove to you that we were meant to be together. I want to spend the
rest of my life arguing with you over the best flavor of candy. I want to share
a bed with you, wake up to your kisses, fall asleep in your arms. I want to
raise our children together. I want to be your lover, your helpmate, your
everything… as you are everything to me.” Her impassioned words seemed to echo
through the small room, bouncing about on every surface, only to land with
a crash against the man staring daggers into her heart.
Buy Link: Amazon
Author Info
Lynn Winchester is the pseudonym
of a hardworking California-born conservative, now living in the wilds of
Northeast Pennsylvania. Lynn has been writing fiction since the 5th grade, and
enjoys creating worlds, characters, and stories for her readers.
When Lynn isn't writing she is
running a successful editing business, reading whatever she can get her hands
on, raising her four children, making sure her husband is happy, and binge
watching shows on Netflix.
Author Links:
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