Book Reviews (XIV)

Book review: The Cost of Revenge by Dorothy A. Bell

I'd like to congratulate  the talented author Dorothy A. Bell for her upcoming release: "The Cost of Revenge!"

Book Blurb:

Quinn O’Bannon knows it’s time he settled down. He has two likely candidates, both sensible, attractive, young women. However, his fantasies keep straying to Tru McAdam, that thieving, sloe-eyed vixen with the grudge against the whole darn O’Bannon family.

Tru McAdam wants to believe the O’Bannons, all of them are rotten, heartless cheats. God help her, most of all she wants to believe the handsome, arrogant flirt Quinn O’Bannon is the worst of the lot.

When destiny shuffles the cards, strange pairs show up in the hand. Who can fight destiny, not the handsome, flirtatious Quinn O’Bannon, not the thieving, sloe-eyed vixen, Tru McAdam.

MY REVIEW:

Dorothy Bell has done it again! I loved this author's story and characters in The Reprobate and was happy to have the opportunity to read The Cost of Revenge that takes the story further. It can be read without problem, as a standalone book. But you'll miss a god story and the insight. The first chapter of The Cost of Revenge helps you recall, through Quinn's thoughts, the essence of what happened with the main characters.

You meet Royce again - now happily married to his beautiful goddess, Cleantha. Doing well, making a go of hauling quarried rock and railroad ties for the O.R. and N.

And you meet Quinn - dealing with customers and managing the mercantile, considered by the young unmarried ladies as one of the handsomest bachelors here, in Laura Creek.

Will he win the hand of Miss Rosemary Gilliam or of her friend, Miss Dora Lee Price? Will he fall prey to the wild, untamed sloe-eyed vixen Tru McAdam, an Indian girl, a half-breed who considers that a no good son-of-a-bitch by the name of Stanley O’Bannon cheated her father out of his farm and is responsible of her family's tragedy?

Even kindhearted Wren considers Tru a young woman full of pride and misdirected wrath. She’s stubborn, and angry, and pigheaded.

Both Stanley and Tru look for revenge. Whose vendetta will be successful? Will other people become collateral victims in their confrontation?

Ms. Dorothy Bell wrote this book in a very precise manner. Giving details when it's needed but never giving the whole plot in one go.

With fabulous development of the characters and setting, this is one read that is sure to pull you in and keep you turning the pages until the very end. It will hold you captive from page one until the last page. I commend the author, Dorothy Bell, for writing a wonderful, compelling story. I commend her for her storytelling skills. She balances drama and action deftly, and leaves you wondering "what next"?

I loved all her characters, with their good parts and their faults and all. I am happy I found Dorothy Bell and all her writing grandeur. It's hard to turn the last page of her books without a satisfied smile on your face. I highly recommend it.

Disclosure. I received an ARC of the book in exchange for an honest opinion.

My rating: Five  Shining Stars. 

 

Book Reviews (VIII)

Book Review: THE REPROBATE by Dorothy A. Bell

BLURB

 An Oregon Historical Romance
Fiddle playing, hard drinking Royce O’Bannon believes he’s worthless like his old man, no woman should have anything to do with him.

Music teacher Cleantha Arnaud, her virtue long spent, believes her life is over; crippled and barren, no man would want her.

When the two outcasts become lovers, hopes and dreams blossom within their parched souls.

Royce’s vengeful daddy begins a campaign of retaliation against his traitorous sons and the town that gave them a second chance. Now Royce, feeling the weight of responsibility thrust upon him, follows his daddy into the dark tunnels beneath Pendleton’s streets to stop his old man from his path of destruction. With a swift crack on the head, all of Royce’s newly found hopes and dreams could be shattered like candied glass.

MY REVIEW

Laura Creek, a relatively peaceful small Oregon town, is troubled by the attempt to kidnap the sheriff's future bride Wren. With their minds clouded by the booze they ceaselessly binge, the wrongdoers fail. The O'Bannons, whose logo is, 'the O'Bannon men had to live hard and play hard,' are arrested and face trial for their deed.

Kind hearted, the victim, none other than their own cousin, Wren Longtree, offers them a meal and, to Royce and Quinn, an alternative. Hard years in prison or work for her and give up their life of thugs.

The Reprobate is the story of Royce, a self-proclaimed reprobate, a good for nothing young man and a lost cause. And it is the story of Cleantha Arnaud, a wounded bird, beautiful and, fragile. I enjoyed the depiction of Royce's character, his evolution. I won't tell too much as I hate spoilers. But he's human in everything - his bad as well as his good parts.

I also liked how the author, Dorothy Bell, builds up the relationship, the emotional link, between Royce and Cleantha, his goddess - slowly and beautifully - from friends to lovers. Two characters different and yet similar in many ways.

All kind of obstacles are thrown in their path, starting with her father's disapproval of Royce, “What I am trying to say is that Royce O’Bannon is not worth your time. You deserve better...far better. He’s a lone wolf. Don’t be fooled into thinking all he needs is a good woman to change him. A wolf is a wolf."

You can relate to the characters and story in many ways and I think this is an important element in a good story.

The author masterfully combines action, adventure, conflict and sentimentalism. If you are fans of western stories, spiced with the right amount of romance and history, then you will like The Reprobate. I absolutely enjoyed the atmosphere of the rough old West. As I read the description of the town, 'a bank, a mercantile, a telegraphic office and a sheriff's office', images from every Western movies I’ve seen came to life in my mind.

A story worth Five Stars.

Blog Blitz with Author Dorothy A. Bell

Christmas in July, unwrap a summer ebook blog blitz, welcomes Dorothy A. Bell

An Oregon Historical Romance

Fiddle playing, hard drinking Royce O’Bannon believes he’s worthless like his old man, no woman should have anything to do with him.

Music teacher Cleantha Arnaud, her virtue long spent, believes her life is over; crippled and barren, no man would want her.

When the two outcasts become lovers, hopes and dreams blossom within their parched souls.

Royce’s vengeful daddy begins a campaign of retaliation against his traitorous sons and the town that gave them a second chance. Now Royce, feeling the weight of responsibility thrust upon him, follows his daddy into the dark tunnels beneath Pendleton’s streets to stop his old man from his path of destruction. With a swift crack on the head, all of Royce’s newly found hopes and dreams could be shattered like candied glass.

Some thoughts from Dorothy:

Where do I find inspiration to write?

Music and names—names of people, first and last names, the names of roads and creeks. I love to look at old photos. Do I constantly write, no, there’s a movie going on in my head almost all the time. In my head, I am all my characters on the screen. I become them one by one. I speak as they would, I move as they would and I know how they would respond. I know where to begin the story and how to tell it as the scenes unfold, and I know where it will lead. I don’t believe that sitting, doing nothing and going into my story a waste of time, it is the beginning. The hard part is transferring what is in my mind to paper or my computer. I have to allow the story to unfold, wrinkles and all and organize it later. 

Author Bio: 

Dorothy grew up in southern Iowa, moved to Oregon’s Willamette Valley at the age of eleven. She picked strawberries and beans in the summer to earn money for school clothes. In high school, she loved history, geography, speech class and school plays. She made the honor roll because she didn’t take geometry or trig; Dorothy stuck to art and literature courses. Dorothy played the snare drums in the high school band.

At the age of sixteen, the boy that had pestered her from the moment he saw her that first day of school in the sixth grade, asked her, one wintry, November day to go for a scooter ride up into the coastal range. After that, they became inseparable, and here they are, fifty years later, very close partners in everything we do.

Dorothy started to write Regency Romances to entertain myself. Dorothy sent them off to publishers now and then. She facilitated a writer’s critique group for several years and learned a lot from fellow writers. She took writing courses at a community college. But, she thought she learned the most by submitting her work to publishers, editors and agents, and getting feedback.

Laid low for nearly twenty-five years with arthritis, forced to use a battery-powered cart, Dorothy took up aquatic exercise and became an instructor. she retired after eighteen years of instructing, and now goes to the pool and do her own thing. After two surgeries to replace her knees, Dorothy went to work on herself and lost eighty-five pounds, which she has kept off. With renewed energy, Dorothy put more into her writing, submitted her work, then rewrote and kept submitting, which she will continue to do.

Her husband and she live in Central Oregon with two West Highland White terriers and one big, angora tuxedo cat. Dorothy enjoys gardening and landscaping. 

Find Dorothy here: 

Facebook

D. A. Bell 

Buy her Books here: 

Freya’s Bower

Amazon

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