The Renegades: Rafe

Rating:
Summary: Time line and abrupt ending mar this read.
Review: During the Civil War Rafe Aigner asked Madeleine Cottrell to run away with him. She refused. Not long after, Rafe was reported dead. Maddy married and tried to get on with her life, but a part of her never stopped mourning. What she didn't know is that Rafe did not die.... Ten years later, Rafe wins a newspaper in a poker game. The man who lost the paper is shot dead when he accuses Rafe of cheating. Rafe goes to San Antonio, Texas, to claim his prize, only to find Maddy is that man's widow! He makes a deal with her--show a profit for three years, and the paper is hers. But soon they are both distracted from this simple deal. Sometimes the time line doesn't feel quite right in this book, and the ending is a touch abrupt. But it is certainly a pleasant way to pass a few hours.

Rating:
Summary: Heartwarming reconstuction romance
Review: In 1862 New Orleans, Rafe Aigner pleads with his beloved Madeleine Calhoun to elope with him. Although she loves Rafe, Maddie feels obligated to care for her ailing father, who has no one else, and to run the family newspaper for him. She tells him that she loves him, yet cannot run off to Texas with him, but will remain here until he returns.

Years later, Rafe wins a San Antonio newspaper in a card game. Accompanied by his nine-year-old son, Rafe travels to San Antonio to decide what to do with the paper. To his shock, he finds Maddie running his newspaper. Maddie thought Rafe died during the Civil War and is stunned that her now deceased husband gambled away the paper. Rafe feels Maddie betrayed their love by not waiting for him, but agrees to give her three years to turn a profit. As they both care for his son, their old love rekindles, but will he understand that she did wait until she thought he was dead and she had no other option?

THE RENEGADES: RAFE is a warm Reconstruction Era romance that uses strong lead protagonists to tell an engaging tale. The secondary cast provides the audience insight into Rafe and Maddie. Though the exciting plot depends a bit too much on coincidence, sub-genre fans will fully enjoy Genell Dellinís gripping novel that hooks her readers from the start to the finish and encourages them to seek previous Renegade books (see the stories of COLE and NICK).

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Exciting Western Romance
Review: Rafe Aigner is a professional gambler living in Texas in 1874 when he wins a newspaper in a poker game. The newspaper is the San Antonio Star, and it belonged to the newly widowed Madeleine Calhoun.

Rafe remembers Madeleine from New Orleans twelve years before when he asked her to run away with him and marry him, but she refused, reluctant to leave her father and his newspaper business. Promising that she would wait for him, Maddie let Rafe leave. Upon seeing reports of his death, Maddie was devestated and finally married Sutton Calhoun after she was left alone and penniless when her father died.

While Madeleine is happy to see Rafe, he is angry with her for not waiting for him all those years ago, especially when he finally made his way back to New Orleans only to find her married to another man. Unfortunately for Rafe, he is forced to lean on Maddie as he needs someone to look after his son Juanito, a boy that Maddie seems to bond to almost instantly.

Madeleine is such a likeable heroine, having lived the life of a southern belle only to lose so much in the Civil War and later, after her husband gambled away most of her inheritance. She survived to become stronger, strong enough to take a chance on Rafe when he walks back into her life again, though she knows that she could have her heart broken if he chooses to leave and take Juanito with him.

The unsettled nature of the relationship between Rafe and Maddie keeps the reader hooked. Rafe is so unwilling to let himself be loved, having hardened his heart long ago because of Madeleine's apparent betrayal. Unlike so many romance novels, where attraction is paramount, Rafe and Maddie establish a new friendship through their love for his son which leads them to fall in love all over again. Readers will want to explore the two previous installments in this series: THE RENEGADES: COLE and THE RENEGADES: NICK.