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In The Midnight Rain (2000)

In the Midnight Rain (2000)

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Rating
3.96 of 5 Votes: 5
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ISBN
0061030120 (ISBN13: 9780061030123)
Language
English
Publisher
harpertorch

About book In The Midnight Rain (2000)

Ellie Connor is a professional biographer with a yen for the blues. Her imagination has been captured by a minor blue singer from the 30s named Mabel Beauvais. A woman who was just about to make it big, when *poof* she disappears never to be heard from again. Ellie has decided to write Mable's biography and possibly ferret out the secret of her disappearance. There are many theories about Mabel's disappearance being bandied about late at night on the various blues blogs and discussion boards that Ellie subscribes to. On one, she strikes up a friendship with Laurence 'Blue' Reynaud, a fellow blues enthusiast who happens to live in the same town that Mabel was from.Blue invites Ellie out to Pine Bend, TX to further her research on Mabel and to complete her book. But Ellie has other reasons for going to Pine Bend. that was where her mother, deceased since Ellie was two, met Ellie's father. Ellie has never known who her father was and while researching Mabel's past she also hopes to find some answers about her own.I have read only one other Ruth Wind book (written as Barbara Samuel) No Place Like Home(it was wonderful). And I have a slew of her books on my TBR. But I came across this one and couldn't wait to crack it open. I love books steeped in family drama, especially the old secrets southern family drama. Wind does a great job of creating an atmosphere of Southern hospitality, warmth and welcome while still managing an air of close kept confidences and secrets. The Pine Benders like Ellie and rather enjoy the fact that she is writing a book about one of their own. But you always get the sense they know more than they are telling. And Ellie of course is also playing her cards close to her chest, subtly asking questions that seem benign enough on the surface but are designed to help figure out her own past.The character of Blue is a very interesting one. I like it when an author give a character a quirk or a trait that makes them feel a bit more real. It is easy to make someone handsome or tortured, but there is a depth to Blue that is immediately arresting. He is a bit tortured, vaguely alcoholic, completely charming and purely Southern. I really enjoyed the heck out of him and thought his and Ellie's relationship progressed at just the right pace.I had a suspicion of how the story would play out, but I didn't guess all the secrets. I especially liked Ellie's inner dialogue once she got her answers. It was sweet and very in keeping with the character. And the HEA between Ellie and Blue was even more satisfying.I really need to break ou the rest of the Barbara Samuels books I have in my TBR. So far she is 2 for 2 for me.No Place Like Home

How could you not like a hero whose first name was Blue? Dr. Laurence 'Blue' Reynard "with a bourbon voice, smoky and gold and dangerous." He was a charmer and a ladies' man. He owned a "rat-dog" named Sasha and an elderly cat on death's door called Piwacket. He was a guy that seriously grew and studied orchids and was a lover of old music. His speech was loaded with "blurred Southern vowels".After corresponding with him in a blues music newsgroup on the Internet, biographer Ellie Connor took up Dr. Reynard's offer of a cottage on his property in Pine Bend, Texas. She was a music historian. She could research and write her story on native blues singer Mabel Beauvais: a rising star whom mysteriously vanished one day long ago. Ellie was expecting someone much older than the devilishly handsome Blue. And Blue found himself attracted to her."Ellie rolled down the window, letting in the thick midday air. Wind blew her hair back from her serious, intent face. Blue imagined she was imprinting details, and as if to give that theory credence, she inhaled deeply, lifting her nose like a dog scenting the air. He smiled."Besides writing Mabel's narrative, Ellie had another puzzle to solve. Tied with this land, she hoped to locate whom her father was. Her mother was a product of the late 1960's hippie movement. She had spent a long summer in Pine Bend, then returned home to western Louisiana: unwed and pregnant. After leaving Ellie with her mother, she took off again. She died from an overdose of drugs leaving Ellie to often wonder what her father's name was and could he still be alive?IN THE MIDNIGHT RAIN was a breathless romance between two unlikely characters. It contained plenty of secrets packed with moments of angst. The townspeople pushed the story along with sultry nights, haunting music and old-fashioned gossip. In a few ways, it eerily reminded me of a modern-day gothic. Like molasses, I read Blue's and Ellie's story slowly. The author's strength was found in her crisp wordplay; the sentences flowed with spot-on descriptive words. I sunk into the mystery of this enchanting story and didn't want to climb out.

Do You like book In The Midnight Rain (2000)?

4.5 stars.This one is hard to review - I really loved it toward the end of the book, but struggled through the beginning and middle (lots of names, hard to remember everyone at first, and I had a hard time with the timeline of how things happened/sequence of events). It seemed to be more a mystery/disappearing act than a romance. While I saw the romance happening, honestly, Blue being the uber handsome and tortured hero he was, got on my nerves a bit. I loved Ellie tho. Loved all of the secondary characters, once I could finally remember who everyone was. This tale had some great twists and turns, took me by surprise, and almost made me cry. Very beautifully written - felt like I was really in that setting. This week I just happened to watch The Patriot with Mel Gibson. It's very sad to think of all these young men that go to war and die. With In the Midnight Rain, there's a backdrop of the young men that went to Vietnam - the lives and friendships lost forever. The author's descriptions were so sharp - I could "see" the boys taking their pictures together before they left. Being young is such a wonderful time but it goes by so quickly and you don't even know what you had until it's gone. Life is so precious and so easily lost. This book was quite sad, imo. There were many recommendations for it and it is definitely worth reading. It seemed more like a general fiction book with a splash of romance in it (albeit a good splash, Blue is hot stuff). It's not a clean read but pretty close to it. It's something you could recommend to your aunt or mom and not feel embarrassed.
—Zumbagirl

Every book I’ve read by Barbara Samuel so far has been simply mesmerizing and enchanting. Same here with “In The Midnight Rain”. The whole story, from start to finish, is so atmospheric, palpable, and, as a reader, you can only be absorbed by it. The story just spoke to all my senses. In a nutshell, a biographer of blues singers, Ellie Connor, travels to a very small town called Gideon (I think in east Texas close to Louisiana border), where she will work on the biography of Mabel Beauvais, a Gideon native female blues singer who suddenly vanished from the face of the earth in 1952. She’s been writing online for about a year with Dr. Laurence Reynard, living in Gideon. Laurence, nicknamed “Blue” is also a blues music aficionado. The Dr. stands for doctor in botany. Blue who experiments and grows orchids in his greenhouses on his property. As it happens, when meeting him, Blue is not what Ellie expected. He’s much younger (and better looking) than she’d imagined. But Blue is foremost a lost soul, a melancholy man, who had an immense share of losses in his young life.I was instantly attracted by the beauty of the scenery; the nature that surrounded Blue's property, the flowers, the trees, the earth, but also the small town of Gideon. So inviting. I wished I could visit. Music plays an important role in this story and that's something I can relate to, being a music lover. Ellie’s love for music was something that spoke to me on a very pure level. Ellie’s a wonderful young woman. She is so strong in the face of adversity. I admired that. While she’s in Gideon, she also looking for her Dad, knowing her deceased Mom spent the summer of 1969 in Gideon, and then came back home pregnant only to leave Ellie when she was 6 months old, to be raised by her grandma.The Vietnam war connection was broached in an touching way. In Gideon, people still remember all the young men that went to Vietnam and never came back. The strength of the more "elderly" women is another aspect of this book that compelled me. From Ellie’s grandmother who raised her, to the townswomen who stood by Ellie, all were splendid.This is an amazing book about love and family, and well, I just enjoyed it tremendously.
—Marleen

I really liked Blue and Ellie's story. Well written.Okay -- I feel I have enough time to do a better job with this one. My first read by this author and will not be my last. This was recommended for me by GR based on other reads I've rated. When I looked at it, I noticed other people I follow rated it highly and hear quite a bit about how good Barbara Samuels [aka .. Ruth Wind] is, so had to give it a try.Okay, you take East Texas and the Blues, put it into a romance and will it work? Well, this one did. She did a really nice job of give Blue a backstory of a cerebral Botonist. Ellie [real name Velvet] as an author writing about music -- her first love. They meet because of an assignment Ellie has to write the story of a Blue's artist long gone, but not forgotten. Now lets weave in some Vietnam and a war memorial.This story had quite a few moving parts and characters. At times I had to go back and see exactly who was who -- what did I miss, this didn't make sense, blah... I think this is why I didn't rate it higher. Plus, some of the story was very predictable.Overall, a very good read. I really liked the primary characters; Blue and Ellie. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a detailed, contemporary romance. She weaves stories for quite a few secondary characters, so you got to stay with it, or she will lose you.Happy Reading!
—Michelle [Helen Geek]

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