Jezebel's Blues

Summary: When the Jezebel River overflows her banks and tries to swallow the small town of Gideon in East Texas, Celia Moon is alone and frightened in the farmhouse she inherited from her grandmother. When a mesmerizing and troubled drifter washes up on her porch, she has no choice but to take him in. As the river rises, the pair retreat to the attic to ride out the storm—and discover a compelling attraction.

The daughter of two artists who were besotted with each other, Celia has always felt the odd woman out. She yearns to find a place she can call her own, a family of her own, and a life that has some stability and meaning. Her grandmother’s farmhouse in Gideon has always represented that.

Eric fled his grim childhood in Gideon to find a life as an acclaimed blues guitarist, but that life has been taken from him, too, and he’s back in Gideon with a chip on his shoulder that hides the vast hunger he, too, feels to find his place, his home, his life. Waiting out the storm with sunny, optimistic Celia, he wonders if maybe there’s a place in Gideon for him after all, in the arms of a woman who might know more than she thinks about acceptance.

A novel as rich and deep as a river, Jezebel’s Blues is both a haunting love story and a tale of finding your way to accepting yourself.

My thoughts: I read the Kindle version of this book, not realising it is a Silhouette Romance. I was so mesmerised by the name of the book and was eager to read it because it was about a river.

Of course, there is the angsty love story between Celia and Eric. Celia was strong. Surprisingly so, because the second paragraph of the blurb made me think she was a needy, clingy woman. Eric's character was almost a cliché, with guilt colouring all his actions and standing in the way of happiness and love.

But for me, the highlight was the river, Jezebel. It reminded me of the gutsy rivers of my homeland. No pristine waters or round pebbles or beautiful banks there. Swollen with water, they flow roaring between muddy banks, full of tadpoles and earthworms, in the rainy season. With banks all dry and cracked, they fight for survival in large, dirty puddles, in the heat of the summer.

Jezebel, too, is one such river. All sassy and temperamental, who she is and what she does is as important as Celia and Eric's story in this book.

Overall, I liked the book. There's one point that irritated me, though. There is no explanation of what happened to Eric's sister Laura and her ex-husband during the time she went missing. Maybe that is the subject for another book? I have no clue.

I read the reviews later on and learnt two things: I had read the newly published Kindle version of a Silhouette Romance that first came out in 1992 and that the author, Barbara Samuel, writes also as Ruth Wind and Barbara O’Neal.

Note: I can't remember who sent it to me but whoever it was, thank you!