What do You think about 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]
