Books › Runaway
Runaway
First published 1994 · 516 pages
A sweeping, smoldering historical romance where dangerous secrets and fierce passions collide in a lush, lethal wilderness.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like stepping into a sweeping, high-stakes historical romance, where the atmosphere is as thick and smoldering as the Florida heat. The narrative moves at a brisk, dramatic pace, pulling the reader through a lush but lethal wilderness fraught with hidden dangers and colliding loyalties. It is a story steeped in tension—both the romantic friction of a marriage born of desperation and the external threat of looming war. The prose leans into the passionate intensity of its era, delivering brooding gazes, guarded hearts, and dramatic reveals. It will delight readers who crave old-school, atmospheric romances where desperate escapes give way to fierce, hard-won devotion against a backdrop of untamed danger.
- Mood
- smoldering
- lush
- tense
- dangerous
- Tone
- dramatic
- passionate
- intense
- earnest
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- escaping the past · hidden identities · marriage of convenience · colliding loyalties · survival in the wilderness
- The writing
- Evocative and sweeping, leaning into the dramatic, passionate intensity characteristic of 1990s historical romance.
- The arc
- The journey moves from desperate flight and guarded suspicion to passionate surrender and united survival against external threats.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave old-school, high-stakes historical romances featuring brooding heroes, hidden secrets, and lush, dangerous settings.
Content notes
- gambling/loss of agency
- war themes
- peril
About the book
"I accepted you as payment on a gambling table because you're incredibly beautiful and I want you for the same reason."
His smoldering gaze claimed her long before a poker hand made her his. Tara Brent knew she could never escape this dark and brooding stranger who promised her safety, with a price: marriage and life together in the lush, lethal wilderness of Florida. She didn't even know his name, only the promise of passion, and refuge in his arms...
Jarrett McKenzie swept his ravishing bride away from New Orleans to his remote Florida plantation, determined to uncover the desperate secret from which she ran. He couldn't tell her of his own Seminole roots--or open her guarded heart--until his former commander, President Andrew Jackson, declared war on the Indians, and a powerful enemy from Tara's past found his way to their door...
Description from Open Library.
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