SPANISH SERENADE

by Jennifer Blake ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 1990

The click of castanets and the tap-tap of the tango accompany Blake's 34th fast-moving romance--as she follows the adventures of a beautiful 18th-century Spanish maiden and her dashing lover. ""Pilar Marie Sandovaly Serna knew what she was doing was nothing less than madness,"" Blake's story begins. It continues in the same breathless vein as the beautiful Pilar plots against her evil stepfather, Don Esteban, who has already killed her mother, stolen Pilar's inheritance, and now plans to commit the girl to a convent before he heads for New Orleans and the life of a wealthy colonial Pilar responds by hiring El Leon, ex-nobleman and Don Esteban's sworn enemy, to kidnap her on her way to the convent, taking her dowry as payment, and deliver her unmolested to the house of her spinster aunt. El Leon, a heavily muscled swashbuckler, agrees to the plan more because he's attracted to young Pilar than for the money--and it's a good thing, too, since the chest full of gold that Don Esteban has promised as Pilar's dowry thymus out to hold nothing but silver. When Don Esteban revenges himself on the kick napper by killing Pilar's aunt and kidnapping El Leon's younger brother, the furious rebel and the headstrong girl decide to chase him across the ocean to America, where Pilar plans to wrest her inheritance from her stepfather's hands. Battling pirates on the open sea, inadvertently burning down New Orleans by starting the Great Fire of 1788, losing one of their party to Indians while pursued across Texas by the furious Don Esteban, and facing betrayal by one of their own, the fiery lovers survive to recapture Pilar's inheritance, marry, and start anew in God's own country--San Antonio, Texas. Blake, who provides enough passion, lust and adventure to satisfy even the most voracious of romance consumers, triumphs again as well.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1990

ISBN: 1585861618

Page Count: -

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1990

Categories: FICTION