The Outlaws: Rafe
Grade : F

There's nothing quite so awkward as catching yourself laughing at what you know isn't meant to be funny. And boy, did I feel awkward while reading The Outlaws: Rafe. I just couldn't help but laugh at many of the ridiculous things the cardboard characters did, or their stilted dialogue, or the incredible plot. It was a painful experience, in more than one way. So why am I smiling?

Rafe Gentry is about to be hanged for a crime he didn't commit (natch!). After their farm failed and they couldn't get a bank loan, the three Gentry brothers were accused by the banker of robbery, so they left town and split up, promising to meet in Denver in exactly one year's time. Well, the law's caught up with Rafe, and he's looking at a murder charge, too (he didn't do that one, either). He hears an angelic voice singing a hymn, and it immediately soothes and calms him as he prepares to meet his Maker. Oh, Rafe, if only you knew...

The owner of that angelic voice, Angela Abbot, is in town with a traveling preacher. She's trying to get to Canon City, Colorado, where her recently deceased father has left her his half of a gold mine. Angela is only a step ahead of her evil stepfather and the jerk he wants to force her to marry. When an angry mob threatens to lynch Rafe, kind-hearted Angela, convinced that he's innocent because he appears to be, concocts a tale that Rafe is her fiance, and that he couldn't have committed the murders. The sheriff forces them to marry on the spot, and they set off for Colorado immediately. Of course, it's going to be a marriage in name only, but these two can't keep their hands off each other, so that notion falls by the wayside pretty quickly.

The co-owner of the mine is pretty surprised to see Angela, and more alarmed when she all but accuses him of killing her father. Then the evil stepfather and his sidekick show up, and the law's still after Rafe for the bank robbery, and it turns out that the mine is actually worth some money, after all. How far will the various people involved go to get their hands on some of that cash? Will Rafe ever be reunited with his brothers? Will he ever clear his name so he can tell his Angel just how much he loves her? How many stupid mistakes will she make before she gets the both of them killed?

My problems with this book started on page 1, and continued through page 390. This is one of those books where the entire past history of the two main characters is tossed up the very first time the reader encounters them; there's no layering or gradual revelation of character. It's just - boom - all of a sudden, there you are. Point of view jumps from character to character seemingly at whim, so that it's more a matter of head-skipping than head-hopping.

When the Too Stupid To Live Hall of Shame is built, Angela Abbot deserves a special room all to herself. I lost track of how many times she imperiled not only herself, but Rafe as well. He tells her to stay put, but he doesn't trust her enough to tell her what he's planning, so off she traipses, only to end up in the clutches of one of the villains yet again. The lack of trust is mutual, so as she's carrying out her hare-brained schemes, Rafe is exposed to danger over and over. I never got the feeling that the attraction between these two was anything more than sexual, so I never believed that they could fall in love with each other.

You know something's not working for you in a book when you're reading a conversation between the hero and heroine and all you can think is, "Rafe, if you get her in bed she'll shut up, and I won't have to hear your thoughts, either." This pair was so busy tearing each other's clothes off at every opportunity that I thought to myself, "Boy, wherever they settle down, I want to move to that town and open up a button shop." I'm confident I'd get rich very quickly. You may enjoy this book, but don't say I recommended it to you.

Reviewed by Nora Armstrong
Grade : F

Sensuality: Hot

Review Date : May 24, 2000

Publication Date: 2000

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