The Bequest

Candice Proctor has ingeniously spun a beautiful and suspenseful story set in a rough and tough mining town in 1874 Colorado. Gabrielle Antoine, a twenty year old New Orleans convent bred woman, inherits a bordello in Central City Colorado from the mother she never knew. Enticed by her life long desire to know who her mother is, Gabrielle travels to Colorado. Jordan Hays, her mother's partner and loyal manager, always dresses in black except for his crisp white frilled shirt. Even the leather holster for the gun strapped low on his hip is black. The only thing Gabrielle wants is to learn who her mother is and the only thing Jordan wants is to sell the property, split the money with Gabrielle, and go on to something new. The innocent and naïve Gabrielle and the suave and savvy casino gambler that Jordan is want first to avoid each other but are gradually attracted to each other as the plot unfolds. The Bequest is filled with interesting, exciting, and realistic characters, both main and secondary. Gabrielle and Jordan have their own demons with which they must grapple and which are craftily revealed in measured doses. The sexual tension between them slowly and excruciatingly escalates until they are unable to suppress their urges and desires. Every page is filled with suspense and intrigue and just about every chapter ends in a cliffhanger. About two-thirds through the book, the plot reveals surprises that breathe new life into an already exciting story. This is the second book I've read by Candice Proctor and, it too, captured me at the very beginning and didn't let go until the last page. The Bequest is a western and a romantic suspense ingeniously melded by Candice Proctor. It's a great and entertaining read. If you are like me and don't care much for westerns, The Bequest is the book that will change your mind. I highly recommend it.

This novel has it all--sensuality, danger, mystery, and a beautiful love story, all told in Candice Proctor's wonderfully evocative prose. The descriptions above really don't do justice to this story. Gabrielle Antoine is a convent raised orphan desperate to learn more about the mother she only dimly remembers. When she arrives in Central City, Colorado, she discovers more than she can handle: that her mother was a brothel owner and has only recently died, leaving her whorehouse to Gabrielle and to her mother's partner, a dark, dangerous, haunted man named Jordan Hays. Horrified, Gabrielle can think of nothing but leaving town and selling the house. But the evil nature of the prospective buyer and a sense of responsibility to the "girls" changes her mind.What follows is a story of the corruption of innocence, deftly written by a master hand. Gabrielle's noble plans to help the "girls" find decent jobs and turn the house into a school are complicated by her desire to learn more about her mother and her mother's backgroud. An intelligent but fundamentally innocent and sheltered woman, Gabrielle must come to understand sin and human weakness and her own awakening sensuality against the decadent background of a 19th century whorehouse. The tortured hero, Jordan Hays, is gorgeous. Bound by his own noble nature and a promise made to a dying friend, all he wants to do is run away from Gabrielle, from the feelings she threatens to reawaken in him, and from what he knows will be the inevitable result of her growing physical attraction to him.There is so much more to this book--wonderful secondary characters, a dangerous mystery, and the beauty of the Colorado Rockies, so wonderfully depicted. Candice Proctor writes with the power and intensity of Laura Kinsale, and the emotional depth of LaVyre Spencer. This is a wonderful book. Don't miss it.

I really liked this book, they had real problems to overcome not just silly misunderstandings you will really love this book

I love this book! Wonderful, richly developed characters (and a hero to die for!), evocative descriptions, a real conflict (as opposed to silly squables). Wonderful! I can't wait to read Ms. Proctor's next.

One of the things I liked most about this book was the characters. They were always honest with each other. They shared their pasts, they talked about things, they understood and accepted each other as they were. I really liked that. Fear and pain kept them from committing throughout the book not misunderstandings. This isn't a comfortable book to read. It's set in a whorehouse and is filled with violent, dirty images. The author writes so well you can see and smell the countryside and feel the moments of tranquillity the hero shares with the heroine but on the downside you also see, smell and experience the filth and vile acts that she doesn't shy away from writing about. It's a rough, realistic and oftentimes heartbreaking depiction of the lives of woman who sell their bodies for various reasons. But throughout it all the love story remains tender and loving.This isn't a story I'd normally read. I like light and funny these days. The dialogue isn't witty, and I honestly didn't like the plot but for some odd reason I could not put the book down. Never did I feel the urge to start skimming. I know why too, it's because I cared about these people. I liked the hero and heroine, their honesty, their motivations, and their blossoming feelings were all so real and so raw. And two of the sympathetically drawn secondary characters really tugged at my heart. I wouldn't want to read this type of plot often, that's for sure, but I do recommend this book because the love story is well developed and believable.