Wild Rain

New love heals old wounds in Jenkins’s heartening second Reconstruction era Women Who Dare romance (after Rebel). When Black female rancher Spring Rain Lee rescues Black reporter Garrett McCray after he is thrown from his horse, she means to patch him up and send him on to her brother, Dr. Colton Lee. As it happens, Garrett came to Paradise, Wyo., to profile Colton, but after meeting Spring, he realizes he wants to write about her instead. Spring is a refreshing mix of brash and nurturing, and her fierce independence is both admirable and hard won. She was sexually abused by her former employers and struggles to forgive her family for leaving her to fend for herself, but she has since become a landowner and carved out a life for herself. Opposites attract in stormy Spring and laid-back Garret—but a revenge plot that threatens their lives and a scam artist’s arrival in town shake their budding romance. Jenkins has a sure touch with the racism of the era, not letting it derail the escapist romance but also not shying away from harsh realities. Jenkins once again proves why she’s a giant of the genre. Agent: Nancy Yost, Nancy Yost Literary. (Feb.)