Something about Blair's haunted eyes captured Rowena's heart. But could she bring peace to him?
He rode the Kansas prairies at night to escape the demons that haunted him. Loving this man damaged by war was a challenge for Rowena. He was supposed to marry her sister Wilda, who ran off with a handsome outlaw.
Her love and caring offers Blair a lifeline and helps him recover from what was then called 'soldier's heart,' now known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
But the world around him cannot accept that his actions stem from the horrors of war and he is dragged off to prison where Rowena must find and free him.
Excerpt
Perhaps she wasn't at all what he'd thought when he first saw her sitting on a bench in the sunlight, pale hair blazing as if a halo circled her head. The nuns smiling and patting all three girls' shoulders. Damn their souls to hell, no better than selling those three to him. And even worse, him accepting the offer.
Professional Reviews
Review of Rowena's Hellion
Posted on November 10, 2014 by oghmacreative
Part 2 of the Victorians Series It’s not often that a novel is able to bridge a gap between the era in which it is set and a situation that is relative to the present day. Velda Brotherton did exactly that with her novel, Rowena’s Hellion, the second part of the Victorian Series. She takes compelling characters used to the refined society of Victorian England, sets them in the American West, and works through the difficulties of what we today call PTSD.
Rowena is one of the Duncan girls, one of three women rescued from a Catholic orphanage in England by Lord Blair Prescott. By the time we get to this second installment, a lot of history has passed between the Duncans and Blair. The focus of this novel is Rowena’s love and support of Blair, and Blair’s resistance of that love due to demons he faces from the war. Blair suffers from PTSD—what was then called “nostalgia” or “soldier’s heart”—and despite a budding relationship between Rowena and him, he tries to protect her by keeping his distance. Complications in his plan arise when he is unable to stay away and must rely on her more than ever.
This book attempts several things, all with great success. First, Brotherton wants to paint a picture of what the West was like to English nobility. She uses the setting as well as the language, clothing, and societal norms to convey the differences between worlds. Second, she wants to show what daily life is like for a veteran with PTSD, particularly in a time when it was often overlooked and untreated. Blair’s visions, dreams, and reactions give a vivid and heartbreaking portrayal of the horrors these men went through, what are veterans are still going through. Finally, Brotherton wants to give readers a poignant and powerful love story. And she does exactly that. The way Rowena is able to breakdown Blair’s defenses is as moving as Blair’s fear of hurting her and need for her.
