Golden Nights
by Christine Monson

Rated 2.5
Reviewed 2/14/97 by Isolde W.
Copyright 1990

This book, "Golden Nights," by Christine Monson I did not like very much. It was difficult to read and it took a long time for me to finish it. But I must say the hero and the heroine were other than "normal" romance characters.

First we meet Suzanne Maintree, a twenty year old spoiled beauty who married the false man. Her father left her because he lost all his money. Suzanne will marry Marcus Hampton but when she tells him that her father needs money, he is not interested in her anymore. Suzanne is alone and in this moment Bradford Hoth asked her to marry him. She says yes. But this marriage ends in a fiasco. Her husband leaves her on their wedding night.

Then we get to know Kimberly Smith-Gordon. A gambler, adventurer, and drinker. He lives life like a game. In the middle of the book he changes his name to Rafer Smith, but his real name is Jamie Carlisle. Yes you can believe it! It is difficult to follow the plot when the hero is called by three different names.

Suzanne finds out that her husband has discovered a gold mine. But after a few weeks, she gets a letter telling her that he has died. She can't believe it's true. So, she blackmails her father-in-law into financing a search for her husband.

The search starts in Mexico (where Suzanne and Rafer met) and crosses through half of America.

The plot is sometimes unbelievable and tiring to read. Sometimes Suzanne is an avaricious wife and then she is the loving daughter who needs money for her dad.

Rafer (the name he is mostly called) and Suzanne are looking for the gold. Suzanne needs money and Rafer wants revenge. So we follow the characters through a long and difficult to read story.

I will think twice before I buy a Christine Monson book again.