Rhine Fontaine is the son of a slave and a slave owner, but has been passing for White for a long time. He is successful, handsome, wealthy, well-liked by Whites and Blacks; he's even engaged to a White woman from a prominent family. Rhine wants to pursue a career in politics and with his fiancée's background, he will one day achieve his goals. Rhine's life is pretty uneventful until he happens upon a Black woman, half dead in the middle of the Nevadan desert: Eddy Carmichael. Eddy has had a very hard life working since she was 12 to support herself and her sister after her parents died. She is a very good cook and was on her way to California in the hope of one day owning her own restaurant, when all the money she had was stolen and she was dumped on the road by a man pretending to be a priest. Rhine and his friend Jim Dade were passing by and they rescue Eddy; Rhine takes her to his room above his saloon until she's well again. It doesn't take long before Rhine is completely smitten with the beautiful woman; if only things were different...

The moment I saw the blurb for FORBIDDEN, I knew I had to read it. Ms. Jenkins has woven a very beautiful story around a very sensitive subject, and I applaud the author's subtlety, where others could have chosen an easier way out. The author paints a much nuanced picture of the life of minorities in 1870s Nevada, focusing on African Americans after slavery was officially abolished. FORBIDDEN is very different from any other book I have ever read on the subject. Given that it is a romance, I had a good idea how it would all end, but nevertheless, I needed to experience the journey, and what a magnificent journey it is. Ms. Jenkins' extremely meticulous attention to historical detail is but one of the highlights of this extraordinary book. The writing is understated, elegant, seamless; the dialogues sound totally natural, and the cast of characters is absolutely wonderful. Rhine and Eddy are superb, exceedingly complex; they are both upstanding citizens, but best of all, they are not perfect and that's what made it so sublime. I love how the romance progressed, with all its doubts and hesitations, with the attraction they couldn't overlook, but a relationship seemingly impossible; simply marvellous!

I was expecting a lot from FORBIDDEN, and I got so much more than I ever hoped for; FORBIDDEN is a book that will be re- read many times!