I am overjoyed that J Arlene Culiner could join my blog this week with Desert Rose, her latest in the Blake’s Folly series.
Secrets are the best protection against love
Rose Badger is the local flirt, and if the other inhabitants of backwoods Blake’s Folly, Nevada, don’t approve, she couldn’t care less. With a disastrous marriage and a dead-end career far behind her, settling down is the last thing she intends to do. Newcomer Jonah Livingstone is intriguing, but with his complicated life, he’s off limits for anything other than friendship. Besides, Rose has a secret world of her own—one she won’t give up for any man.
The last person geologist Jonah Livingstone expected to meet in a semi-ghost town is the sparkling and lovely Rose Badger. But Rose, always surrounded by many admirers, doesn’t seem inclined to choose a favorite. So why fret? Jonah keeps his personal life well hidden…and that’s the best way to avoid disappointment.
Purchase Links: https://books2read.com/RosesDesert, https://books2read.com/RosesDesert
Inspiration for Desert Rose by J Arlene Culiner
Once upon a time, I found myself in a clapboard, rusty trailer, semi-ghost town in Nevada, where an ever-buffeting wind dragged dust across the frozen ground, rattled grasses, and set the doors of abandoned shacks tapping. The hotel I stayed in was a rundown has-been: ceilings soared high, and the lumpy, almost colorless wallpaper was surely a century old.
In the hotel’s bar, a talentless band whined out bad country music, and eccentric locals dished up tall tales, wry humor, and suspicion. It was a singular community, quite magical, and I’ve recreated it as Blake’s Folly, the setting for my three romances: A Room in Blake’s Folly, All About Charming Alice, and Desert Rose.
In the late 1800s, Blake’s Folly was a silver boomtown that boasted three mining companies, a railway line to Reno, a lot of cash, many saloons, and quite a few brothels, but the glory didn’t last. When the silver ran out, those sane enough to do so, pulled up stakes.
Today, it’s a backwoods community of shacks, wooden sidewalks, and one saloon set in an unrelenting flatland. Who would live in such a place? Odd independent characters and rebels, people who would never fit into neat houses with tidy gardens.
In Desert Rose, my half-Paiute hero, geologist Jonah Livingstone, takes great pleasure in sighting the other inhabitants of this territory: mule deer, bobcats, desert tortoises, sidewinders, rattlers, and little gray lizards. There’s another attraction, too: the lovely Rose Badger. How does Rose feel about Jonah?
Well… that’s the problem. Both Jonah and Rose are secretive people, and that makes them mysterious as well as intriguing. Secretive folks are very disciplined, and they often have a wealth of knowledge and experience that they keep hidden (Rose has a very complicated secret life). It’s hard to know what they’re thinking, or feeling, so forming close, trusting relationships is a definite challenge for them—even though the dazzle, the zip, and all the necessary the magic is right there, just waiting to be discovered!
Background on Story/Characters in Desert Rose
The story was great fun, complex, and straightforward at the same time. Girl meets boy and they fall in love. End of story. Well, not quite that simple, but there aren’t too many real problems. Jonah is totally dazzled by Rose, as are most of the other males in town. And she’s constantly surrounded by them wherever she goes. She doesn’t seem to favor one over the other either. Jonah has a major problem, though. He still has his ex living with him. She had problems and he offered her a place to live, now he’s sort of stuck with her. He has to declare his freedom from that relationship and find some space of his own to indulge his secret passion. So Jonah moves out and leaves his ex the old place. He gets himself an old warehouse loft with plenty of space to indulge his secret and be on his own.
Rose has her own secret, which she finally shares with Jonah. She takes him with her the next time she goes and lets him see for himself all about her other side. And she tells him all about her past with her late husband, the band, and why she doesn’t sing rock and roll anymore. She tells him about her mother and her drinking, too. She tells him the secrets of her shop as well.
To let him know he’s special and not just one of the guys surrounding her, Rose goes to Jonah’s place planning to seduce him and he shares his secret with her.
What J Arlene Culiner’s Readers are Saying…
Set in the high desert of Nevada, the town of Blake’s Folly has seen better days, as have most of its residents – a rag-tag assembly of loners, independent misfits, and ne’er do wells. But looks can be deceiving, and, as the story unfolds, the town’s citizens grow and blossom, especially the heroine, Rose Badger. At first, she seems a guarded woman, who keeps her past – and aspects of her present – close to the vest. Has she become mired in her small town world? Has she grown complacent about her future? Her male admirers are many, but there’s no spark with any of them – until Jonah enters her life. Will they overcome their problems and find true love? The romance between the heroine and hero is smartly written, the requisite romantic tension well done, the ending satisfying. I also enjoyed the novel’s small touches, different and engaging details that enlivened the story: from Russian “white noise” singing, to petroglyph and fossil hunting, to baroque music, and even a wonderful thread about a dog named Noodle. I hope Ms. Culiner revisits Blake’s Folly. I would love to read more about Rose and Jonah and their friends.
– DOC (verified Amazon purchase)
Rose Badger owns a vintage clothing boutique in a small, scarcely populated town in the middle of the Nevada desert. She’s a natural flirt, so she’s befriended many of the local men, to the scorn of their wives. She doesn’t want love or permanence, and luckily for her, her admirers don’t want anything permanent with her either. All that changes when newcomer Jonah Livingstone walks into her store.
Jonah has a doctorate in geology and is studying the fossils in the area. Though he has a woman in his life, their relationship isn’t a romantic one. He and Rose have an instant attraction, and they’re powerless to ignore it. Secrets, though, are constantly wedging between them.
Great story! Rose and Jonah fit well together, even though they were too stubborn to see a future with one another for the longest time. I couldn’t connect with Rose, however, but I did understand why she made a game out of flirting—to hide her hear of commitment and the fact that she’s been hurt before. Jonah was a more likable character. He’s made some mistakes, but I liked how he was trying to straighten out his life.
I enjoyed the plot, but the story could use a light edit to clear up a few typos and filter words. The history and geology sections slowed the pacing a little, but the Native American culture, Russian culture, and American Old West history were very interesting.
Anyway, this was a fast read. If you like a sweet romance, give this book a try.
– AD (verified Amazon purchase)
Reading Desert Rose was such a delight I didn’t want the book to end. Rose Badger owns a vintage shop in Blake’s Folly, a small town at the end of the world. She keeps her little secrets because the residents of the town are a noisy bunch. And to add some spice to her life. She never lacked male admirers and gladly accepted invites to dinners, drinks and such. However, none of them knocked the socks off her. Until one evening Jonah Livingstone entered her shop. But he’s a smart, educated man with a doctorate, and he may be involved with another woman. And she’s a small town girl with barely any education, not what Jonas would find a suitable woman for him. All Jonas sees is a beautiful woman with interests and likes similar to his, who is surrounded by her male admirers. Can he accept that one little ‘flaw’ and love Rose for the rest of his life?
– MicaMaca (verified Amazon purchase)
Excerpt from Desert Rose
Rose approached the little group slowly, still peeking carefully into the shadows of booths lining the wall.
Jonah was watching her every movement. “You’re looking strangely furtive.”
“I’m avoiding my mother.”
Lance laughed; Jonah chuckled.
She scrunched up her face with mock pain. “Okay, okay. I know how infantile that sounds, but I just got rid of the woman. She staggered over to the shop about fifteen minutes ago.”
“Staggered?”
“Four sheets to the wind, as usual. She does make a habit of it.” Rose wrinkled her nose. “Now, she wants to drive into Reno with me on Saturday.”
“On Saturday? I thought you didn’t do Saturdays,” said Lance laconically.
“Really?” Jonah raised one quizzical eyebrow and turned to Lance. “What do you mean, she doesn’t do them? She wipes them off the calendar? Crams everything into a six-day, Sunday to Friday, week?”
“It’s her secret day. No one knows what she gets up to on Saturdays. Only that she isn’t available. Ever.”
“Aha. I was about to ask her to meet me this Saturday evening.”
“She’ll say no. She always does.”
Exasperated, Rose threw both men the dirtiest look she could manage. “I’m not unavailable every Saturday. I intend to be here, in Blake’s Folly, for the Get-Together, and that’s two Saturdays away. Now, would you both please stop talking about me in the third person? I’m here, right in front of you. You can address me directly, and I can speak for myself.”
“Except you don’t. Not when it comes to Saturdays.” Lance’s voice was calm.
“Interesting.” Jonah nodded. “I wonder what she gets up to. A night at the roulette table?”
“Perhaps a rendezvous in some den of iniquity.”
“Hmm. A secret husband and seven secret children?”
“A hidden lover?”
“A change of identity?”
“A second life as an investment banker?”
“Or as a lap dancer.”
“A nude trapeze artist.”
“Or a nude contortionist?”
“Okay, cut it out, both of you,” Rose snapped. “You are about as much fun as my mother.”
Trailer: https://youtu.be/tHPrIciT0XU
About J Arlene Culiner
Writer, photographer, social critical artist, and impenitent teller of tall tales, J. Arlene Culiner, was born in New York and raised in Toronto. She has crossed much of Europe on foot, has lived in a mud house on the Great Hungarian Plain, a Bavarian castle, a Turkish cave dwelling, a haunted house on the English moors, and on a Dutch canal. She now resides in a 400-year-old former inn in a French village of no interest where, much to local dismay, she protects spiders, snakes, and all weeds. She particularly enjoys incorporating into mysteries, non-fiction, and romances, her experiences in out-of-the-way communities, and her conversations with very odd characters.
https://www.j-arleneculiner.com/desert-rose
Author links: https://linktr.ee/j.arleneculiner