Download Breathless (Sonnet Books) djvu

I typically shy away from historicals set in someone's romanticized idea of the South. There are too many clumsy attempts to write Southern dialect, and too many Scarlett O'Hara caricaitures whose shrewishness is labeled as "fiery temperament." But I'm glad I trusted this author enough to read her take on Southern-style romance.

Guhrke's sweet-tart tale takes place in Shivaree, Georgia at the beginning of the 20th century, when a lady might overcome the social stigma of having a job, but not the disgrace of being divorced by her husband. Shivaree's church-going folk and Ladies Temperance Society live uncomfortably with the fact that the town owes its healthy economy to a den of sin called the Shivaree Social Club. Well-to-do men from Atlanta pay an entire dollar for an hour in the company of loose women. They also drink and gamble, which is fortunate for ladies who want to gossip about the club; in 1905, no proper woman discusses sex, much less sex-for-money.

The thoroughly delightful heroine of Breathless is a one-time debutante, shunned by her family and society since her husband divorced her. Lily rebels against the town's hypocrisy by playing scandalous modern piano music with the windows open, and displaying a copy of Michelangelo's David - buck naked! - in her front parlor.

Once a year, on the anniversary of her humiliating divorce hearing, she files a legal complaint against the Shivaree Social Club. Her former husband spent many nights of their marriage cavorting with the club's "painted ladies," and closing the club is the only revenge left to Lily.

For five years, her efforts have been in vain. But when the town judge acquires a young bride and curtails his own use of the club, he shocks everyone by agreeing to close it down. More surprised than anyone is the club's owner, a U.S. senator. The lawyer he sends to Shivaree to fight the injunction is the senator's political protegee, a luscious hunk named Daniel Morgan.

Daniel has a friendly relationship with the judge and doesn't expect to spend more than a day on the Shivaree Social Club case. But he doesn't expect the tenacity of his opponent: Lily Morgan, whose reputation he destroyed when he represented her husband in the divorce. Lily no sooner hears that her husband's ruthless lawyer is in town than she marches into the local diner, slaps his face, and leaves without a word - treating Daniel to a view of her shapely hips in one of the new, tight, modern dresses.

War is declared between the two, and both sides have too much at stake to show any mercy. Daniel needs to get the club reopened or risk losing his client's political backing when he runs for the Senate. Lily hopes that by closing the club, she can lose her image as an immoral hussy. When the town's leading ladies not only refuse to join Lily's cause, but deliver a cruel public humiliation, Daniel is forced to witness the ugly consequences to Lily of the trial that made her an outcast. He begins to question his assumptions about her character, and to experience some doubts about the cost to himself of his own ambition.

Of course, the infamous divorcee and her hated nemisis discover an unexpected sexual attraction as fierce as Lily's battle to close the club. Their verbal skirmishes are rich with a range of emotions, but never sink to the level of screaming matches. The two share a sense of humor and a grudging respect for each other that makes a friendship between them seem as natural and inevitable as an affair. The result is a love story of surprising tenderness.

"Breathless" is peopled with a whole community of entertaining characters: snooty church ladies, semi-likeable dishonest judges, a barbershop full of irate husbands, and the first generation of modern women - not yet dreaming of having the right to vote, but beginning to feel the first, faint pangs of hunger to have a say in the direction of their lives.

Breathless instantly caught my attention with its unusual premise and setting. The characters were strongly drawn and, because of their initial antagonism, had great chemistry. The scene in which the heroine first sets eyes on the hero and, marching right up to him without saying a word, slaps him in front of the whole town, is great. It draws a daring line in the sand, and I gleefully anticipate a battle of the sexes to end all battles.

Daniel Walker is a lawyer on a mission. He's been sent back to his small hometown Shivaree by the big wigs in Atlanta to take care of some business for them. A gentleman's club owned by one of Daniel's backers (Daniel has a lot of ambition and hopes to be a senator) has been closed down thanks to the petitioning of one Lily Morgan. Daniel is to overturn the judge's ruling and get the club back up and running. If this weren't enough to place him in direct opposition to Lily, the two also share unpleasant history. Daniel was the lawyer who sued her on behalf of her ex husband for divorce. Thanks to this divorce Lily is the scarlet woman of her small town. She is shunned and scorned, and her own family won't talk to her. And she blames Daniel for much of her woe. Daniel, for his part, doesn't feel any remorse for how he treated her during the divorce trial, and no sense of responsibility for her present plight. His refrain is that he's just doing his job.

I read Breathless always waiting for the other shoe to drop - I felt like this situation was a recipe for disaster, one in which the heroine would get terribly hurt, the hero would walk all over her, and I had a lot of sympathy for Lily. She's treated terribly by her neighbors, who wrongly malign her as an adulteress and outrageously blame her for her husband's infidelity. But she never gives up or lets others get her down. When it comes to the club, she vows to fight Daniel all the way in his efforts to reopen it. She has personal reasons, besides the usual moral ones, for wanting it closed - it's the house of sin her husbanded frequented during their loveless, miserable marriage. But besides Daniel's threats to Lily that he won't fight her fairly on this, that he has the killer instinct and the skills of manipulation she lacks, he actually doesn't treat her too badly (besides not believing she's not an adulteress and believing all the terrible things her ex husband said about her - which, you know, doesn't win him any points.) Lily manages to rally the women, after valiantly overcoming initial difficulties because of her bad reputation, while Daniel rallies the men. Soon quiet Shivaree is thrown into turmoil and divided by discord, with the women marching, protesting, and harassing their unhappy men to vote to keep the club closed. This part of the book was enjoyable enough - the tension and fighting between Daniel and Lily is fun and sexy. It helps that they live right next door to each other while Daniel's staying in Shivaree.

But then the gender war over the club is curtailed by a murder at the club of one of its prostitutes. Amos, a young friend of Lily's is accused and arrested. The lines of alliance are immediately redrawn, and the former issues raised by the Shivaree gender war are summarily abandoned in favor of bringing Lily and Daniel together. He agrees to defend Amos, and she gets to be his sidekick. You would think that this would provide ample opportunity for them to get closer, for amping up the chemistry, and make things interesting. To my dismay, things got boring, and I found myself slogging through a court drama that is laboriously, ponderously executed. The romance became an afterthought while the hero and heroine work towards winning this case.

When the murder trial business is finally dispensed with, we've got little more than 50 pages left in which to resolve, or actually develop a romance between Daniel and Lily and address their problems - like his assumption that she's adulterous, his siding with her evil, lying ex husband, his legal sophistries to justify his actions, and the fact that HE RUINED HER LIFE. The last is completely swept under the rug. They fall quickly in love, and Daniel begins to think, gee, maybe she's not a cold, lying, cheating harlot (the worst part is he has this epiphany when she responds to his kisses so "innocently." Aaargh! Nothing annoys me more than that medieval witch dunking test of virginity.) Then we get to the question: will Daniel sacrifice his political aspirations for the woman he loves? Because a future senator can't possibly marry a divorcée. Everyone gets a chance to be noble martyrs, and a happily ever after is swiftly wrapped up. I was pretty disappointed in Breathless, considering its potential.