Title: Finding Favor and the Secret of Rainbow Moor
Author: Yvette S.M. Debeau
Publisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 978-1-5246-1371-6
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 322
Reviewed by: Allison Walker
Hollywood Book Review
Romance fiction is one of the best-selling genres among women, and yet it all tends to follow the same basic plot. No matter how much you adore chick flicks and books, change around the character names and you already know how it’s going to end. New authors on the scene have the opportunity to bring variations to this plot; and how very refreshing when one does not disappoint!
Author Yvette S.M. Debeau’s romantic mystery novel Finding Favor and the Secret of Rainbow Moor is one such that deviates from the well-worn romance novel. Her heroine, Favor Duran, is a beautiful, elegant widow with a feisty temper. After years spent mourning the loss of her husband and marriage, Favor has rebuilt her life and may finally be ready to find love again with her handsome childhood friend, Adam Jennings. Tragedy strikes when Favor is kidnapped by a mysterious stalker. While police and friends frantically search for her, Favor is taken to a remote ranch home and held against her will. Her stalker and kidnapper, a rich businessman named Steven Lawrence Mitchell IV, tells her he plans to marry her and that together they will carry on his family name.
Finding Favor and the Secret of Rainbow Moor is a risqué romantic fantasy about Stockholm Syndrome. You’d think it’d be a little more skeevy, or the characters’ intentions a little more dubious, but let yourself forget Favor has been kidnapped and held against her will and the romance is all very alluring and captivating – pardon the pun. Steve Mitchell is handsome, mysterious, and he can even cook. It’s not surprising when Favor falls head over heels in love with Steve.
Favor does eventually fall for Steve’s gentlemanly manners and dashing good looks. Together they build a life on Steve’s family ranch, Rainbow Moor, and bring Steven Lawrence Mitchell V into the world. Yet not all is right on Rainbow Moor. Adam’s search for his lost love reveals to him some disturbing news, and supernatural forces seem contrived to keep the would-be lovers apart.
Once you get past the taboo of this novel being the most severe case of Stockholm Syndrome since Patty Hearst, the story is totally and completely enthralling. I read the first half all in one night, curled up on the couch with the dog, eating chocolate muffins. The second day, the mystery surrounding Rainbow Moor began to unfold, and that night I finished the novel.
In her preface, Debeau confesses she almost didn’t publish her novel, except for the encouragement of a close friend. I love that Debeau published this book. I love that women will purchase this book, then studiously hide it beneath their pillows each night. As an avid destroyer of movie plots, I was pleasantly surprised by this novel’s ability to keep me guessing. Finding Favor and the Secret of Rainbow Moor belongs on the shelf next to Danielle Steel. It’s a well contrived story with exciting characters and just risqué enough to make a woman blush when her husband finally finds her reading it.