REVIEW: Dillon’s Promise by Cheryl Reavis
“Cinda Richards brings you the lovable, roguish, obstinate, utterly unforgettable Scotsman Dillon Cameron. Haunted by a deathbed promise, and shocked to learn that, in a moment of wrenching grief, he fathered a child by his best friend’s American widow, Dillon storms Thea Kearney’s cottage, intent on claiming “his lasses.” But Thea and her baby daughter have little use for such a heartbreaking rover now. Drawing on Scots legends and the magic of the sea swept highlands, Richards weaves a tale rich in humor, poignancy and romance.”
Dear Ms. Reavis,
I read this book years ago and promptly got my hands on all your (then) OOP “Second Chance at Love” books. I thought I recalled there being a Christmas scene (but I was wrong) and pulled it out for a re-read. This time around I didn’t love it quite as much but parts of it still enchanted me.
Secret babies aren’t my favorite but here Caitlin is a delightful child who is definitely not a plot moppet. She also serves to bring her “Da!” back into her mother’s life after a grief fueled night nineteen months ago. Dillon and Thea’s husband Griffen were best friends growing up and Dillon was there when Griffen died while they both worked as deep sea divers on a North Sea oil rig. The scene during which Thea’s bottled up grief leads Dillon to open up about what really happened is heart wrenching and their resulting means of dealing with that grief is what sets the stage for the book. Beyond the fact that they now have a daughter, guilt and other unspoken emotions are going to tie them into knots from then until now.
Thea and Dillon are great to watch as they slowly work their way towards love. Thea thinks that Dillon, a charming ladies man, wouldn’t be interested in the fact that he has a daughter but has to eat her words as she sees the true love and devotion he has for his wee dochter.
“Roddy Macnab’s!” Thea cried, as if it were a hotbed of wickedness instead of the post office-grocery store.
“Aye,” Dillon said reasonably. “The little one here asked me to,” he added.
“She asked—” Thea said, faltering as the ridiculousness of the statement penetrated. She glanced at the baby, who promptly grinned. Wherever they had been, the baby was none the worse for wear.
“Aye,” Dillon assured her, his delivery still deadpan. “‘I’ve nae orange juice, Da,’ is how she put it, so we went to get it. What else could I do?”
He was all innocence, and Thea stared from one guilty party to the other, completely incredulous at Dillon Cameron’s audacity. But she was losing the edge to her anger in the face of the two identical grins she was confronting. “She asked, you say,” Thea repeated, trying to calm down—for the baby’s sake, not for Dillon’s probably aching head.
“Oh, aye,” Dillon said. “In Gaelic.”
“In—”
Thea laughed in spite of herself, and she suspected that she’d just been the victim of the famous Cameron charm. His poor mother, she thought with both sympathy and admiration. It must have taken some doing to drag Dillon into manhood.
Dillon has a secret that he wants to keep from ruining any chance he has to prove to Thea that he’s loved her for years and wants nothing better than to come home to her after working his month-long stretches as a diver on a North Sea oil rig.
This is pretty much the plot of the entire book with conflicts about this continuing to drive the story forward. The first time I read it, I loved it. This time I got frustrated with Thea’s one step forward and then five steps back in believing Dillon’s commitment. It’s not that she is working with faulty information – her own husband told her many tales that Dillon told him while they slowly ascended in the diving bell and other islanders who have known Dillon all his life have chimed in with their own knowledge of his exploits. But there are enough times when Dillon is obviously frustrated with Thea’s stubbornness rather than him merely trying to be Mr. Suave that I began to be convinced of his sincerity long before Thea. If all he felt was an obligation, her refusals ought to have sent him packing. He’s also a dab hand at taking care of Caitlin whether or not she’s smiling or a cranky, crying mess.
“Ah, no, lass,” the male voice insisted. “Don’t feed your poor old Da the porridge—he’s not up to porridge this morning, lass. Wait, now—mmm—what—fine porridge it is, darlin’. Now you have a wee bit.”
There was a brief silence, and then, “Da!” in the baby’s high-pitched voice.
“What, lass?” the male voice said. “Will you be having a bit more now? That’s my good girl.”
Still Thea does have more reason to shield her heart. She genuinely loved her husband and his death shattered her. Risking herself by loving another man who works a dangerous job in the cold depths of the sea asks a lot of her. She’s put her life back together in the face of financial arrangements her husband made that she doesn’t understand and is proud that she’s standing on her own. Thea also doesn’t want her daughter to fall for this charming Da who might leave her life just as quickly as he crashed into it. The promise that gives the book its title might be a challenging sell. It’s supposed to harken back to the custom of men promising to take care of the family of a friend should that friend not come back from the sea with Dillon willing to take that to the extreme.
But the atmosphere, the island and the Orcadian characters are a delight.
“Thea,” Flora Macnab called, making her way from behind the cheese counter. “Let me give this little one a biscuit,” she said, coming to take Caitlin. “Dillon wouldn’t let her have one when she was in before because she hadn’t had her breakfast. Out to check the lay of the land, are you?” she added in a whisper. Flora was tall and thin and nearly lost in the yellow plaid cotton dress she was wearing. She was English, not Scots, and she was quick to tell that to any incomer ignorant enough not to know the difference. Her manner was gruff but loving, and she’d seen Thea through Griffen’s death and through childbirth, never once mentioning Dillon Cameron. Clearly she was dying to mention him now, though, and Thea had no intention of getting into that conversation.
“This is Flora, ducky,” Flora whispered, “so don’t you go giving me that big hazel-eyed whatever-do-you-mean look? You’ve got Dillon Cameron all tied in knots, and the whole island’s dying to hear what you’re going to do about it—me included.”
I’m not sure how well it would hold up to local scrutiny but this ignorant American felt herself on the windswept island of South Ronaldsay and the rain washed streets of St. Margaret’s Hope. Plus there isn’t an abundance of faux Scottish brogue! The romance was dragged out just a little bit too much for me so come for the setting, the secondary characters, and absolutely for the father/daughter bonding. B
~Jayne
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Dillon sounds great. Thanks
@Darlynne: Och, aye. Dillon’s a charmer. ☺
Thank you for the review and the introduction to a new author to me. I’m binging her back list and really enjoying her books. I love finding a new author!
@BethP: Yay! You’re welcome. I’ve been reading her books for years. She writes historical as well as contemporary (or they were contemporary when she wrote them) books.
https://dearauthor.com/book-author/cheryl-reavis/