Evangeline by Gwen Williams

Gwen Williams based her erotic story Evangeline on the Grimm Brothers' fairy tale, Snow White & Rose Red. Williams imagines the story of Snow White (Evangeline) and the love she finds.
The book opens on Evangeline messing around with one of the young men from the village, John Woliver, a young man whom she is very fond of and would very much like to marry. John however is under strict instructions from his father NOT to marry Evangeline. He can dally with her, but he cannot marry her. Evangeline knows this and refuses to have sex with John. John finally tells Evangeline it's because of the bear that his father refuses to let them marry. I thought this was a pretty good ploy to explain the Grimm Brothers story, a flashback of John's father telling John that Evangeline, her sister Rose, and their mother sheltered a black bear for a winter and performed sexual acts with the bear. Evangeline is upset by this tale of gossip going around the village and stomps off, leaving John unsatisfied yet again.
Evangeline discovers that John is to marry another girl and so she is a little more bold when she entertains the glances of a stranger, Paul Rumsfeld. Evangeline finds the man desirable; he is well off and lives far from her village and that is enough for Evangeline to agree to marry him (after a proper courting of course).
On the first day she meets Paul Rumsfeld, the village gossip explains that he is on the search for his fourth wife--the previous three young wives dying unexpectedly. Evangeline pays this little mind until her wedding night when she is finally truly alone with her husband, and her fear and uncertainty overcome her. Paul is upset and visits her rarely in her lush set of rooms.
Spending little time with Paul, Evangeline is left in the company of her maid, Mathilda. Mathilda has also been maid to Paul's previous three wives and there's something in her attitude and demeanor that's a little creepy. She lurks in corners, always seems to be right outside Evangeline's door, and watches Evangeline when she sleeps.
Evangeline and Paul finally have a relationship breakthrough and they grow closer and more involved with each other and begin to genuinely love each other. Evangeline is very happy, very pregnant, and dotes on her husband. She begs him not to leave her alone and Paul begins to put her needs first.
Paul reveals the story of his previous three wives while talking to his steward, and we find that all three wives have died while Paul was absent. Each death breaks his heart and so he determined to stay as far from Evangeline as possible (but still needs to produce an heir to inherit his properties), refusing to fall in love with her. Ah, but Evangeline is too much for him to resist and they do fall in love.
The climax comes when Evangeline is in labor with her child and Paul is called away--so much happens at once that if feels the story was a little rushed to end it (plus some odd ways of tying up loose strings with Rose, Black Bear, and the King, who is mentioned maybe four times in the story). I could see who the "bad guy" was in the story pretty much from the beginning, but that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the building tension in the story.
Despite the ending, it was a cute heartwarming story. The sex was not overly detailed and there was not a great deal of it, so if you're reading for the steamy scenes, this book won't suit you. I am a sucker for fairy tale retellings, so there really was no chance that I was not going to enjoy the book. Evangeline by Gwen Williams is a good lighthearted story with a little bit of darkness (reminded me a bit of Rebecca, actually, but that might have just been creepy Mathilda). Recommended for fluff reading.