It’s a truth universally acknowledged that in the book industry, romance is the genre of hope. I’m often asked what makes a romance and I can say one thing for sure, it absolutely has to have what’s known as an HEA, a Happily Ever After. Peril, conflict, miscommunication, and pain can all be tolerated if the reader knows they are ultimately guaranteed a happy ending.
If you read the Rebel Heart newsletter or once frequented the bookstore, you have probably met and know Marcella Bell, my darling friend and former manager of Rebel Heart. And you know that she is no longer there. She and her husband, Josh Bell, and their two children are in the process of moving out of the valley. But that’s getting ahead of the story.
Almost four and half years ago, Sally Bell, a beloved member of the Jacksonville community, was one of the realtors (along with Jill Hamilton) who sold me the building the same weekend of the ice storm in Portland that shut everything down and canceled the soccer tournament I was supposed to take my sons to that weekend. To my knowledge, that tournament hadn’t ever been canceled before, so as fate (and Cheryl Rose, who told me about the building in the first place) would have it, I was around to see 157 West California Street.
It turns out that Sally and I had the same hairdresser and one day soon after we bought the building, I found myself sitting next to her and she said, “You know, you should meet my daughter-in-law, Marcella. She is so smart and knows books. She would be amazing.” I have to admit that at the time I wondered if I was just listening to a mother-in-law’s delightfully exaggerated view of her son’s wife.
But then I met Marcella in late July 2017. I still remember walking over from the post office and seeing her at the doorstep of Rebel Heart, with a hot tea for me by her side (before she introduced me to sweet iced chais). She told me that her dream was to be a storyteller and write books. She said, “Why don’t I just work here for the day? You don’t have to pay me and you can see how you feel about it.” It didn’t occur to me to say no. And It didn’t take long for me to experience her profound work ethic and understand that she is a wordsmith in every possible way—in the way she talks, writes an email, or texts—so I had no doubt that she would one day realize that dream. I just didn’t know how soon that would be or how integral to my life she and her family (including Josh who also became part of Rebel Heart and eventually took the lead on the Thursday morning Shut Up & Write group) would become.
In the past 8 months, she has already published two category romances, Stolen to Wear His Crown (released 12/01/20) and His Stolen Innocent’s Vow (3/30/21) and now her first novel, The Wildest Ride, is due to be released by Harlequin on 8/10/2021. It’s impossible to overstate how much of an unusual accomplishment it is to be a new author and be published by a major publishing house. But that’s Marcella.
In The Wildest Ride, Lilian Sorrow Island is a twenty-seven-year-old Muscogee Creek Freedmen and former junior Indian National Rodeo champion who is hellbent on holding onto her family’s Oklahoma ranch by winning the million dollar prize of the Professional Bull Riders Association. But one person stands in her way—her idol, the thirty-six-year-old undefeated rodeo champion AJ Garza. Garza is determined to claim the same prize to save the soon-to-be bankrupt CityBoyz, the Houston youth rodeo program that turned his life around and put him on the path to greatness. Though their rivalry plays out in front of TV audiences, they both soon realize that there’s a lot more at stake than a million dollar prize. You may think you know who the cowboy is in this beautiful love story informed by the author’s own family history, but you’d be wrong.
Marcella gave me an advanced proof of The Wildest Ride a few months ago. She told me recently that the final version has one notable change. Toward the beginning of the book, Lil is called a racial slur. In the advanced proof, the offender did not suffer any repercussions. “We can do better,” her editor said, meaning romance can offer a better, more just future.
We can do better is damn right. So Marcella sat down and wrote one into being not only for her first novel but also for herself and her family. I will miss her more than I can possibly ever say, but if that’s not a Happily Ever After, I don’t know what is.
Eileen Bobek is the owner of Rebel Heart Books in historic downtown Jacksonville, Oregon.