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River of Desire Book Summary and Study Guide

Detailed plot synopsis reviews of River of Desire


A widowed documentary filmmaker goes to Brazil and unwisely loves a doctor who attracts her like nobody else ever has, and they begin an affair, only for him to reveal that he is married. Toni flies to Brazil from San Diego to film a documentary on Dr. Luis' innovative wilderness hospitals in the Amazon rain forest. The hospital Tori was to film at catered to the men who worked in the rain forest, as well as indigenous tribes, while researching specific diseases found in the Amazon. When she gets there with her male American camera crew, she finds Luis - attractive, tall, and mysterious - irate. He usually never allows women in hospital, though his sisters' husbands work on site as doctors as well. Luis comes from an old and wealthy Brazilian family, making his eccentric choice to seek solitude and the rough life in the Amazon all the more curious. Toni, for the first time since her husband's death eight years ago, is drawn to a man with electric chemistry, but also dislikes Luis for his abrasive tone and his attitude that the American film crew is a nuisance that he has to bear.
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They settled down in their cramped quarters and begin filming. Luis sneers at Toni's city slicker ways and constantly tests her by forcing her out of her comfort zone so that she has to deal with the dirt and discomfort that comes from following Luis on his work among the native villages or watching at the operating table. Toni is determined to hide whatever squeamish-ness she feels and puts on a brave front, even helping Luis by fetching him supplies he needs. He is grudgingly impressed. Though Toni and her two crew members are forbidden from entering the villages without the hospital staff, for their own protection, Toni cannot help but be curious to film them with a translator. She is shocked and a little touched to hear how highly they all think of Luis. Meanwhile, Luis receives frivolous and uncaring letters every now and then from his estranged and pretty wife, Constancia, further embittering him about women, marriage and fidelity.

But Toni is drawing him in. She also can't help but warm to his protective instincts when he shelters and provides for her on a rough 2-day trek back to the hospital site after a storm leaves the two of them stranded in the jungle until a villager finds them and helps them on their way again. But the doctor's coldness is still unsettling, so Toni guards her heart. Until he rescues all of them from an explosion out of one of the electrical plants being built near the river, in cleared ground. Toni, already lusting after Luis since they exchanged several intimate encounters (but no sex), falls in love with him after seeing the selfless dedication he shows to her cameramen, his staff and the villagers. But Luis needs to get away from Toni, and so runs to his family home near Rio. Toni departs to Rio as well, her documentary wrapped up, and happily dreams of seducing Luis and having an affair with him. They have sex for the first time in a hotel in Rio, and begin an affair for a couple weeks, but Toni is unsatisfied and wants more, and Luis is tortured and loves her and wants to give her more. However, one night Constancia finds them in the hotel together after following Luis' movements over the past days, and surprises them in bed, and this is how Toni finds out that he is married. Hurt and shocked, she vows never to see him again and stops taking his calls. Luis finds her and apologizes though, and explains how his marriage to Constancia - originally an arranged marriage - slowly soured through the years of her relentless infidelity. Luis never succumbed to infidelity himself until Toni, and he has wanted a divorce for some years. Toni is deeply touched and helps him emotionally through the divorce, and convinces the stubborn, Catholic Constancia to agree after she points out a DNA test will likely prove that Luis is not the father, and that public shame would be far worse for Constancia than a divorce. Four months later, the divorce is final, and Luis asks Toni to marry him.
Best part of story, including ending: I enjoyed the descriptions of the rain forest and the native Indians.

Best scene in story: She makes Luis uncomfortable when she points out that she saw him in a restaurant in Rio a few weeks back, not knowing that he had been with his wife and she saw him at a moment of great anger and vulnerability.

Opinion about the main character: I love Luis' determination to be faithful despite his frustrations.

The review of this Book prepared by Princess Peach a Level 10 Peregrine Falcon scholar

Chapter Analysis of River of Desire

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Plot & Themes

Time/era of story    -   1980's-1999 Love Triangles/Polygons    -   Yes What kind:    -   one man-two women

Main Male Character

Profession/status:    -   doctor Age/status:    -   20's-30's

Main Female Character

   -   20's-30's Profession/status:    -   photographer

Setting

The Americas (not US):    -   Yes The Americas:    -   South

Writing Style

Accounts of torture and death?    -   no torture/death What % of story is romance related?    -   80% How explicit is the sex?    -   touching of anatomy    -   actual description of sex Focus of story    -   equally on him and her How much dialog    -   roughly even amounts of descript and dialog

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Abra Taylor Books Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).
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