Historical Romance
Date Published: July 7, 2015
After losing her husband and only child to the ravages of the Civil War, twenty-five-year-old Portia McAllister is drowning in grief. When she sees an ad for a live-in tutor in another town, she leaves everything behind in hopes of making a fresh start. But as a Confederate widow in a Union household, she is met with resentment from her new charge and her employer, war veteran Beau Stanford.
Despite their differences, she and Beau find common ground and the stirrings of a second chance at love—until his late wife’s cousin, Lydia, arrives with her sights set on him. Burdened with a farm on the brink of bankruptcy, Beau is tempted by Lydia’s hefty dowry, though Portia has captured his heart.
In another time and another place, his choice would be easy. But love seems impossible amid the simmering chaos of Reconstruction that could boil over at any moment into an all-out battle for survival. Will Beau and Portia find their way into each other’s arms, or will they be swept away by raging forces beyond their control?
Despite their differences, she and Beau find common ground and the stirrings of a second chance at love—until his late wife’s cousin, Lydia, arrives with her sights set on him. Burdened with a farm on the brink of bankruptcy, Beau is tempted by Lydia’s hefty dowry, though Portia has captured his heart.
In another time and another place, his choice would be easy. But love seems impossible amid the simmering chaos of Reconstruction that could boil over at any moment into an all-out battle for survival. Will Beau and Portia find their way into each other’s arms, or will they be swept away by raging forces beyond their control?
My Rating: 4 1/2 stars
My review: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
The book starts out with a bang. I couldn't stop reading it after that. The characters, especially Portia, were engaging and believable. The story's setting is right after the Civil War, a time where we would like to think that everything went back to some semblance of normalcy, but in reality, was a nightmare. No one was immune to the ravages of this war. This book shows it very well, from the widows left behind, to the ravages of typhoid fever afterwards, and the greed of the "carpetbaggers", not to mention the abject poverty people found themselves in after the war. Southerners found themselves struggling with the blatant, often violent, racism that followed, the freed slaves found themselves victims of lynching or indentured " employees ".
This book shows all of this, in a heartbreaking but not overwhelmingly so, way.
If you like historical Romance, you have to give this book a try, it is amazing!
The book starts out with a bang. I couldn't stop reading it after that. The characters, especially Portia, were engaging and believable. The story's setting is right after the Civil War, a time where we would like to think that everything went back to some semblance of normalcy, but in reality, was a nightmare. No one was immune to the ravages of this war. This book shows it very well, from the widows left behind, to the ravages of typhoid fever afterwards, and the greed of the "carpetbaggers", not to mention the abject poverty people found themselves in after the war. Southerners found themselves struggling with the blatant, often violent, racism that followed, the freed slaves found themselves victims of lynching or indentured " employees ".
This book shows all of this, in a heartbreaking but not overwhelmingly so, way.
If you like historical Romance, you have to give this book a try, it is amazing!
Mysti Parker is a wife, mom, author, and shameless chocoholic. She is the author of the Tallenmere standalone fantasy romance series and The Roche Hotel romantic comedy series. Her short writings have appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines. Her award-winning historical romance, A Time for Everything, will be published this summer by EsKape Press.
Other writing pursuits include serving as a class mentor in Writers Village University's seven week online course, F2K. She has published two children's books (Quentin's Problem & Fuzzy Buzzy's Treasure) as Misty Baker.
When she's not writing fiction,Mysti reviews books for SQ Magazine, an online specfic publication. She resides in Buckner, KY with her husband and three children.
Contact Information
Website: http://www.mystiparker.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MystiParker
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