Maggie Linden has
trained a very special Thoroughbred, Bourbon Belle, but women are not
seen as appropriate horse trainers. This is the time just after the
Civil War. Landowners in the South are struggling to keep their
property. Maggie's father is no exception. They are faced with
foreclosure.
If Bourbon Belle
wins the Peyton Stakes, they could pay off their debts. Maggie is
sure she can do it, but her father isn't convinced. When her jockey,
a small black boy, is forced to leave the area with his family
because of racial incidents, even Maggie begins to have doubts.
Cullen McGrath has
come to Tennessee from England. He's Irish and like the blacks, the
Irish are not welcome in the post Civil War South. Cullen wants to
buy property, but no one will sell to him. He is even forbidden to
bid on property going up for auction. He reaches the Linden farm in
his search and offers to buy the property, but Maggie's father has a
better idea: marry my daughter.
This is the second book in the Belle Meade Plantation series. The setting around
Belle Meade Plantation is beautifully described and the actions,
particularly the racial tensions, are true to the period. If you're
interested in Thoroughbred racing, the book has good historical detail
about racing in the period. However, horses don't overpower the
story. This is about Cullen and Maggie.
In the early
chapters, Maggie is a spoiled brat. She's agreed to marry a man to
save her farm, but she's ashamed of him and let's him know. She's
more concerned about losing her social position than in learning to
be a good wife. Cullen is a much stronger character, and I loved
Maggie's father.
For a Christian
romance, this book has a lot of sexually explicit content. If that
bothers you, you may want to give it a miss. However, it is not as
explicit as books in romance or mainstream categories
. I enjoyed the book,
but can't recommend it wholeheartedly because of the sexual content.
I reviewed this book
for BookLook Bloggers.
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