Always to Remember by Lorraine Heath

Tags

texas

Don't let that new cover scare you, the sex is very tame

I didn’t believe we should fight the Northern states, and yet, I could not in all good conscience take up arms against the South, my home, and my friends. But more than that, I would not fight because I believe it’s a sin against God to kill another man. 

When Texas joined with the rest of the Confederate states, all the young men of Cedar Grove were ready and willing to join the glorious cause. All that is, except for Clayton Holland, who refused to bear arms and kill men in a cause he didn’t believe in. Those beliefs landed him in a Confederate prison where he was subjected to brutal torture and a very close call with the firing squad. When he returns home the entire town shuns him as a traitor and a coward – including Meg Warner who hates him more for coming home alive when her young husband did not. Meg hires Clayton, an acomplished stone mason, to carve a monument to Cedar Grove’s fallen men, and she’s hoping it will give him some well deserved punishment.

She wanted, needed him to face his cowardice, to have it carved into his heart so deeply that he would feel it with every breath he took for as long as he lived.

Well, things don’t quite work out the way Meg planned, as she soon finds that Clay’s steadfast, honorable nature is a pretty damned attractive one, but let’s just say that Meg’s family and neighbors are none too thrilled with that idea.

I’d rather spend my life with one man surrounded by love than the ignorance and hatred surrounding me now.

*sniff*

Lorraine Heath is an author I’d never come across until the library started adding a bunch of her titles to the Kindle lending list, and I’m very glad I decided to give her a shot. This was a lovely tale of love, faith and healing, and no surprise but Meg is the one most in need of it. Clayton is the perfect strong, silent manly man with a heart of mush inside, and Meg and her bitter soul was the the right match for him. I also adored Clayton’s two younger twin brothers, they added a good mix of kid-humor and also giving us a look at Clayton’s softer side. If that newer cover for the e-book editions is giving you the bodice ripping willies, don’t panic. Any sex in this book is very understated and rather tame by today’s comparisons – and you’ll be a long time waiting for the first steamy kiss. Heath takes time building the sexual tension, focusing more on the story and the characters (how refreshing). This is the second book of Heath’s I’ve tried and there will be more in my future, she’s perfect for a rainy day lighter read.

Roses by by Leila Meacham

Tags

historical fiction, texas

 A few flaws, but still an entertaining read

Three families migrated west to eastern Texas and founded the small town of Howbutker (“how about here” they said) – the Tolivers (descended from the Lancasters), the Warwicks (descended from the House of York) as well as the DuMonts of French descent. Friends for generations, most disagreements were settled by the offering of a red rose to offer apology and a white to acknowledge forgiveness. As the story begins, Mary Toliver Dumont has only weeks to live and reflects back on her life and how it was irrevocably changed when her father left their cotton farm, Somerset, to a very young Mary instead of her mother and brother. Mary loves the farm with the same passion her father had – but is there room in her life for both Somerset and the devilishly handsome Percy Warwick.

 Treachery, tradgedy and misunderstandings are front and center and eventually leave Mary stuck between a rock and a hard place forcing her to a decision that will have ramifications on all three families for several generations to come. The secrets continue after Mary’s death (no spoilers here, we know this will happen in the first few chapters) as an unexpected codicil to Mary’s will sends her great-niece Rachel spiraling in shock and anger that only increases when she finds the secret that Mary has kept all these years. Now hell-bent for revenge against the Warwicks, Rachel is willing to risk it all even though it could cost her the only man she will ever love and her last chance at happiness.

I liked this book a lot and had a hard time putting it down, and blew through it in two days. Yes it’s big, it’s sprawling (sometimes it sprawls too much) and very soap opera-ish, but I love those kind of books. I didn’t connect as much with Rachel’s story as I did with Mary and Percy (sigh…..what a man) and I felt the last third of the book suffered a bit because of that. My only other quibble and it’s probably just me, but when I heard the “Wars of the Roses” connections of the families I was hoping for a good parallel between the two as Susan Howatch has done with the Plantagenets in Cashelmara and Penmarric. That book would have rocked my socks off. As it is, it’s a very enjoyable and very readable novel.