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A review by book_concierge
A Hope Divided by Alyssa Cole
3.0
Book number two in the Loyal League series of Civil-War-era romances.
Marlie Lynch is a free woman who has been taken into the Lynch household as a member of the family. She’s always understood that her father was the plantation owner, though she and her mother lived far away. The old man is deceased and his heir Stephen has married and moved away, so Marlie and her older sister Sarah maintain the estate with a handful of servants … all freed slaves who are paid for their labor. Marlie’s primary contribution is the tonics and poultices she concocts from the plant knowledge passed down from her mother. With a Rebel prison camp in the neighborhood, Marlie begins to tend to the prisoners, and passing messages along to the Loyal League – Southerners who are against slavery and trying to help the Union. It’s at the prison that she meets Ewan McCall, a Union soldier with unique skills.
This is a pretty typical romance between two people of differing status, who join together with a common cause. Of course, they will have to fight against not only their mutual attraction, but the very real restrictions of the society in which they find themselves. I’m amazed they could find time for sex (or even for the desire for sex) given the dangers in which they find themselves, but if they can manage to have mutual orgasms in such a setting more power to them!
This is the second in a series, but I think it can easily be read as a standalone. I certainly didn’t feel that I was missing anything by not having read the first book.
Marlie Lynch is a free woman who has been taken into the Lynch household as a member of the family. She’s always understood that her father was the plantation owner, though she and her mother lived far away. The old man is deceased and his heir Stephen has married and moved away, so Marlie and her older sister Sarah maintain the estate with a handful of servants … all freed slaves who are paid for their labor. Marlie’s primary contribution is the tonics and poultices she concocts from the plant knowledge passed down from her mother. With a Rebel prison camp in the neighborhood, Marlie begins to tend to the prisoners, and passing messages along to the Loyal League – Southerners who are against slavery and trying to help the Union. It’s at the prison that she meets Ewan McCall, a Union soldier with unique skills.
This is a pretty typical romance between two people of differing status, who join together with a common cause. Of course, they will have to fight against not only their mutual attraction, but the very real restrictions of the society in which they find themselves. I’m amazed they could find time for sex (or even for the desire for sex) given the dangers in which they find themselves, but if they can manage to have mutual orgasms in such a setting more power to them!
This is the second in a series, but I think it can easily be read as a standalone. I certainly didn’t feel that I was missing anything by not having read the first book.