Love's Awakening

Author: Laura Frantz

Genre: Historical Fiction

Publisher: Baker Publishing Group, 2013

Pages: 416

Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Ellie Ballantyne, youngest child of Silas and Eden, has left finishing school. But back at her family home in Pittsburgh, Ellie finds that her parents are away on a long trip and her siblings don't seem to want her to stay.

When she opens a day school for young ladies, she begins tutoring the incorrigible daughter of the enemy Turlock clan. The Turlocks are slaveholders and whiskey magnates, envious of the powerful Ballantynes and suspicious of their abolitionist leanings. As Ellie becomes increasingly tangled with the Turlocks, she finds herself falling in love with an impossible future—and Jack Turlock, a young man striving to free himself from his family's violent legacy. How can she betray her family and side with the enemy? And will Jack ever allow her into his world?

Masterful storyteller Laura Frantz continues to unfold the stirring saga of the Ballantyne family in this majestic tale of love, loyalty, and the makings of a legacy. With rich descriptions of the people who settled and civilized a wild landscape, Frantz weaves a tapestry of characters and places that stick with the reader long after they turn the last page.

Review: The president's inauguration has been been a distraction around here and I've found it very difficult to stay off social media and get down to the business of reading. Or perhaps, I've had my fill of historical fiction lately. It's rare for me to read the same genre, let alone author, back to back.

At any rate, this book was good and what you'd expect from a seasoned author of historical fiction. The reader is made aware of how Jack and Ellie each feel about the other, but the two of them have so little contact that it seems like a very big leap that either one would profess his or her undying love, but that's exactly what happens. It felt rather unnatural to me, particularly given the times in which they lived.

I wish Silas and Eden would have played a much bigger role since they're the couple that we got to know and became attached to in the first book in this series, Love's Reckoning.

The strongest novel of this trilogy, Love's Fortune, is reviewed here.