Review: A race for love and freedom
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 22, 2013
It's the mid 1850`s, abolitionists are crowding the streets in certain Northern states protesting slavery, while the South is still holding fast to their traditions and livelihood. Amongst all the chaos Army lieutenant David Whitman has traveled to New York for two reasons; the first to track his father's runaway slave that skipped town heading North and second to meet with the Fitzpatricks after their brief encounter not long ago.Heather Fitzpatrick is finally ready to enjoy her season out with her twin sister Jasmine. What she doesn't expect is to meet David and fall head-over-heels for him before she even gets well into the season. After all David is a Southern bread army lieutenant whose views on slavery don't match with her own. Putting differences aside Heather and David decide that an engagement should happen soon if her family's secret doesn't cloud their relationship. It just happens that the runaway slave that she and her parents rescued from bounty hunter a few nights earlier is the same slave that David has been searching for.Deciding to keep this knowledge secret, newly engaged David and Heather decide to head South to Savannah, GA to meet his family and check on his ailing father. After the passing of his father his mother let's the claws come out. Mrs. Whitman has only planned her son's life since the moment he was born. (My how the delusional have fallen) It became clear that David would have to marry his longtime neighbor Blanche Beaufort no matter what his thoughts were on the subject. With `team Blanche and Mrs. Whitman' at hand they both scheme to rid themselves of Heather before David makes the mistake marrying her and screwing up their plans.Despite all their attempts Heather has proven to be a strong and determined woman. Daily, she battles with all that Mrs. Whitman and Blanche throw at her (the postponing of her marriage to David due to Southern traditional for mourning), she takes care to privately teach some of the slaves how to read and write in her spare time (while dodging the law), and she continues to explore her relationship with David (never crossing the line and losing control). Unfortunately, all of this means nothing when Heather's miserable life in the South takes a turn for the ALL TIME worse leading her back home to New York without her love.But as both David and Heather begin to piece their lives back together without one another they both have to evaluate if their love is one that lasts. Now they must determine if they can put aside the past in order to share a future with one another.The Best Thing:I really liked how Becky Lower was able to blend a very serious situation [an abolitionist] with some very petty banter at times. While Mr. & Mrs. Fitzpatrick are silently participating in the abolishment of slavery, Heather and her twin sister Jasmine are swooning over what gentleman will catch their eye.I also liked how Becky was able to create characters that made me want to finish the CAT FIGHTS that seemed to be happening every other chapter. Well played characters that I loved to hate were: Mrs. Whitman, Jasmine, Blanche Beaufort, and Simon Beaufort.The Worst Thing:This story started a little slow for me, so slow that I contemplated putting it down and coming back to it. I will say that while there were some things that were positive about the book, but I was mainly put off by the lack of realism in some of the characters. David Whitman's views on slavery seemed a little screwed when he was initially introduced. He felt that slaves were given pretty good lives and basically wouldn't know what to do with freedom. [But what else can you expect from a slave owner in the South during the 1850's] It didn't make it better that as time went on he began siding with his fiance Heather and her views, yet he wasn't actively doing anything to make a change. I'm not sure if I was witnessing a man slowly growing into his own or a man who is extremely indecisive. He seemed to know exactly what he wanted from Heather and was making moves to make that happen, but he allowed his disrespectful mother to continue to run rampant. [THIS LADY IS A CRAZY BANSHEE ON WHEELS]. So in short, while David had some positive aspects to his character he still confused the hell out of me.When reading about Heather is was nice to see how lively and ambitious she became when talking about the future of this country. I just don't see any family, whether from the North or the South, allowing their daughter to accompany her soon-to-be-official-fiance home for an extended period of time. No matter the circumstances, I highly believe her family would have agreed to her moving into the `overseer's' quarters to live for a year-she should/would have been put back on a train to New York. [ My mind can't compute this.]