This RITA® Reader Challenge 2015 review was written by SRose. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Long Historical category.
The summary:
New York Times bestselling author Jodi Thomas has captivated America with her novels set in the small town of Harmony, Texas. Now she tells the story of the three hard-luck men who first settled the town, a place where last chances and long-awaited dreams collide…
Desperate to escape his overbearing father, Patrick McAllen disappears with his bride, heading north to build a new town—discovering strength, honor and true love along the way.
After drinking away the grief from his family’s death, Clint Truman avoids jail by taking a job in North Texas and settling down with a woman he vows to protect but never love—until her quiet compassion slowly breaks his hardened heart wide open…
All Gillian Matheson has ever known is Army life, leaving his true love to be a part-time spouse. But when a wounded Gillian returns home to find her desperately fighting to save their marriage, he’s determined to become the husband she deserves.
Amidst storms, outlaws, and unwelcome relatives, the three couples band together to build a town—and form a bond that breathes life into the place that will forever be called Harmony.
Here is S.Rose's review:
[NB: Trigger warning for rape and assault. – SW]
This is a sweet spin on the small town romance, the eighth book in a so far nine book series. The book is a prequel about the founding of the town of Harmony. I have not read any of the previous books in the series, but had no trouble following the action and understanding the characters in the context of the book. I assume that there were several Easter eggs for longtime readers of the series, but they went unnoticed by me.
The story is focused on the three couples with other characters having romance hinted at in the future.
Patrick McAllen is a young man escaping from a religious cult with his bride Annie. Patrick has tried to escape before and was badly beaten by his father, the head of the cult. Their romance develops quickly, and they have to figure out how to move from early love to a more established relationship.
Clint Truman is the cold-exterior, warm interior former soldier who chooses to clean up and dry out after the deaths of his wife and children and to begin life anew as the hired gun, later sheriff for the new town. The one requirement is a wife, whom he picks up as she is being released from prison. Karrisa was serving time for murdering her rapist, and has a newborn baby from her assault. There is a slow burn romance between the two of them as they move past traumas into a new life together.
Gillian Matheson and his wife Daisy have been married for several years and separated most of that time. He is a captain in the army when the book begins and has been away from his wife for about two years. They married without the discussion of where they would live or what they would do, and so he doesn’t want to live and work on her family farm in Kansas and she doesn’t want to leave to follow him around the country. This moving to a new town is a way for them to be together. Their portion is about reconnecting with family and love.
This book was quite simply very sweet, with very satisfying happily ever after endings for everyone involved. The stakes never quite get very high, as it is pretty assured from the beginning of the book that everything will work out, but it is engagingly written. There is a brief period of dramatic tension that felt rather shoehorned in to me, with an outlaw from Clint Truman’s past spending quite a lot of time and resources to attacking him, his supply wagons and the town itself. I generally have a strong dislike of small town books, but this one was very engaging.
I did want to mention one thing. The time period takes place after the Civil War, and the older men have all fought in it. It is mentioned by the Sheriff Lightstone of Huntsville, Texas, that the Civil War was supposed to be about states’ rights, but it turned out to be about slavery. That is a modern interpretation and not at all in line with the thoughts at the time. This is the Texan justification for succession: “We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race, and in that condition only could their existence in this country be rendered beneficial or tolerable.” I wanted to mention this because there is a certain tendency among writers of historical novels about the south during and after the Civil War to portray it as a states rights issue or to portray the south as a hotbed of abolitionism. I think this does a great disservice to those who suffered and died in bondage, as well as those who deal racism as well as the reverberations of slavery and the Civil War today. I know romance has many very strong writers who can write about difficult topics with tact and sensitivity and I hope that we as readers can ask for a more historical view of the time.
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Thanks!
“I wanted to mention this because there is a certain tendency among writers of historical novels about the south during and after the Civil War to portray it as a states rights issue or to portray the south as a hotbed of abolitionism.”
YES. Thanks for noting this – I’ve just been avoiding books set in the antebellum and post-war periods because I don’t know how to tell in advance if the author understands what was actually happening or if there’s going to be a lot of happy slaves or people “fighting for their state” who are otherwise magically a-political and anti-slavery. (Brrrr.)
Thank you, S. Rose, for saying this and noting the revisionists’ attempts to rewrite American history despite the clear evidence of the primary source documents. The Texas’ statement of secession itself mentions slavery no less than twenty-two times and those of other Southern states all make it clear that the issue is slavery.
And while I am on this soapbox, I might as make it clear that the flag of the Confederacy does not represent “Southern heritage” or “Southern history” because that is also not supported by the primary historical sources. The words of the man, William T. Thompson, who designed it make it 100% crystal clear that he intended it to represent white supremacy.
He said, “As a people we are fighting to maintain the heavenly ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race; a white flag would thus be emblematical of our cause. Such a flag would be a suitable emblem of our young confederacy, and sustained by the brave hearts and strong arms of the south, it would soon take rank among the proudest ensigns of the nations, and be hailed by the civilized world as THE WHITE MAN’S FLAG.”
The Confederate flag fell into disuse for a while at the urging of Robert E. Lee after the surrender. However, the Ku Klux Klan adopted it and used it and made it popular throughout the South.
Symbol of “Southern heritage.” Indeed, we know that heritage All Too Well.