LOVE’S AWAKENING by Laura Frantz is written so well,
I can no longer say that I don’t enjoy period pieces.
Ellie Ballantyne, the youngest of the Ballantyne
children, comes homes from finishing school only to find her parents gone and
her older siblings more irritated with her arrival then welcoming. Wanting to do something with her time, she
decides to open a day school for young ladies.
What she doesn’t expect is for one of her pupils to be Chloe Turlock, from
the infamous Turlock’s, a family long at odds with the Ballantyne’s. Fresh from an early encounter with Jack
Turlock, one that stirred emotions in Ellie that she is yet to understand, she once
again finds herself with Jack, doing Chloe’s bidding. Jack reluctantly agrees to allow Chloe to
take classes from Ellie. Ellie’s
thoughts become preoccupied with Jack Turlock.
Seeing that he is nothing like the rest of his anti-abolitionist family,
her feelings for him become quite personal.
Jack Turlock is smitten with Ellie Ballantyne. Though he tries to hide his interest behind a
nonchalant attitude and at times impolite banter, his feelings for her and the
growing respect for her family puts him at odds with his own. Knowing his family is up to no good, and orchestrating
plots against the Ballantyne family, he does what he can to protect the
Ballantyne’s without exposing himself as a defector from his family’s violent
and sometimes deadly schemes. Knowing
the Turlock name would be a black mark against Ellie and her family’s stellar
reputation, Jack does the sacrificial thing by pushing her away and makes plans
of his own to move West, never to return.
Laura Frantz has crafted a wonderful series with
rich characters, historical plots, and has changed my mind about period
pieces. My genre of choice is either
contemporary or historicals set in the rugged West. I usually shy away from anything that
involves storylines that deal with the upper-crust society-types that is
usually tainted with swooning and feeble woman.
Ms. Frantz has changed my mind. Ellie
has spunk as well as Chloe. Jack was chivalrous
behind his hardened façade, and the Turlock men were good enough to hate. Though there was the obligatory ball so
common in these period pieces, it didn’t matter. I was already hooked on the characters and
their subtle transformations. I have
enjoyed both book one and two in the Ballantyne Legacy series and will look
forward to the third release.
Book provided for review purposes.
Available August 2013 at your favorite bookseller
from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.
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