Thursday, September 26, 2013

My Review - Love's Awakening by Laura Frantz


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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