Among the Fair Magnolias is a collection of four stories written by four different authors: Tamera Alexander, Shelley Gray, Dorothy Love, and Elizabeth Musser. They are all written about the time of the War Between the States and reflect the beliefs and opinions of that time. Difficult as we may find believing people ever could think that way, we find similar beliefs extant today. Besides being love stories, each author makes a strong statement about mores and belief systems.
To Mend a Dream by Tamera Alexander reintroduces us to Savannah Darby, who was a minor character in To Win Her Favor (a Belle Meade Plantation novel). Savannah is an impoverished seamstress eking out a living sewing to care for her brother and sister. Victims of the Reconstruction Era, they’ve lost their family home and now reside in the Nashville Widows’ and Children’s Home. Savannah is tasked to substitute for another seamstress, Miss Anderson, to fulfill a commission to decorate a gentleman’s home. To her horror and great anguish, Savannah finds that the home is her former home, Darby Farm.
When she arrives at the home, she is mistaken for Miss Anderson and decides to continue the charade to avoid any unpleasantness. The story of the redecorating and Savannah’s journey are well worth the read. My takeaway: Honor and steadfastness bring their own rewards. Five Stars.
An Outlaw’s Heart by Shelley Gray takes us to Texas where Russell Champion has returned home after seven long years. Thrown out of his house by his mother at age fifteen, he has ridden with an outlaw gang and then gone straight. His stepfather had regularly beaten Russell and his mother. When he lays hands on Russell’s friend, Nora, Russell grabs a hunting knife and kills him.
Returned home, Russell finds his mother very ill and very sorry that she sent him away. He decides to stay for a while after the woman who comes to care for his mom every day turns out to be Nora. Still in love with Nora, Russell is chagrined to find her being courted by another man. The story of Russell and Nora is one of forgiveness and redemption. Three stars.
A Heart So True by Dorothy Love made me angry until the very end. I was angry at the customs that gave a father the right to marry off a daughter without her consent. I was angry at the belief of some men that striking a woman was acceptable behavior. I wanted to tell Abigail Clayton to run away from her situation and find happiness elsewhere. I was rooting for her to be able to be with the man she loved, not the man her father chose.
You will love Abigail’s story and how she surmounts the obstacles in her path to true love. My takeaways: father is not always right, but obedience and honoring your parents is. Five stars.
Love Beyond Limits by Elizabeth Musser was very disturbing. Set in Reconstruction Era Georgia, the plantation owners and the freedmen working for them face many dangers and privations. Emily Derracott loves her childhood friend, Thomas McGinnis, but cannot marry someone who doesn’t share her belief in the equality and the rights of the freedmen—the former slaves who work on the plantations.
Emily works alongside a Northern woman, Miss Lillian, whose peacefulness, wisdom, and firm convictions she admires, to teach the freedman reading, writing, and the skills they need to survive. But this is a time when the Ku Klux Klan rides rampant. Emily and her loved ones will be greatly impacted by their dreadful actions. Seeing Emily learn about the evils and good that humans can do is both unsettling and edifying. But good trumps evil and love conquers all. Four Stars.
All in all, four good stories, all worth reading, and all well-written. To purchase, click here: Among the Fair Magnolias: Four Southern Love Stories
Thomas Nelson via the Litfuse Publicity Group gave me a copy of Among the Fair Magnolias in exchange for my candid review.