Saturday, January 26, 2013

Reunion-Mary Daheim

Reunion


Mary Daheim

Camel Press, Feb 1 2013, $16.95

www.camelpress.com

ISBN: 9781603818896



In 1860 Massachusetts, business mogul Marcus Farrar arranges a marriage for his headstrong daughter Serena to sea Captain Brant Parnell, who needs money to save his ship. Outraged by her father selling her to a fortune hunter, Serena makes it clear to both men she does not wish to marry him; instead she wants to become a reporter in Springfield though she settles for the New Bedford Mercury.



After they wed, Serena’s rejection sends an angry Brant back to the sea while a scandal ends her journalism career. Fleeing New England to stay with her sister Cecelia, who is married to a half black in New Bern, North Carolina, Serena obtains a local reporter position seeking the truth. As war breaks out and her cousin provides medical care to both sides, Brant arrives in town to see his wife who he loves in spite of her condemnation of him.



This is a reprint of an engaging 1980s release Pride’s Captive as the storyline focuses on northerners residing inside the Confederacy while married to southerners. The three female blood relatives and their mates bring alive the Civil War in North Carolina. Although the vile sadistic Stanbroke siblings add tension, they are stratospherically over the top of Mount Mitchell with their stereotypical maliciousness. Fans will enjoy Mary Daheim’s historical over a century and a half, and across the continent from Hillside Manor.



Harriet Klausner

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