Freedom to Love
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
Louisiana, 1815
Thérèse Bondurant trusted her parents to provide for her and her young half-sister, though they never wed due to laws against mixed-race marriage. But when both die of a fever, Thérèse learns her only inheritance is debt—and her father's promise that somewhere on his plantation lies a buried treasure. To save her own life—as well as that of her sister—she'll need to find it before her white cousins take possession of the land.
British officer Henry Farlow, dazed from a wound received in battle outside New Orleans, stumbles onto Thérèse's property out of necessity. But he stays because he's become captivated by her intelligence and beauty. It's thanks to Thérèse's tender care that he regains his strength just in time to fend off her cousin, inadvertently killing the would-be rapist in the process.
Though he risks being labeled a deserter, it's much more than a sense of duty that compels Henry to see the sisters to safety—far away from the scene of the crime. And Thérèse realizes she has come to rely on Henry for so much more than protection. On their journey to freedom in England, they must navigate a territory that's just as foreign to them both—love.
90,000 words
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Fraser (A Christmas Reunion) treads well-trampled literary ground in this middling historical. British officer Henry Farlow is seriously wounded at the Battle of New Orleans. He wanders onto an abandoned Louisiana plantation just in time to find half-sisters Th r se and Jeannette Bondurant digging up a cache of jewels, the sole legacy left to the mixed-race girls by their irresponsible father. The young women agree to clandestinely treat Henry's wounds at their late father's empty house and are startled by the arrival of the siblings' white relatives, come to take ownership of the property. When Henry kills a man in defense of 13-year-old Jeannette, the sisters and their unexpected champion dodge prosecution and embark on a dangerous trip to England. Th r se and Henry fall passionately in love, but an outside threat leaves Th r se to make a difficult decision that's plot-mandated but entirely out of character. Fraser's a bit weak on the finer historical points, and the story leans toward the formulaic, but readers who don't mind a lightweight story will appreciate the believable relationships among the three central figures.
