There were quite a few romances set during and after the Civil War in the 1980’s, but those books mostly disappeared in the 90’s and 2000’s. It’s difficult to write about the time without mentioning ugly realities – and those realities might not mesh with a love story. I think it’s still possible, but it’s probably a lot more difficult than setting a book in the Regency (which has its own ugly realities that most romances ignore, but we aren’t as familiar with them so they’re easier to ignore.) That was one of the problems with this book – it seems to be set in a fantasy version of post-war North Carolina.
The Bride Fair by Cheryl Reavis
(2002, post-Civil War North Carolina) 9/14/12
Grade: 3.5
In the aftermath of the Civil War, Maria Markham resents having to rent a room to Colonel Max Woodward, of the Occupying forces – but she has little choice. Maria has a secret that may force her to marry him. She finds that Max isn’t like the other soldiers – he wants to understand the South and is kind to her father and the two boys she is helping to raise – but can she let go of the past and learn to love him?
This book was much better than Reavis’s previous book, The Prisoner, but it still had some flaws. The characters were interesting, but the pacing was off – the first half of the book seemed to drag, and then the author throws in a half dozen plot points in the last 50 pages. But a more serious problem to me was that this didn’t quite feel like the post-Civil War South. No one mentions slavery in the entire book. Many Southerners didn’t own slaves, but it seemed strange that no one in town had owned slaves and there was evidently no one black in the entire area. Even the “vigilantes” who were trying to overthrow the occupying troops didn’t mention it. It felt like it was prettifying the history of the war. This is why I gave it a slightly lower grade than I might have otherwise, because the characters were very well written.
Reavis never wrote any more Civil War historicals, although she seemed to be setting up other characters for sequels. I guess it wasn’t a popular setting – which is too bad. As a Southerner, part of me wants to see books set in the South, but another part of me wants to see a real portrayal of the time period.
Karen Wheless
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