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Summary
Summary
Impoverished Southern belle Joelle Daughtry has a secret. By day she has been helping her sisters in their quest to turn the run-down family plantation into a resort hotel after the close of the Civil War. But by night and under a male pseudonym, she has been penning articles for the local paper in support of the construction of a Negro school. With the Mississippi arm of the Ku Klux Klan gaining power and prestige, Joelle knows she is playing a dangerous game.
When childhood enemy and current investor in the Daughtry house renovation Schuyler Beaumont takes over his assassinated father's candidacy for state office, Joelle finds that in order to protect her family and her home, she and Schuyler will have to put aside their longstanding personal conflict and develop a united public front. The trouble is, what do you do when animosity becomes respect--and even love--if you're already engaged to someone else?
Author Notes
Beth White 's day job is teaching music at an inner-city high school in historic Mobile, Alabama. A native Mississippian, she writes historical romance with a Southern drawl and is the author of The Pelican Bride , The Creole Princess , The Magnolia Duchess , and A Rebel Heart . Her novels have won the American Christian Fiction Writers Carol Award, the RT Book Club Reviewers' Choice Award, and the Inspirational Reader's Choice Award. Learn more at www.bethwhite.net.
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
A woman in Reconstruction-era Mississippi launches a secret campaign to establish a school for black children in the gratifying finale to White's Daughtry House series (after A Rebel Heart). Joelle Daughtry teaches freed slaves to read and write, but some in her small town-and in her church-want to restrict their education. Joelle's childhood friend, Shuyler Beaumont, isn't thrilled with Joelle's budding relationship with a local preacher, but the murder of Shuyler's father, a progressive political candidate, has forced him to search for answers the police seem unwilling to find. Secretive gatherings, church burnings, and violent reprisals against Joelle's liberal practices prompt Shuyler to return from the capital to protect her and her students. In the chaos, they turn to each other and to their deepening faith, believing justice would stand firm against the hatred and bigotry overwhelming their community. Featuring flawed characters desperate to fight for equality, this intense historical romance will make readers wrestle-as Joelle does-with questions of what the Christian faith says about freedom, truth, and justice. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Joelle Daughtry and Schuyler Beaumont could not be more wrong for one another. She is a modern woman in a Southern world of gentility; he is a free-spirited son of a politician needling for an argument. But while Joelle's childhood nemesis knows exactly how to rile her, Schuyler's soft spot for his secret childhood love betrays his shared convictions in the equal-rights causes that are getting Joelle into trouble. When a high-profile murder leads Schuyler into danger in their racially and politically divided Mississippi hometown, it's not long before their old rivalry smolders into new romance. White continues her Daughtry House series, following A Rebel Heart (2018), with a story about breaking convention and falling in love with the person who helps one's truest character shine. A Reluctant Belle captures the ugliness of hate's inner circles in Tupelo, Mississippi in 1870, the struggle toward an informed electorate, and the coquettish charm of a lifelong friendship that transforms into a heart connection. True to the stalwart Daughtry sisters' tradition she's created, White brings exceptional depth to yet another strong female protagonist and integrates faith into the novel through biblical scripture, Christian living practices, and themes of forgiveness and social justice.--Kate Campos Copyright 2019 Booklist
