misfitandmom

"Roseland is my home. It's been in the Delacroix family for generations."

The girl: Jessamine Delacroix. It's 1865, the war between the states is over and their beloved plantation is on the block for back taxes and is snapped up by a nasty family of Yankees. All they have left with a few acres with a dogtrot cabin in the back-o-beyond a couple of loyal former slaves and not much else. They make do though, and there's plenty of family love to hold them together.

The guy: Ransome McKinley, son of the nasty Yankee family that bought Roseland. Ransome and Jassamine are young teens when the story begins, and they become great friends, but are parted for a few years when his ebil father sends him off to school. No surprise, but when he returns and they're all grown up it's true love at first sight, but with the two families hating each other, it's a Romeo and Juliet kind of set up.

That's the basics, and I found this book to be a bit of a mixed bag. Despite looking like a romance from the cover and the jacket blurb, it really isn't that - this isn't a sexed up wall paper romance, so if that's your cuppa tea I suggest moving on. The story does involve two generations of the Delacroix/McKinley feud, but it doesn't quite sweep enough to qualify for a sweeping saga kind of book. The historical setting is a good one, but then again there aren't enough historical details and/or inclusion of real historical events/people to really satisfy historical fiction junkies like me. Not great, but not bad either.

Now for my quibble, as noted above this really won't cut it for most romance readers, but there are some sex scenes, and I swear every single one of them (different women, I might add) had the inclusion of a pouting nipple and/or pouting breasts. I'm still trying to work up the imagery of how a breast can pout. You try.