"Charming teen romance for all ages"

April 1859. Sixteen-year-old Belle Palmer and her pa have been running away from Kentucky slave owners for a month, heading North looking for freedom. However, Belle ends up in Michigan lost, hungry, alone and in need of medical help for her badly blistered feet. Her pa was caught by slave catchers five days earlier and they were separated. Her only chance for survival now is to keep moving and hiding. He is all she has. Will they ever be reunited?

Eighteen-year-old Daniel Best and his twelve-year-old sister, Josephine, or JoJo for short, are riding in their wagon when they discover Belle hiding in the weeds along a dirt road. They bring her home to their parents, who happen to be members of the local Vigilance Committee and they make arrangements to get her free papers. They take her in and treat her like their own. The Bests are the first free family Belle's ever known. How can she ever repay them?

As Belle heals and settles in, she discovers a whole new world that was not possible in the South. Yet, can she ever be a match for someone as handsome and college-educated as Daniel? She's a homely, ignorant simpleton who can't even read. The only skill she has is sewing. What does it matter? Dani is nearly intended to pretty and spoiled Francine the Queen. As Belle transforms from an ugly duckling into a princess, Daniel does take notice, but how can he undo a deathbed promise to Francine's mother that he'll always take care of her daughter?

BELLE AND THE BEAU is the second book in the new Avon True Romance line for teens and that's a misnomer as I believe all ages will enjoy this one immensely. Not only did I learn a great deal about 19th century Black America, Black abolitionists, and the Underground Railroad, it's a sweet and charming, delightful and captivating story about a girl who never gives up hope and a boy who learns to follow his heart.

Reviewed by Anita Slate
Posted July 30, 2002

Summary

After a grueling escape north, Belle Palmer is free, yet lost and alone. Separated from her father on the harrowing journey, Belle has nowhere to turn until she finds shelter with the Bests, the first free family she's ever known. For the first time in her sixteen years, Belle is able to express herself freely-except where her feelings for a certain dark-eyed young man are concerned.The Beau Daniel Best is headed for great things. Educated and handsome, at eighteen he is full of the promise and dream of his people, and is engaged to the prettiest (if the most spoiled) girl around. So when a bedraggled stranger arrives in his household and turns into a vibrant, lovely young woman, his attraction to her catches him entirely by surprise. While Belle is determined to deny her feelings for him, Daniel is caught between his conscience and his infatuation with her. That the two belong together is undeniable, but that it could ever happen seems impossible.