"Fine post Civil War romance"

In 1867, Holt Price plans to never work as a doctor again as he lives the horror of butcher assembly line surgical conditions caused by the Civil War bloodbath. All he wants is to forget the atrocities and medicine, and find his beloved and marry her. However, he cannot ignore his need for vengeance against the traitor who sold out his unit, leading to a slaughter.

In Galveston, Holt gets involved in the surgery of an accident victim with a spoke stuck through his leg. The town physician Dr. Moore never worked this type of accident besides which he is drunk. At Moore's office, Holt meets his medical peer's daughter Felicity, who helps. They are attracted to one another, but she fears he will expose her father as an alcoholic and he fears getting entangled with her as his own father was a drunk.

This fine post Civil War romance emphasizes the traumas and healing of people trying to regain equilibrium after the world went berserk for a few years. Trying to cope with alcoholism is brilliantly handled though why Felicity thinks no one knows her dad is a drunk seems like too much rationalizing. Leigh Greenwood continues to write some of the strongest historical romances of the past decade; BORN TO LOVE is further proof of this.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted May 24, 2003