"This one is worth checking out."
In Mobile, teenagers Ladd Dasheroon and Laurette Howard
fall in love, which leads to deep resentment and jealousy
from their friend Jimmy Tigart. Though Ladd and Laurette
make love, they hold off their plans to marry until he
returns from fighting for the Confederacy. The Northern
soldiers capture Ladd and incarcerate him at Devil's
Castle. Northern soldier Jimmy learns about Ladd's
imprisonment and sends word to Laurette that her beau
died. He travels to Alabama and in 1865 Jimmy marries the
grieving Laurette. Fifteen years later Sutton Vane arrives in Mobile. He
courts Laurette with a passion rarely seen anywhere.
Reluctantly and scandalously Laurette falls in love with
Sutton who reminds her so much of her beloved Ladd. That
is because Sutton is Ladd seeking vengeance on the woman
who betrayed him during the Civil War. The only problem
for Ladd is that he still loves his Laurette even if he
does not trust her with his heart. THE SCANDALOUS MISS HOWARD is an exciting post
Reconstruction Era romance that shows that as late as 1880
the impact of the Civil War and its aftermath on people.
The strong story line is filled with depth, yet trivializes
the war through how easily Ladd, Jimmy and another
associate "meet", which leads to the feel of a local
skirmish rather than the vast destruction. Still fans of
nineteenth century tales will find Nan Ryan's betrayed
lovers a powerful tale. Harriet Klausner
Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted March 27, 2002
SummaryThe boy who left to fight for the Confederate army twenty
years ago had been a trusting fool. He had trusted the girl
who promised to wait for him. He had trusted the friend who
betrayed him. Now he has come home to Alabama to avenge
what they stole from him: his heart, his soul, his world.
Laurette Howard, too, lost her innocence in the cruelest of
ways -- with news that the boy she loved had died in the
war. After a loveless marriage, she contented herself with
caring for the sick, knowing her own heart could not be
healed.
Then Sutton Vane arrived in Mobile, shattering her
composure, releasing the wanton, passionate woman that had
been locked away. She surrendered totally to a passion so
scandalous, it could only be destiny . . . But was it a
passion calculated to destroy her . . . Or to deliver the
sweet promise of a love that refused to die?
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