Carpetbagger's Wife

CARPETBAGGER'S WIFE is a sensitive tale of one family during the trying times of Southern States reconstruction after the Civil War. Northerner, Manning Forbes promised to look after the family of Del Marsh, the Confederate soldier he killed. Confederate widow, Caddie Marsh reluctantly accepts the marriage proposal of Manning, but to what expense of her morals and beliefs does she surrender her heart? Truly a bittersweet story.

Will Manning Forbes get past his guilt of robbing a family of husband and father and having to watch the man he shot die?Caddie Marsh has survived the war with at least her pride intact and now having left Richmond, she is returning her family to her husband's family plantation. Dang if Alonzo Marsh, her brother-in-law, wasn't trying to claim her son's inheritance. She hated to admit it but she was in need of a man's help.Manning Forbes caused the shock of her life in looking so much like her dead husband. [Was he possibly an illegitamite offspring of her husband's father?? my question]It pained Caddie to see the way her children took to Manning as he displayed tenderness and understanding yet kept withdrawing from her small overtures.Caddie had to fight her hatred of the Yanks, as she did not want her children to live with bitterness and hatred. Neither Manning or her children would understand her bitterness against her husband - Well, she had her pride, didn't she? Was there room for love? Could she seduce her yankee "carpetbagger" husband into a real marriage?Manning was more than willing if he could just get past his guilt. Would his proud "Confederate" widow forgive him or hate him when the truth came out?This is one book you will love -- Highly Recommended - worth adding to your library.

I read a great deal. Not just romance, but everything that comes my way, and I often find it difficult to discover an author who delivers a well written, well-told story each and every time. Deborah Hale doesn't just come my way; I seek her books out. In Carpetbagger's Wife, Hale delivers in a big way. Her imagery is fresh and evocative, her characters a wonderful balance between heroic and down to earth, and her setting of post Civil War in Northern Virginia comes alive through Hale's attention to detail. I have ice and snow outside my window as I write this, but I swear I smelled flowering dogwood on an April breeze the minute I started reading Carpetbagger's Wife.

Just because RT didn't review this book, doesn't mean you should pass it up. Caddie Marsh is a penniless widow of the Civil War, who gets some unexpected help from a mysterious Yankee stranger, who uncannily resembles her dead husband.Manning Forbes may resemble her husband, but he's not without his own agenda. Once again, Deborah Hale has created fascinating, turbulant characters a reader can really root for, really believe. If you only buy one historical this year, it should be this one.

If you've never read a Deborah Hale historical, treat yourself to "The Carpetbagger's Wife" today. After you've thrilled to Caddie Marsh and Manning Forbes' Civil War romance, you'll want to go back and explore this author's backlist. Her stories offer a depth and emotional resonance that will keep you coming back for more. And you can take that to the bank!