Trust to Chance

Description from back of book: The war is over, and so are Rebecca Marston's duties as a volunteer nurse for Union soldiers in Mississippi. All the Philadelphia heiress wants is to return to the safety of her home. But the journey proves as dangerous as the battle lines had been when she is abducted by renegade Rebel raiders. Ordered to tend the wounds of a captured Union soldier, Rebecca soon finds herself in need of his protection-and longing for his passion. Having barely survived the agonies of war and Confederate prison, blacksmith Jacob Fuller is in no mood to be anyone's knight in shining armor. And yet, Rebecca sparks chivalry in his soul--and a desire he struggles to deny, for he knows her future lies worlds away from his Indiana home. And though he can offer her nothing but the honesty of his love, he vows to fight for her, no matter what tomorrow may bring! * This is the 2nd & last book in this series. I wasn't that big on Against the Odds but this book was quite a bit better. The characters were very likable and the story line was pretty good. Although I only gave the 1st book a 3 stars & I wasn't sure I'd recommend the series, after reading this book I'd have to say that I would now recommend this series. I might have rated this book 5 stars if it weren't for the paranormal stuff in the book such as seeing visions of people that aren't there & I felt the ending was way too short. I wanted to see Jacob reunited with his family but that didn't happen just like in the first book. Overall though it was a good book & o.k. series.

During the uncertain period at the ending of the Civil War, those on both sides touched by the cruel times long for the dawning hope of a fresh start. But even a Union soldier's freedom from prison camp to journey home or something as innocent as an army nurse's birthday picnic can catapult two people already stretched to their breaking point into a situation where they can only trust in each other and TRUST TO CHANCE. Fiery, out-spoken Rebecca Marston, daughter of a Philadelphia textile millionaire, chances being disinherited when she joins the Union army nurse's corps to aid the cause. Harshly judging her own compassion as weakness, she finds herself lacking each time she is forced to meet yet another test of courage, endurance and extreme human need. When kidnapped by Rebel renegades, this heroine defines the backbone of a woman's true strength and spirit.Jacob Fuller is strong. He has survived years of war, months of starvation and disease at Andersonville and has even managed to beat the muddy Mississippi after living through a riverboat explosion. But as fate once more abruptly alters his course, every ounce of the Indiana blacksmith's strength is needed to protect and defend a small group of Yankee prisoners against the desperate band that now holds them.As Rebecca and Jacob work side by side to aid the other Union survivors, their mutual attraction and respect develops into a passion that cannot be denied. Neither a situation fraught with danger nor an uncertain future can diminish the strength of their feelings.Gwyneth Atlee creates vivid imagery and pace setting scenes sprinkled with a slight paranormal twist to pull the reader along through each satisfying page as these two people find sweet romance amid the ravages of a war torn nation. TRUST TO CHANCE is an exciting and entertaining read.

A sequel to Against the Odds, Trust to Chance once again uses the sinking of the Sultana as it's backdrop. On his way home, Union soldier Jacob Fuller loses his friends and brother as the ship taking them up the Mississippi explodes. Injured and heart-sore, Jacob doesn't have anything left to give anyone. Then he meets hostage, Rebecca Marston, a woman from a wealthy background who gave up everything to come nurse soldiers. A woman who touches something Jacob thought was long dead...his heart. This unlikely couple works together to escape Rebecca's captors, even as they fight against what their hearts are telling them, that this is more than just a chance meeting...that what they're feeling is love.Gwyneth Atlee weaves fact and fiction into a seamless story that will pull at your heartstrings.

Set in 1865, the final days of the Civil War. Miss Rebecca Marston was the daughter of the textile millionaire, Winfield Marston. Feeling the need to help the Union in some way, she had defied her father and joined the Nursing Corps. Having been pampered her whole life, it took a long while for Rebecca to steel herself enough against the horrors she witnessed in surgery to get her job done. As burn out from the job began, Rebecca prepared to return home. However, a small guerrilla force of deserted Confederate soldiers, led by Colonel Hall, attacked a small party she was out with. Upon learning who Rebecca's father was, Hall decided to ransom her. Shortly afterward, the renegade group rescued a few Union solders who had survived a river boat explosion. They were nearly dead, but hall allowed Rebecca to nurse them as best she could or let them die. Jacob Fuller was sick of the war and all the death that went with it. Once he recovered enough, he helped Becca as much as possible. The biggest problem was that the Colonel was the only man in the rebel group with any honor. All the others wanted fun with the female prisoner and then to kill them all. So the prisoners were left wondering how they could all escape when they were barely able to breath from their wounds. ***** Gwyneth Atlee brings to life the horrors that the Nursing Corps had to deal with. The author put her magical pen to paper so the reader could FEEL all the nausea and dread that Rebecca and the other prisoners had to go through. Atlee held back no punches so the reader actually feels like she is there to witness it all first hand. This is one of the best! Recommended! *****

Rebecca Marston's father disowns her when she announces her plan to become a nurse. Unfortunately, Rebecca's empathic abilities cause her to identify too closely with her patients, making the horrors of their wounds as real to her as if the wounds were on her own body. Just before she plans to resign, Rebecca attends a birthday party in her own honor away from camp with her cousin and friends. Rebecca is happy to escape the horrors of the operation theatre, until the day turns deadly when southern born raiders kill her cousin and kidnap her. Now she must put all her skills to the test if she and her fellow prisoners are to survive.That night, the kidnapers hear the voices of desperate men coming from the Mississippi River. Jacob Fuller and his companions have spent the previous three years in the notorious Andersonville prison in Georgia. He and his fellow Union soldiers are finally going home when the riverboat explodes in the dark of night. Jacob clings to a floating stage plank as others fall victim to the frigid water, their wounds, and shock. At last the kidnappers pull him and four others from the frigid water.Rebecca's kidnappers are an effective guerrilla force under the command of Colonel Lewis Hall. Most southern raiders would have hung the lot of them for their Union ties after raping the women. But Hall has other plans. Ordinarily his men disrupt Union supply lines, attack occupied towns, and hang as many Northern sympathizers as they can. When he learns Rebecca's identity, her virtue remains intact so that the Colonel can ransom her to her father. Unfortunately, the plan fails, and Rebecca's life becomes forfeit.Gwyneth Atlee masterfully captures the painful atmosphere of the waning days of the Civil War in TRUST TO CHANCE, the sequel to AGAINST THE ODDS. Like the phoenix rising from ashes, so does love blossom out of the destructive forces of war when extreme circumstance brings the daughter of a wealthy Philadelphian businessman and a farrier from Indiana together. With a plot that graphically exhibits the worst and best of the human spirit, Atlee draws her characters into the most challenging of situations. Indeed, Rebecca's saucy grit and determination, balanced by Jacob's reflective nature, result in fierce, powerful tale of love.