The Lion of the South

HISTORICAL:  In “The Lion of the South”, Julia Dandridge returns to her childhood home, only to discover that everyone and everything she once held dear, has been affected by the civil war raging through the country. She wants nothing more than to save her brother, but to do so, she’ll have to uncover the secret identity of The Lion of the South, a mysterious figure. Unfortunately, no one knows who he really is. But as Julia uncovers who the Lion actually is, he’s already walking into the trap Julia helped set for him. If Julia wants any chance at redemption, she’ll have to do whatever it takes to save him.

Filled with historical detail, this book transports the reader more than a century back in time, to the civil war era. The author obviously did a lot of research to be able to describe the setting so vividly and accurately. The connections between Julia’s present and past are an interesting touch, and the romance is clean, although rather predictable. The book on the whole is fine but not all that original, and the narrative sometimes rambles off into complex, detailed descriptions that slow down the plot immensely. However, readers looking for a simple, nice, clean romance with a touch of mystery set against an historical backdrop will find exactly that.

Majanka Verstraete