A Time for Everything

Mysti
Parker
Genre: 
Historical

By the end of the Civil War, Portia McAllister has lost everything, including her husband and baby daughter. She finds her will to live when she answers an ad to be a tutor in a neighboring town, but her new situation finds her a Confederate widow in Union war veteran Beau Stanford’s household. Beau lost his wife during the war and is emotionally distant from his mute son while he tries to save his nearly bankrupt farm.  As Portia and Beau work together to heal the wounds they’ve suffered, they find themselves drawn to each other.  But when his late wife’s cousin Lydia arrives with a deal that will save the farm, but destroy what he’s built with Portia, Beau is torn. Can he risk following his heart? 

 

Author Mysti Parker does a masterful job of re-creating the Restoration setting for both Union and Confederate families. The reader is drawn into the horrors the war wrought for everyone, no matter which side they fought on, and the characters are so realistically written, it is easy to care about them as they struggle to rebuild their lives. Beau and Portia were particularly well done and the emotional journey to healing for both of them keeps the reader turning pages.  Unfortunately, there were a great number of editing and formatting errors that take the reader out the story, but overall it was entertaining in its plot, riveting in the details, and the reader will close the book with a smile.   

 

 

Kate Campbell