A Most Inconvenient Marriage

November 15, 2014

When Union nurse Abigail Stuart befriends a gravely injured Confederate soldier named Jeremiah Calhoun, she learns about his sister's illness and his Missouri horse farm. Realizing that he is dying, Jeremiah proposes to Abigail, ensuring that his sister will be cared for and that Abigail, who fled a troubled home life, will have a place to go to after the war. Reluctantly, Abigail accepts his proposal, and as a widow heads to Missouri to keep her part of the bargain. Just as she begins to forge a relationship with her husband's family, the real Jeremiah, wounded from the war, returns home. He's shocked to see a stranger who claims to be his wife, and Abigail is equally taken aback. VERDICT What starts out as a case of mistaken identity turns into a compelling love story between two people who are wary of each other and trying to rebuild their lives in the tense atmosphere of the Reconstruction South. Jennings (Love in the Balance) does a good job of charting the emotional and spiritual growth of her engaging protagonists. Her fresh take will please readers who prefer their historical romances set in the Civil War period.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2014
Abigail Stewart had grown up believing she would dedicate her life to improving the bloodlines of the champion horses her father's family has bred for generations, but then her stepfather sold off all the family's horses to carry Union soldiers into battle. Branded by him as a liar and thief, Abigail ends up working as a nurse caring for the enemy wounded, and when a dying rebel soldier begs her to marry him and take care of his mother and sister by running their Ozark horse farm, she knows it's her best path to survival. As Jeremiah Calhoun's widow, Abigail makes inroads into the community and into her mother-in-law's heart, while she works to make the struggling farm successful. But everything changes when the real Jeremiah Calhoun shows up planning to marry his longtime fianc'e. He has no idea who Abigail is and how she came up with the notion that she was married to him. Jennings' gentle romance and its unusual setting will appeal to general readers as well as those who search out Christian romances.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)