I received a free ARC from netgalley.com, not realizing that I read this book over a decade ago, when it was published under the author's alias Shannon Drake. This is part of the fictionalized Florida history series and although it can be read as a stand alone, I would suggest that the reader start at the begining with RUNAWAY. The entire series is a mesmerizing history of the development of the state of Florida. The characters are well developed in appearance and personality, the settings are richly described and the conflicts very real.
This book is about southern belle, Kendall Moore, the oldest of two sisters, raised on a plantation. Without any sons, her father taught her how to run the plantation, but failed to write a will or express his wished to his wife. After his sudden death, his wife remarried, handing the plantation's running to her new husband, who quickly brought it to financial ruin, and blackmailed Kendall into marrying a rich Yankee, threatening to hand her younger sister over to a fiend, if she didn't. Mr. Moore is mentally unstable and impotent, and takes out all his hostilities on his beautiful young wife, until at the begining of the War Between the States, she tries to flee Charleston, SC, offering herself to Brent McClain, a Confederate captain of his own ship Jenni-Lyn.
Moore, now a Union officer, catches up with her and nearly kills McClain, but in the ensuing years that manage to reunite and fall in love. But the war, duty and a spurned husband make those years dangerous. Beautifully written, but with a HEA.