A Reluctant Belle {A Book Review}

**I received a copy of this book for consideration. Post contains affiliate links. All thoughts and opinions are 100% my own. 

Impoverished Southern belle Joelle Daughtry has a secret. By day she has been helping her sisters in their quest to turn the run-down family plantation into a resort hotel after the close of the Civil War. But by night and under a male pseudonym, she has been penning articles for the local paper in support of the construction of a Negro school. With the Mississippi arm of the Ku Klux Klan gaining power and prestige, Joelle knows she is playing a dangerous game.

When childhood enemy and current investor in the Daughtry house renovation Schuyler Beaumont takes over his assassinated father's candidacy for state office, Joelle finds that in order to protect her family and her home, she and Schuyler will have to put aside their longstanding personal conflict and develop a united public front. The trouble is, what do you do when animosity becomes respect--and even love--if you're already engaged to someone else?

Beth White's day job is teaching music at an inner-city high school in historic Mobile, Alabama. A native Mississippian, she writes historical romance with a Southern drawl and is the author of The Pelican Bride, The Creole Princess, The Magnolia Duchess, and A Rebel Heart. Her novels have won the American Christian Fiction Writers Carol Award, the RT Book Club Reviewers' Choice Award, and the Inspirational Reader's Choice Award. Learn more at www.bethwhite.net.

First and foremost, it is important to note that this is book number TWO in Beth White's 'The Daughtry House Series', coming after the first book 'A Rebel Heart'. If you've not yet read that one, it might be a good idea to read it first, but I must admit that I had not myself and found that I did not feel like I was missing anything in not doing so. Had I not known that this were a second in a series, it would have stood alone just well on its own. Reading the first would give a little bit more back story to some of the characters of course, but at the very least you won't feel lost.

If you love historical fiction, this is a great read. It takes place in the south during the post civil war years, where tensions were clearly still high between freed slaves, those who supported them and those who opposed. I'll admit I don't know much about this time frame beyond my high school history lessons, nor is it a time period/area that I have read many books on in the past. But this book had me wanting to read more. While it is a story that is very much fictional, the attitudes within were very much in existence at that time...and sadly even still today.

More than anything though, I love the characters I met. Joelle especially drew me in. She is just one of those characters that you cannot help fall in love with--- she's opinionated, has a big heart and just seems to always break the norm. Isn't that how the best female book characters always are? The relationship we see develop throughout the story had me waiting and wondering how it would all turn out. Beyond that, we get little peeks into the other Daughtry girls' lives and personalities... quite unique in their own rights, making me want to read more into the series!

I won't give too much away, but I loved this book and couldn't put it down! If you love historical romance---especially those taking place in post civil war south- you DEFINITELY want to add this to your summer reading list. I look forward to reading more from Beth White myself.

'A Reluctant Belle' is available to purchase now at your favorite Christian book retailers.