…a romantic novel set in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, during the War between the States

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Kingston – Books 15 – IMG_7190

Author: Elizabeth Boatwright Coker

Publisher: Dutton

It is 1860 in Albemarle County, Virginia. Beautiful Angelica has agreed to seek a rich husband to save her family from financial ruin. Her number 1 suitor is a head shorter than she, but possessed a considerable fortune. A foxhunt is arranged to encourage him to propose, for Angelica says of herself, “If anuthing will sell me besides my looks, it will be my horsemanship. I am more exciting in the saddle than in the waltz.”

But Angelica looses interest in bot fox and suitor when an oversized, rich, cotton planter, Beau Berrien of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, gallops into her life. A whirlwind courtship leads to an ecstatic marriage.

Beau and Angelica arrive it Cotton Hall Plantation on the eve of the secession of South Carolina and the onset of the Civil War. Angelica is less startled by these events that by the appearance of Beau’s widowed young stepmother, Elsa, who is claiming his inheritance as her own, and Frederick Pierce, masquerading as her lawyer and her lover, but actually a Yankee spy. Elsa can’t take her eyes off of him, and he can’t take his off Angelica.

The war begins and Beau and Pierce go off to fight- on opposite sides. After a one-sided naval battle in Port Royal Sound, the entire white population of the island is evacuated by barge, steam boat, raft and rowboat, leaving their beautiful plantation homes to the mercy of thousands of masterless slaves and celebrating conquerors. In the confusion of the evacuation, Angelica is accidentally left on the island – behind enemy lines. Pierce, fatally enamored of Angelica, returns with the Union Army of Occupation and declares himself her protector. Beau quickly learns that a new master threatens his home.

The great war between the North and the South converges on Hilton Head Island. Angelica, headstrong, passionate, filled with the hope and courage and tough minded good humor possessed by only the greatest of heroines – prevails, survives, and waits for Beau’s return.

_Blood Red Roses_ is more than a gripping historical romance. It is the story of a love that endures through the war, intrigue, separation, and suffering. Angelica is a heroine every reader will love and admire and none will forget.

Hardcover with hacket 278 pages ISBN: 0-525-06860-0