To Whisper Her Name By Tamera Alexander

 Olivia Aberdeen has recently been freed from an abusive marriage by the untimely death of her husband.  She was left with no inheritance, and is thrown onto the mercy of a dear friend of her mother's, Elizabeth Harding.  The Hardings live on a purebread horse plantation in the post-bellum south, but Olivia has a deep fear of horses.  On the way to the plantation, she meets a ragged man, Adam Cooper ,who is also heading for the plantation.  He looks like a vagabond, but is actually a veteran recently freed from a prisoner of war camp who is looking for a job at the plantation.  He is hired, and the two newcomers strike up a friendship based on snappy patter and sassy flirtation. Olivia doesn't know that Adam fought on the North during the war, and Adam has to hide the fact to keep his employment.  Adam doesn't know of the abusive nature of Olivia's first marriage.  The two try to resist the deepening of their relationship because of the secrets they hold, but it is a losing battle.

I checked out this book because I noticed there were a lot of books by this author in our Religious Fiction section.  It was OK, maybe a B-level historical Christian romance.  The preachy-ness level was lower than some others I have read, and felt like a realistic portrayal of how someone in the time period might have approached their religious life.  The story was fairly slow paced, but there were enough funny scenes and clever dialog to keep me engaged.  The descriptions of their romantic interactions were pretty cliche.  I feel like an author, even a romance author, shouldn't use the word "frisson" more than once in a book. Also, the author pretty much ignored with the ugly realities  of slavery. She hinted that slavary was abhorant, and that the treatment of freemen was unfair, but those points were just plot devices to add conflict in the main character's relationship, not to really look at those issues as issues. I think a black person reading the book could have been offended by the treatment. (480 p.  2012)