Review: Beneath a Golden Veil by Melanie Dobson

Beneath a Golden Veil, by Melanie Dobson, was a book that stuck with me for days after I read it.  The story is set in the years before the American Civil War, and is about slavery, its injustices, and how it divided people, even within the same family.  In 1854, Alden Payne is a law student at Harvard, but comes from a prominent family in Virginia.  His family intends for him to take over the family plantation after he finishes his studies, but Alden's heart isn't into operating the plantation, especially when it requires the servitude of slaves for it to remain successful and prosperous.

On a trip back home before his final year of study, Alden stops by to visit his married sister, Eliza, before heading off to the family's ancestral home.  Eliza hands over a slave boy named Isaac, telling Alden that the boy is a gift for their father.  Alden arrives home with Isaac in the middle of a manhunt for an escaped slave, Benjamin, who Alden had always considered to be like a brother.  When Alden discovers that his father murdered Benjamin for his repeated insubordination, and that Benjamin was actually his half brother, he decides to run away from the plantation and takes Isaac along with him.  He intends to set Isaac free by taking him to Canada, before resuming his studies in Harvard, but Isaac's master, Alden's brother-in-law, Victor, catches up to them.  Instead of running up to the Canadian border, Alden decides that he and Isaac will board a ship to California and finish his legal studies by apprenticing with a lawyer who had already travelled West to establish a legal office in Sacramento.

Isabelle Labrie, a young woman with secrets in her past, operates a hotel in Sacramento.  California, at this time, is a free state, although any slave owners who are passing through could still keep their slaves.  Her hotel occasionally becomes a hiding spot for slaves who are trying to make their way to Canada.  It is here where she meets Alden and Isaac, who are posing as master and slave, even though Alden abhors slavery.   They do this in order to prevent Isaac from being kidnapped; there is a history of freed slaves being abducted and sold back into slavery.  Alden is taken with the beautiful Isabelle, but she despises him because she thinks that he is a slave owner.  He can't reveal what his true intentions are for Isaac without endangering them both, but trouble dogs them in the form of Victor, who has been following them with the intent of reclaiming Isaac as a slave.  However, Victor is not only a problem for Isaac; he poses a threat to Isabelle too. 

Beneath a Golden Veil touches on the issues about slavery, freedom, and the need to treat every human being with dignity and respect regardless of their skin colour.   The novel speaks about dark things that humans can do against each other, and ultimately, against God.  The lives and relationships of several of the characters, whether they were protagonists or antagonists, were messed up. However, there was also hope for those who put their hope in the Lord, both in the present world, and in the world to come. 

Also, in the novel, the author tells us through the characters that it doesn't matter what people think because the past shouldn't define us if we are children of God.  I think that this is such a precious truth.  Our identities, as children of God, are based on God's Word and on Jesus' sacrifice for us; it is not based on what happened to us in the past, or by anything that we have done.   (John 1:12 Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God...). 

There are discussion questions in the back of the book that I found thought provoking, particularly the one that asked, "The issue of slavery divided the United States of America in the 1800s.  What moral issues today divide our communities?  How do you fight for what you believe is right?" 

The novel is a bit weightier than your average historical romance; however, there is also a happy ending. As I mentioned before, Beneath a Golden Veil made quite an impression on me over its themes and ideas which have stayed with me for days after I finished the book. 



Disclaimer:  I received an e-copy of "Beneath a Golden Veil" by Melanie Dobson from Net Galley in exchange for a review.  All opinions stated in this review are mine.

Review: From Across the Divide by K. Victoria Chase

K. Victoria Chase is the author of From Across the Divide, an interracial romance that is set in Alabama during the 1960's.  Besides differences in race, the couple in question must also traverse a divide in matters of faith. 

Eric Montgomery has returned home after being away for five years.  He's a bit of a prodigal, having lost faith in the Lord.  He blames God for failing to save his mother from a fatal illness, and walked away from Him.  In doing so, he stayed away from Alabama, not returning after he finished college, and went away to France for a few years.  Unfortunately, he hasn't been able to fill that God-shaped void with work, travel, or women.  He decides to go home to assume responsibilities in his father's bank, a business that he will one day inherit. 

Elnora (Elie) Brown is the best friend that Eric has left behind.  She is delighted to have her childhood friend return, but is disturbed when she discovers that he has lost his faith.  She wants to get her old Eric back, but besides seeing the differences in faith, it is becoming apparent that other things have changed between them: they are no longer children, and both are noticing a romantic attraction between a grown man and woman.   Eric makes her heart race, but because he no longer believes, she must resist the temptation that he presents.  Also, even if Eric believed, would he and Elie be able to have a romantic relationship in a society that won't accept one between a white man and a black woman? 

I liked Elie.  She is, in Eric's words, "feisty, passionate, (and) unyielding." She is earning a college degree so that she can become a teacher.  She teaches at an unofficial school on the weekends to children who must work during the week in order to help support their families.  She is involved in her church and in the equal rights movement.  She's a law abiding citizen who loves the Lord. 

Eric is, for lack of a better word, a rogue.  He knows that Elie is attracted to him, and can't quite seem to stay away from her, even though she keeps turning him down.  He's used to women falling down at his feet, so he's a bit out to sea as to how to court Elie.  I didn't quite like it that he seemed to think that simply kissing her repeatedly to wear down her resistance was an acceptable mode of courting, but like I said, he's a rogue who needed to ask for advice from his father, Morgan, on what to do with his feelings for Elie.  That was an interesting conversation.  We discover that Morgan is all for Eric and Elie having a relationship, and that the Montgomery men have...egos when it comes to wooing women.  Anyways, Eric gets it right; the biggest impediment between him and Elie is really his lack of faith.

I also found it interesting that while Morgan didn't have any problem with the idea of Eric and Elie being together, Elie's parents, Miss Hattie, the Montgomery's housekeeper, and Michael, one of Elie's "acceptable" suitors, did have issues with marrying out of one's race.   They have their reasons, which seems to run the gamut of wanting to spare the younger people from prejudice and non-acceptance from both cultures, knowing what they perceive to "be their place," and from their own prejudices against the other culture.  None of these reasons seemed to include one very significant thing which I suspect Morgan knows:  that if something is of God, and if He wills it, He can make a way for it, even for something that people consider to be impossible, inconvenient, and offensive.  This suspicion is because of something Morgan says to Eric when the son tells his father that the Browns don't approve of Eric as a suitor for Elie because he is white. 

     "I wasn't aware they felt this way about us."
     "That I'm not good enough for their daughter?"
     "No."  The sadness in Morgan's eyes tore at Eric's heart. "That she isn't good enough for you."

When I read those lines, I was as surprised as Eric, who blinked in shock in the text.  But then I realized that Morgan is right.  Elie is good enough for Eric, but her parents want to protect her from the difficulties and prejudice that their union will bring, because we are talking about what society was like.  At this point of the novel, they don't believe enough that if God has called Eric and Elie to be together, and that if Eric and Elie are firmly grounded in their identities as children of God, that they will be able to have a successful marriage in spite of any worldly opposition that may come their way.

I enjoyed reading this novel; I found it to be educational because of the history.  I also found it to be romantic and fairly clean.  I'm not sure if this novel is intended to be the start of a series, but if it is, I would love to find out what happens to Michael and Amanda, a woman who Eric turns away when he realizes that he wants Elie. 

Review: Never Like This (Revealing Book 2) by Rena Manse

Strong, wealthy, handsome, alpha male with a bad boy past?  Check.

Smart, intelligent, good humoured heroine who has several dark secrets of her own?  Check.

Christian romance?  Check.

Some hot kisses that left me fanning myself?  (Looks around furtively.)  Check.

Never Like This, by Rena Manse is an interracial Christian romance. It is the second book in the Revealing Series, but can be read as a stand alone book. 

Kavin Reigns is the 34 year old Chief Operations Officer of his family's cosmetic and fashion corporation, Revealing, which is primarily situated in America.  He's near the end of negotiations for a takeover of a smaller company in France when the representatives of the other company wish to renegotiate the terms. Kavin meets Sherri Harbor when he asks for her to join the team that arranged the takeover deal because she previously worked as a lawyer in France for five years before joining Revealing to work in its Foreign Relations Department.

They are instantly attracted to each other, but try to mask their interest from each other and from the rest of the world because of the differences in their positions in the company. Unaware of what the other is thinking, they both know that a romantic relationship between a boss and subordinate could potentially be disastrous for their work environment.  Kavin also wants to avoid being accused of sexual harassment.  Sherri views herself as damaged goods because of her past relationships.  However, the takeover deal requires that they work closely with each other, and they eventually reveal their interest to each other.  

There was an incident that happened earlier on in the novel in which Sherri was trapped in an elevator in Kavin's apartment building while she was on her way to deliver paper work to him.  It was used to build the romantic tension between the two of them, but I did get a moment of thinking that it was a bit too contrived and convenient for Kavin to be the shirtless knight in armour that rescues Sherri at that point (he had been exercising in his private gym).  However, if such a thing could happen in real life, one might think and consider that in the background, God could be orchestrating their meetings, contrived as it may appear in the novel. 

As for the interracial aspect of the story, I liked that it seemed to be more important to Kavin that Sherri was a believer. Besides worrying about being accused of sexual harassment, at some point in the story, he wonders if Sherri would ever consider dating a white man and he fears that she would reject him because he's not black.  As for Sherri, it appears that she has always pictured a black man as her Prince Charming, until she meets Kavin. As soon as they learn that their attraction is mutual, they are both open to exploring the possibility of a relationship.  However, as it grows, it seems to be that Kavin is the one who does more of the pursuing and is more open to revealing his secrets in order to win Sherri, than she is to him.  Her reluctance to be transparent with Kavin has less to do with race, and more to do with her woundedness in other areas of her life.

The novel is clean; however, the characters do share a few fervent kisses. Well, maybe they were quite passionate than just simply fervent. 

The characters take their time getting to know each other.  I've read some other reviews in which there were complaints about the length of time it took for the characters to get together, and perhaps the author could have trimmed a bit from the story to tighten it up, but I thought that it was okay.  Also, there are quite a few spelling errors, but I found the couple featured in this story to be extremely likeable.  I enjoyed this book.