First published 2024
Hannah Laveau works on the Lufkin plantation in 1863 Louisiana when the Union army controls the Mississippi and Confederate forces retreat in disarray. Formerly enslaved, she glimpses freedom as old structures crumble around her. Then murder charges force her to run. She escapes through the bayous with Florence Milton, an abolitionist teacher, while slave catchers and the local constable hunt them. Wade Lufkin returns from battlefield surgery duty to his uncle's plantation, carrying trauma from what he witnessed and did during the war. He becomes captivated by Hannah as their paths cross. Their flight leads to a disastrous duel, brutal confrontations with Union commanders, and repeated battles against Confederate irregulars commanded by a diseased colonel. Hannah and Wade find love growing between them despite the chaos. Burke sets their story against the rich Louisiana landscape, from Mississippi sunsets to New Orleans saloons to cottonmouth-filled bayous, as war reshapes society and love persists.
Genres: american-civil-war, american-fiction, historical-fiction, 19th-century
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Lufkin Plantation, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Orleans
Period: 1863
480 pages · Paperback · Large Print Press
Content warnings: violence