Love's Awakening ~ Review

Love's Awakening 
The Ballantyne Legacy #2
By Laura Frantz

Love's Awakening is the second installment in the Ballantyne Legacy and follows the story of Eden and Silas Ballantyne.  But where Love's Reckoning is the beginning of their story and the trials that they faced before they were married, Love's Awakening focuses on the lives of their children Peyton, Andra, Ansel, and especially Elinor (Ellie).

As the youngest Ellie has been sheltered and protected, but when she decides to leave finishing school and return home she confronts a danger she never expected - losing her heart to one of the worst men in Pittsburg.

Jack Turlock, the son of a whiskey distiller, is a person of low repute because of his family name.  But when he rescues Ellie after she is waylaid by a storm on her journey home they are both drawn to the other.  But both see their attraction as something to be ignored because there was no way a Turlock and a Ballantyne would ever be allowed to court....

Love's Awakening takes a look at the brutality of slavery in a free state in 1822 and the lengths to which some people would go to hold to their convictions - even murder.  The Ballantynes are abolitionists while the Turlocks own slaves.

I have to say I really like Ellie.  She is a person with convictions and is willing to take chances to do what is right.  I love her interactions with Chloe Turlock and the friendship that develops between the two of them.  The characters are well developed and this story just adds another layer to what was created in Love's Reckoning and is as equally delightful.  This historical fiction at its best.  A new country struggling to find its way caught in the push to expand west and in its midst two families mirroring the trials that are facing the nation.

If you read the first book in this series you won't be disappointed in this sequel!  And as a point of interest their is a small excerpt from book 3 - which will leave you in eager anticipation of book 3!

I was provided a copy of this book by Revell in exchange for my honest review.

Available August 2013 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.
The path to true love lies somewhere between two feuding families
In the spring of 1822, Ellie Ballantyne leaves finishing school and returns to the family home in Pittsburgh only to find that her parents are away on a long journey and her siblings don't seem to want her to stay. Determined to stand her ground and find her place in the world, Ellie fills her time by opening a day school for young ladies.

But when one of her students turns out to be an incorrigible young member of the Turlock family, Ellie knows she must walk a fine line. Slaveholders and whiskey magnates, the Turlocks are envious of the powerful Ballantynes and suspicious of their abolitionist leanings. As Ellie becomes increasingly entangled with the rival clan--particularly the handsome Jack Turlock--she finds herself falling in love with an impossible future. Will she betray her family and side with the enemy?

Masterful storyteller Laura Frantz continues to unfold the stirring saga of the Ballantyne family in this majestic tale of love and loyalty. This is the Ballantyne Legacy.