Lorraine Heath
Always to Remember (1996)
Author: Lorraine Heath
Genre: Romance (Historical)
Plot Summary:
Not all the wounds from the Civil War were caused by bullets. Clay was a concientious objector and condemned to death by firing squad. He received a last minute stay of execution and eventually returned to his home in Texas. The people of his hometown dispised him as a coward, especially Meg, who hated him for living while her husband and brothers were killed. As punishment, Meg commissioned him to sculpt a monument to the town's heroic young men who died in The War. Meg and Clay are forced into each other's company as Clay works on the monument, and Meg learns that there are more kinds of courage than bearing arms. Meg and Clay end up together, of course, and the townspeople learn of Clay's courage and compassion during and after the war.
Geographical Setting: Texas
Time Period: 1866
Appeal Characteristics:
This 1997 winner of the Rita Award for Best Short Historical Romance is a real tear-jerker! I cried through the first half of the book as Meg lashed out at Clay, reopening wounds that had barely begun to heal, and again through the last quarter or so, as the townspeople
lashed out at him. Oddly enough, though, it wasn't a sad book. Clay's courage in standing up for his beliefs both during The War and after he returned home shone through the story, and it was clear that of course Meg and Clay would somehow get together "and live happily ever after." It was surprisingly uplifting in spite of the tears. While it probably
doesn't go quite far enough to be an Inspirational Romance, Clay is upheld by the stregnth of his convictions and Meg, Clay's brother, and the rest of the townspeople are ultimately transformed by that stregnth as well. Meg and Clay's characters are strongly drawn, with well-developed secondary characters. The post-Civil War setting is a significant appeal element, as is the Confederate frontier. The book is moderately spicy with a couple of sex scenes and lots of simmering sensuality. (For purposes of comparison with the read-alikes, All About Romance gave it a rating of "subtle" on the sensuality scale, which is the sensuality rating used below.)
Read-alikes: Most readers who want a book "just like" Always to Remember are
probably looking for a moderately spicy romance set in the post-Civil War rural South. Fortunately, there are lots of books that fit this description. Heath's A Rogue in Texas is about the illegitimate son of an English Duke, who goes to Texas to seek his
fortune and instead finds Civil War Widow Abbie. (Sensuality rating is "subtle.") In Redemption, by Carolyn Davidson, a romance forces its way between a disabled Civil War veteran in a wheelchair and the woman who comes to his Kansas town to teach. Both damaged in their own ways, the two slowly find healing with each other. (Sensuality
rating is "warm.") The Wedding Dress, by Viginia Ellis, is set on a Virginia plantation. Two penniless Civil War widows decide to make a wedding dress for their younger sister, even though no potential groom is in sight. Husbands appear for two of the sisters. (Sensuality rating is "subtle.") In Jill Marie Landis' Magnolia Creek, Sara's
Confederate soldier husband Dru is missing and presumed dead. Devastated, she leaves with a Yankee soldier who deserts her. Dru turns up alive at their old home town within a day of Sara returning with her illegitimate daughter, and they get back together. (Sensuality
rating is "warm.") Readers who are willing to venture farther afield also have many options. Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind is, of course, the classic Civil War era novel. It follows the story of beautiful and spoiled Scarlett O'Hara from the Georgia plantation Tara before, during and after the Civil War. Most people are familiar with the movie which follows the book fairly closely. The book is very long. It has not been ranked
but is mildly or moderately sensual. Jessamyn West's The Friendly Persuasion is another Civil War classic and also made into a movie, but is not nearly as well known. It is the story of a Quaker family in Indiana. The pacifist position of the Quakers is an integral part of the story. The Deserter, by Robert Koch is rated for grades 7 to 10, but older readers may enjoy it too. It is the story of a 17-year-old Mennonite boy who enlists in the Union Army and then starts re-evaluating the pacifist tenants of his Mennonite heritage. Angel Trumpet: A Civil War Mystery by Ann McMillan is, well, a mystery set in the Civil War. A white widowed nurse and a free black healer investigate the murder of an officer's family at the family's plantation home. Always to Remember comes close enough to Inspirational Fiction that "Prairie Romances" may make good read-alikes for those who don't object to overt Christian references. Janette Oke and T.
Davis Bunn's The Meeting Place takes place in 1753 Canada. An English woman and a French woman are drawn together by their faith, despite the fact that they are from different villages and the enmity between their countries. This book, too, deals with the conflict of faith and military duties, as the husband of the English woman is commander of the English fort and is ordered to drive out the French. Janette Oke and T. Davis Bunn both have several other Prairie romances that they wrote individually as well as a few others
that they wrote together.
Red Flags: some violence, some sex, quite a bit of sensuality
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