Wednesday, June 13, 2012

To Have and To Hold: Bridal Veil Island by Tracie Peterson and Judith Miller Book Review



This is the first book I can say for certain that I have read by these authors. The setting for the book (The South, a fictitious island off the coast of Georgia to be exact) is a place I can connect easily with because I have lived in the South my entire life. I am somewhat of a history buff so I greatly enjoy Historical Fiction such as this.

The book takes place in a post-Civil War South on what was once solely a family estate, but due to rising takes is being taken over by developers. The main character, Audrey Cunningham, moved back to her childhood home, and her father’s ancestral home, on Bridal Veil Island from Pittsburgh. Her father is a recovering alcoholic who has recently found God.  In what appears to be an answer to prayer, developers begin construction on a resort on the island and an old friend of her father, Marshall Graham, comes to visit and eventually to work on the island.

Boyd Cunningham, Audrey’s father asks Marshall Graham to look after Audrey. This proves to be a difficult task if their first impressions of one another are to be believed. Construction on the island proves to be a treacherous task, with accidents at every turn, and Marshall’s position seems to hang in the balance, along with his stay on Bridal Veil Island.

I agree with other reviewers that the courtship/romance happened pretty fast, but this seems to be typical of this era, at least from a literary perspective. I look forward to reading the other books in this series. Bethany House Publishers provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.