The Mistress of Tall Acre

Starred review from September 1, 2015
Sophie Menzies is a pariah. The family estate, Three Chimneys, has fallen to ruin, mostly due to her father's loyalty to the Tory party and his eventual emigration to Scotland. Her brother, who fought on the American side, is missing in action. Even though Sophie's sentiments are firmly on the side of the new government, Cornwallis has just surrendered to George Washington, and the flames of hatred against the Tories and the crown still burn bright. General Seamus Ogilvy is a war hero. Injured in battle, he comes home to his motherless daughter, whom he scarcely knows. It's hard enough for him to bring Tall Acre back to its glory days, but he also has to fight his dead wife's relatives for custody of his little girl. Desperate to find a mother for his child, Seamus weds Sophie, ignoring society's reaction to his marriage to a person they believe is a traitor by association. Frantz takes what could have been just another girl-next-door marriage of convenience story, and turns it into something totally unexpected. Both poignant and suspenseful, this page-turner is sure to please a broad variety of readers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)