Francine Thomas Howard – författare

From the author of The Daughter of Union County comes an intimate and heart-pounding novel about two families—one black, one white—colliding against the explosive backdrop of the post–Civil War South.

It’s been fifty years since the Civil War ended, but the racial divide is as rigid and unforgiving as ever. For two families in the rural South, that boundary will be crossed.

Alex and Eula Mae McNaughton own a tobacco farm in Tennessee. Black sharecroppers John and Annalaura Welles work it. In this particular summer of 1913, John has left without a word, and Annalaura is expected to bring in the crop by herself. Alone, fearing eviction, and desperate to feed her four children, Annalaura is forced into becoming Alex’s mistress. The only thing forbidden is Alex’s growing affection for Annalaura. She isn’t the only one faced with terrible choices. Eula Mae is waging her own battle against her husband and her assumed indifference. John, too, is bent on revenge. His sudden return will set in motion a devastating chain of events that will change all of their lives forever.

The dawn of postwar Paris in the 1940s: for one family, it’s a time of celebration, danger, and liberating romance in a breathtaking novel by the author of The Daughter of Union County.

Paris in 1944 is emerging from a devastating war. So are proud Martinican immigrants Marie-Thérèse Brillard and her two children, Collette and Christophe. In their vibrant neighborhood of Montmartre—a multicultural haven for artists, musicians, and writers—Collette and Christophe long for romance and excitement. As they’re swept up in the jubilation following the Nazis’ departure, they embark on love affairs that are the stuff of impossible dreams—forbidden, too, in the eyes of their vigilant and apprehensive mother.

Christophe stumbles into the arms of an irresistible woman who harbors a secret that could change both their fates. Collette has a defiant passion for a white Frenchman. Even Marie-Thérèse’s attraction to a handsome black soldier is not without its risks. For each of them, love could be a new beginning…or it could cost them everything.