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BOOK REVIEW: Bayou Brides
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by: Barbara Warren Dancing Word Reviewer
Title: Bayou Brides Authors: Janet Lee Barton, Kathleen Miller, Lynette Sowell, Janet Spaeth Publisher: Barbour ISBN: 1-59789-351-X Genre: Inspirational/Historical/Romance
Four historical romances, set in bayou country. Capucine Louets keeps a journal, which will influence the lives of generations to come.
“Capucine: Home to My Heart” by Janet Spaeth
Capucine Louet’s Acadian father was killed by the British. She and her sister Aliette were taken from their mother and their home in Acadia and placed in a convent in New York. They haven’t seen their mother since. Someone gave Capucine a journal, in which she writes of her determination to find her mother, and of her hatred for the British who destroyed her family.
Now Capucine and Aliette are back in New Orleans. The city is in a state of unrest, with British, French, and Spanish jostling for supremacy. Capucine has one desire; to find her mother. Then she meets Michael LeBlanc, who is also Acadian. The attraction between them is strong, but Michael is a Christian and Capucine has no desire to forgive the British. Can a heart so filled with hate have room for love?
“Joie De Vivre” by Lynette Sowell
Fifty years later, and it’s Jos`ee Brossard’s eighteenth birthday. Raised by the LeBlanc family since she was six, she loves all of the LeBlanc’s as if they were her own, except for the oldest son, Edouard. Wounded in the war, with limp and scarred face, Edouard lives a quiet life in his secluded bayou cabin. Jos`ee is half afraid of him, with his midnight black eyes and somber expression.
The birthday party is winding down when Papa LeBlanc makes an unexpected announcement. “As is the custom of our peoiple, I announce the betrothal of Jos’ee Boussard to my eldest son, Edouard.” Neither Jos`ee or Edouard are pleased. In two weeks, the priest will marry them, and there’s nothing they can do about it.
Then Josie finds Capucine’s journal and begins to write her own story on the yellowed pages.
“Language of Love” by Janet Lee Barton
It’s December, 1918. and Nicholas LeBlanc has just returned home from the war in Europe. He’s happy to be back with his family and his beloved Bayou Teche, but things have changed. While he was gone, his father died and his mother has had a hard time recovering from her loss. His brother-in-law’s little sister, Suzette has moved in to his house, living with his mother, and sleeping in his room. Nicholas feels like an outsider. He remembered Suzette at the wedding of his sister Felicia and Adam, but she was nothing like the beautiful young woman he meets on his first day home.
To Nicholas’ dismay, his beloved Cajun language is being banned by the government and Suzette, the local school teacher, is teaching the children English. She has invented a game to teach his own sister and brother the hated language, and he resents it. And as if that was enough to drive a wedge between Nicholas and Suzette, Tante Louise and Tante Julia, his matchmaking aunts come to visit.
Then Nicholas finds Capucine’s journal.
“Dreams of Home” by Kathleen Miller
Justin LeBlanc has finally raised his four sisters, and has just married off the last one. Now he is free to do what he pleases, and he plans to hit the road on his motorcycle, bugs in his teeth, and all that. He’ll take along a laptop, sleep in cheesy motels and eat bologna sandwiches for breakfast, if he likes. But right now he has a problem with the demanding lady photographer who is taking the wedding pictures.
Lucy Webber, photographer, and owner of Lucy’s Lens, the new photography shop in town, grew up as a military brat. She’s traveled all over the world and now she wants to settle down. She’d like to live in Bayou Teche, and just take pictures. Amanda, the last of the sister brides, tries to play matchmaker, but can the absent minded author and professor, who wants to roam, and the lady photographer who just wants to put down roots, solve their differences?
Time to check out Capucine’s journal
Bayou Brides spans four generations of couples. The four very different stories, by four different writers, do a good job of grounding the reader in each historic time frame. I knew of Le Grand Derangement, the time when the Acadian’s were ripped from their homes and separated, of course, but these stories made me realize the very real heartbreak it caused. The believable characters and the description of a little known period of our country’s history makes this a very interesting book, with a strong faith message.
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