Review: Northern Roses and Southern Belles

Northern Roses and Southern Belles
By Various Authors of the Wild Rose Press

The Wild Rose Press has released an anthology of six Civil War romance stories in a collection which they have titled “Northern Roses and Southern Belles.” Between its covers are tales of Union and Confederate soldiers and the women who loved them, ghosts, spies, Confederate raiders, and blockade runners.

This is not a book of “bodice rippers,” the tales are certainly appropriate reading matter for teenage girls, or any one else who may enjoy the historical romance genre. There are however, plenty of heaving bosoms, and men and women discovering their passions for each other. You will not find explicit or gratuitous sex scenes. Though it is not great literature, the characterizations are barely two dimensional, and plots of forbidden love and the like seem to be pulled from the standard constructions of romantic fiction, with more than a casual nod towards Shakespeare. The book does not pretend to be anything other than what it is . . . a good romp through history, or more rather, six of them

Is this a book that students of the Civil War would be interested in? It is likely not, but the holiday season is quickly approaching, and it may make a good gift for a wife, or girl-friend who may have a passing interest in the Civil War, or maybe better for a woman you wish that did.

ISBN 978-1601546708, The Wild Rose Press, © 2009, Paperback, 354 pages, $14.99