On the eve of Civil War, the daughter of Southern planters finds her loyalties tested in a magnificent saga of family pride and forbidden love...Brought up amid the luxury of plantation life, Marianne Johnston never questions her sheltered life until, driven by her conscience, she joins the Underground Railroad. Soon Marianne is living a dangerous double life, helping slaves flee by night and acting the belle by day. And nothing is riskier than her attraction to wild, heartless young Southerner Yves Chamard - while being courted by his noble older brother. Now, Marianne is desperately trying to resist Yves' seduction, knowing that her surrender to his touch may cost her everything...Gretchen Craig returns with another sweeping story that brings the Old South to life in all its glory - and a passionate heroine compelled to follow her heart... Includes Book Group discussion questions.

Ever My Love: A Saga of Slavery and Deliverance (The Plantation Series)

Literature & Fiction

Craig, Gretchen

United States

Pendleton Press

Nicolette Chamard, a woman of color in the most color-conscious city in the world, rejoices when the Union Army marches into New Orleans. At last her people will be free, and even knowing her collaboration with the Union will put her in danger, she means to help make it happen. Marcel Chamard, Nicolette’s privileged white half-brother, surveys the same parade and sees conquerors, not liberators. If the Union wins the war, it will mean the end of the slave-holding culture, the end of wealth and ease. Marcel wants nothing to change, not the family’s rich cane plantation, not the life he plans with his lovely white bride, and not the life he lives with his beloved colored mistress and their two sons. Finnian McKee, a Union Army officer, comes from a family of abolitionists. He is determined to do his small part to make the ideal of freedom a reality for all. When he meets the fascinating Nicolette Chamard, he is too new to New Orleans to recognize that though she is light-skinned, she is by Louisiana standards a Negress. Torn apart by the war and by a culture that forbids their union, his heart’s desire is to find love with this woman that will transcend the bonds of race. Evermore, book three in the acclaimed Plantation Series, is the final story in this grand saga of slaves and Creoles whose lives intertwine in the complicated culture of Old Louisiana. The bonds between the races, both the loving and the despised, are about to be torn apart as the Civil War rages into New Orleans. Includes Discussion Questions for book groups.

Evermore: A Saga of Slavery and Deliverance (The Plantation Series)

Multiple award-winning author Gretchen Craig returns with an unconventional novel about loyalty, independence, and love. On the eve of her seventeenth birthday, Tansy is caught in a sizzling kiss with Christophe Desmarais. The next night, Tansy’s mother introduces her to the life she has been raised for: as a beautiful quadroon in Old New Orleans, Tansy is meant to be a rich white man’s mistress. She is as she should be, biddable, loyal and submissive. But is this all there is? As Tansy matures, she wearies of telling herself that her narrow life is enough, yet she is terrified to leave behind security and plenty to become a self-reliant, independent woman. Chistophe Desmarais was, like Tansy, born to a mixed-race mother and a rich white father, but as a shrewd card-player, a talented violinist, and a respected teacher, he creates his own life. The attraction between him and Tansy has never abated, only been pushed down and unacknowledged. When he sees Tansy discovering there is more to her than being pretty and pleasing, he allows himself to hope that she will become her own woman. Maybe then the two of them will have a chance at a life together.

Tansy

In the winter of 1811, hundreds of slaves from plantations near New Orleans rose up in a desperate but futile attempt to win their freedom. Best-selling author Gretchen Craig presents an unconventional novel based on the events surrounding what became America's largest slave revolt. The Lion's Teeth takes what we know about the leaders of the revolt and breathes life into them as fully imagined characters. While there is a love story, no account of the tragic history of slave revolts can end in happily-ever-after. Instead, in the struggle to cast off their shackles, these Americans found glory, redemption, and even peace. Charles Deslondes is the enigmatic leader of the rebellion. He is a trusted, mixed-blood slave driver who has convinced both his owner and his fellow slaves that he is the white man’s creature. Though he has only now discovered the joy of love, Charles is a man of determination and purpose. He will give the signal to begin the revolt even as he prays for a little more time before that day arrives. Kook and Quamana were African warriors before they were captured in battle and sold to the American slavers. Bearing their ritual tribal scarring with pride, they mask the ferocity in their hearts. Kook plays a happy-go-lucky role, but Quamana barely contains his rage to present himself as a compliant if sullen slave. Both of these men use their charisma and battle skills to recruit and train and inspire the young men who will sacrifice their lives in the coming struggle.

The Lion's Teeth

Gretchen Craig's best-selling saga continues in Elysium: Book IV of the Plantation Series. A woman with a secret, Lily Palmer flees with her six year old daughter to take refuge on her uncle’s farm in Louisiana. Here she finds herself in a world struggling with the after effects of the Civil War. For the first time, Lily is confronted with her own careless assumptions about race as she learns to appreciate the humanity of everyone around her, white and black. Threatening the fragile peace she achieves, her futile love for Alistair Whiteaker collides with her own dark past, shattering all hope for a new life. Alistair Whiteaker returns from the war determined to make amends for having owned the men and women who toiled on his plantation. Sickened by his part in perpetuating slavery, he works to thwart the aims of white supremacists and violent racists. At the same time, he longs to make a family with Lily Palmer and her daughter. To do that, he must first eliminate the man who inflicts another kind of injustice on the woman he loves. Besieged by assaults from The Knights of the White Camellia, Thomas Bickell uses every ounce of his talent and courage to win suffrage for black men. An ex-slave himself, he knows Emancipation is not enough: To attain true and full citizenship, his people must have the vote. When Fanny Brown is assaulted by white supremacists whose true target is Thomas himself, he realizes his greatest challenge may be to reclaim the heart of his beloved.

Elysium: Book IV of The Plantation Series

In 1830s Louisiana, two extraordinary women, a mistress and a slave, who defied the constraints of society to become as close as sisters, find their friendship tested by their love for the same man. Original.

Always And Forever

Romance

Historical

Zebra Books

Leading a double life helping slaves escape via the Underground Railroad, Marianne Johnston, the daughter of a wealthy plantation owner, finds her noble mission endangered by her attraction to a charming Southerner. Original.

Ever My Love

Since they were children running barefoot about Toulouse Plantation, Josie and Cleo have been as close as sisters, forging an unbreakable bond that defies their roles as mistress and slave. Together, the two have shared secrets and protected each other through happiness and heartbreak. They never dream they could also share an intense passion for the same man, the elegant, charming, and irresistibly seductive Bertrand Chamard. His love will change their friendship forever and set in motion a series of events from which there can be no turning back. Set among the bayous of Old Louisiana and the grand avenues of New Orleans, Always &amp; Forever is the stirring saga of a Creole family and of two women, bound by blood and friendship, who are tested by prejudice, betrayal, and the tragedies of slavery. Book I of The Plantation Series. Includes Book Group discussion questions.

Always & Forever: A Saga of Slavery and Deliverance (The Plantation Series)

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

On the Miami River of the 1880s, amid exotic tropical blooms, terrifying reptiles, and devastating storms, the settlers include one lonely, bewildered girl. Theena Theophilus, at home in the Everglades or on the bay, wants only to love and be loved. Fearing the taint of her mother’s scandalous past, she strives to live a life of virtue and integrity, yet is pulled toward a love that can never be hers. From a girl too desperate to be wise she becomes, through pain and heartbreak, a woman who at last finds her honor and her dreams. Once again, Gretchen Craig presents a page-turning historical novel of insight and compassion. Theena and her sisters are flawed, engrossing, and totally believable.

Theena's Landing

One full of light, another of dark bitterness – can two such different souls find their happiness together? Livy arrives on the plantation angry and resentful that she was sold off from the only home she has known, her family left behind forever. The first time she sees Zeb, she sneers to see a slave working in the hot sun who smiles from sunup to sundown. He finds slavery tolerable? Livy will never accept it! No matter that Zeb's sweet spirit draws her, she will be free whatever it takes. Zeb is smitten by Livy the first time he sees her, but it's a challenge to even get her to say good morning. Brought up to find happiness and hope in every day, he begins his campaign to win her, his easy-going manner never faltering – until slavery's big boot crushes the spirit of his niece Faith, the child he loves as if she were his own. Even if it means he can't have Livy, he has to save Faith from living a cruel life among the master's family. From different paths, Zeb and Livy arrive at the safe haven hidden in the swamps, a place of wild flowers and abundance. But like the first Eden, Orchid Island harbors treachery and heartache. Leaving their refuge behind, Zeb and Livy and their new family begin the journey to their true heaven-on-earth.

Livy: A Love Story

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