Belle Meade Plantation: horses, history, and romance {book reviews}

I somehow failed to review book one way back whenever I read it (Goodreads says it was May), so I decided to squish it in here with book two. I hope you don't mind.

To Whisper Her Name
by Tamera Alexander

from Goodreads (brief synopsis)
Set at Nashville's historic Belle Meade Plantation, the most influential thoroughbred stud farm in America's history, To Whisper Her Name weaves the struggles of real people of the post-war South with the journeys of a man and a woman scarred by betrayal.

my review
Looking at the covers, I thought this would be a fluffy romance with little substance, and that book two had all the good horse content. You've heard it before: don't judge a book by its cover.

I love Uncle Bob, Belle Meade's head horse trainer. I could read an entire book about him. However, the focus of this novel is on Olivia and Ridley, who are both very well developed characters. Their story is rather predictable, but I enjoyed reading it, and a few things did catch me by surprise.

The best part: the historical setting. The Belle Meade Plantation was (is) a real place, and Tamera Alexander seems to have done her research well. I loved how she portrayed the freedmen in this book -- their story is woven throughout that of Olivia and Ridley, and it's just beautiful.

my rating

To Win Her Favor
by Tamera Alexander

from Goodreads (brief synopsis)
A gifted rider in a world where ladies never race, Maggie Linden is determined that her horse will become a champion. But the one man who can help her has vowed to stay away from thoroughbred racing for good.

my review
Mostly, this is romantic fiction. I spent the majority of the first half of this book saying "WHERE ARE THE HORSES." (Answer: in the second half.) I spent the rest of the first half wondering when I was going to get some character development. Seriously, who are these people? Why do they act the way that they do? (Again, this all comes in the second half.) So what does happen in the first 200 pages? Sadly, it involves people acting stupidly, and it's unfortunately quite predictable. As is most of the book.

But there are some redeeming qualities. 1) The male protagonist is Irish, which, besides being awesome in itself, adds another layer to the racism theme introduced in the first book. 2) The freedmen, how they are portrayed (with great humanity), how white people in Tennessee respond to them, etc. This is equally beautiful and haunting. 3) Believe it or not, there are horses. One is a Percheron named after a mythical creature, and he actually commands a lot of attention in the first chapter or two.

Warning: This book is surprisingly intimate for a Christian novel. I got really tired of reading about a certain married couple sleeping together and wanting to sleep together. Those pages would have been better spent on some much-needed character development.

my rating
(it really deserves 2.5, but I don't have an image for that...)

*Thanks to BookLook Bloggers for sending me a free copy of To Win Her Favor in exchange for my honest review!