A Beauty so Rare by Tamara Alexander

This book was a little lengthy but it needed to be to develop all the characters. This book is second in the Belmont series. Eleanor Braddock was a nurse in the Civil War. She stays with a dying soldier and hears his last words. He gives her a hankerchief. She would like to find his widow and tell the widow about her husband's last moments but this is not the major theme in the book. Nothing much of this is mentioned until the end but I won't give that away to spoil it for the reader. Eleanor has seen much tragedy. . Her father was once a prominent lawyer but his mind is quickly fading and she must put him in the care of the asylum. She must sell the home estate to take care of his father so this depletes her financial resources. She must go to live with her cousin Adelicia Acklen, one of the wealthiest women in the USA at the time. Eleanor is considered plain but has inner beauty. Her cousin tries to set her up with somebody worthy of her station in life. Meanwhile she is attracted to the gardener and develops a deep friendship with him but he is not free and he is not really a humble gardener. He has royal roots. Although there is attraction between the both of them he may not be free to pursue the friendship. I feel I have given too much of the plot away but may I have given enough to whet a reader's interest.

One of the reason I enjoyed this book was that it takes place in Nashville, Tennessee which was where I was born and raised. I am familiar with many of the locations mentioned in the book.