“A Beauty So Rare” Book Review

Jan 19, 2015 by Rachel

Welcome back to Rachel’s Back Talk! I’m so glad you could join me again. Today I am reviewing book 2 from Tamera Alexanders’s Belmont Mansion series, A Beauty So Rare. I adore reading the Belmont Mansion series and the second book was just as wonderful as the first! And I am looking forward with great anticipation to the third!

 

As is my custom, if I could ask Tamera one question about A Beauty So Rare, it would be — “Why did you make Eleanor hate the color pink?” And if you want to know why I asked that question, I guess you’ll just have to read the book to find out!

 

And without further ado, on to Rachel’s Back Talk!

 

 

From the Back Cover:

Plain, practical Eleanor Braddock knows she will never marry, but with a dying soldier’s last whisper, she believes her life can still have meaning and determines to find his widow. Impoverished and struggling to care for her ailing father, Eleanor arrives at Belmont Mansion, home of her aunt, Adelicia Acklen, the richest woman in America–and possibly the most demanding, as well. Adelicia insists on finding her niece a husband, but a simple act of kindness leads Eleanor down a far different path–building a home for destitute widows and fatherless children from the Civil War. While Eleanor knows her own heart, she also knows her aunt will never approve of this endeavor.

Archduke Marcus Gottfried has come to Nashville from Austria in search of a life he determines, instead of one determined for him. Hiding his royal heritage, Marcus longs to combine his passion for nature with his expertise in architecture, but his plans to incorporate natural beauty into the design of the widows’ and children’s home run contrary to Eleanor’s wishes. As work on the home draws them closer together, Marcus and Eleanor find common ground–and a love neither of them expects. But Marcus is not the man Adelicia has chosen for Eleanor, and even if he were, someone who knows his secrets is about to reveal them all.

 

 

Rachel’s Back Talk:

5 – award winning covers!

A Beauty So Rare was such a captivating book so it was the perfect book to read on a 10-hour car trip. 🙂 It pretty much took me the whole trip and I was glad, because I don’t think I could put it down!

This book was unlike any other that I have read mostly because of the characters. Eleanor and Marcus both had an interesting story line that brought them together, something that I had not read before.

Eleanor is a young woman struggling between honoring her aunt’s wishes and wanting to fulfill her own dreams. This happens in a multitude of different ways and I loved seeing Eleanor’s reactions to them. I also loved her relationship with Marcus. At first, she appeared rather tentative but once they got closer, a beautiful relationship unfolded. One thing that made their love story “real” was that it dealt with a trust issue that many relationships deal with.

Overall, it was a refreshing book and a beautiful love story!

 

Other Books by Tamera I will read next:

To Whisper Her Name (A Belle Meade Plantation Novel)

To Win Her Favor (A Belle Meade Plantation Novel)

Rekindled (Fountain Creek Chronicles, Book 1)