This book was recommended to me by the president of my library school. I wonder, if I lived in the South, if I would have appreciated it more. It took a while for me to get used to the fact that almost every chapter is told from a different person's perspective. It allows to see all sides of a story, but was confusing at first. I would not classify it as a romance novel, which I thought was the impression the blurb gave. In fact, I was a little doubtful of the romance subplot as a whole. I did enjoy reading about the Franklin battle and its aftermath, as I don't read a lot of Civil War fiction.