Rita

With a law degree from Oxford, an influential Southern family and the aristocrat Lena McOwen about to become his wife, John Halls Jr’s life is complete. Then he meets Rita, a slave in the family household – beautiful, caring, delicate, she is in many ways everything that his fiancé is not – Lena is cruel, malicious and the daughter of a brutal, pro-slavery activist. With America on the brink of civil war and his family supporting the South’s slave-keeping Confederacy, a relationship with Rita isn’t merely unacceptable, it is a betrayal. But John falls in love with Rita and she becomes pregnant. Without his knowledge, Rita is abducted and shipped back to Africa. Setting out to find her, he is swept along on a perilous journey through Africa to Gibraltar, Haiti, and finally, returning to America, he becomes a hero of the anti-slave North. John is reunited with the woman he loves, but will he risk losing his family and position for the sake of a former slave – and if he does, will he be prepared for the terrible consequences? This is a dazzling, provocative story that delves into the meaning of true love and the cost those pay when they dare to risk everything.