Derek Hart
Love or Honor Bound
Dear Mr. Hart
I just finished your book For Love or Honor Bound and wanted to let you know that I think it's just wonderful! As a Civil War history fanatic and re-enactor, I certainly hope you write many more on this subject. Only problem was, I stayed up too late to read 'cause it was hard to put down.
By the way, I live in Milledgeville, Georgia. so it was doubly nice to read about the hometown.
Keep up the excellent work!
Anne B. Burgamy
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The year is 1864, the high-water mark of the Confederacy. For Love or Honor Bound is a historical romance novel concerning three young lives and how the American Civil War changed them. With exhaustive research and famous personalities throughout, Derek Hart has written a story about love, loyalty and how money can change all the rules. Amidst cavalry charges, high-sea chases, spies and intrigue, lives are challenged by the bloodiest conflict in American history. One question remains. Would you hold the same values, under the same conditions? For love or for honor? Which one would you feel bound by?
This Civil War novel follows the lives of Countess Isabelle Sophia Bario, a Brazilian noble-woman recruited by the Confederacy as a spy, Robert George Norton, a Confederate cavalry officer facing Sherman’s March to the Sea, and Ian Norton, his estranged brother, who commands the Union blockader, USS Superior. These three lives are interwoven against the backdrop of war, when the tide has swung against the South.
Robert Norton rides with a South Carolina cavalry brigade, on loan to shore up the undermanned forces protecting Georgia. As Sherman begins his bold strike towards Atlanta, Norton saves the Bario family from capture. Thus begins his involvement with Sophia, when they both desperately fall in love. As Norton fights rearguard and delay actions, outnumbered and outgunned, he also tries to protect Sophia. In the middle, of course, is Count Bario, who has killed before to safeguard his valuable wife. Robert can’t prevent Sherman’s burning of Atlanta, or his infamous march across Georgia to Savannah, but he can help Sophia and her family escape to Galveston, Texas. Yet the adventure doesn’t end there!
Recent Reviews
In 1863, Count Marco and Countess Sophia Bario set out for the US of A, the count to further his industrial and import concerns, his much younger wife looking for adventure, and hoping to find love as well. Recruited to spy for the Confederacy among the Naval elite of the North, Sophia meets and admires Commander Ian Norton, but thinks him too young for more than liking. When her spying is done, and far more successfully than was intended, circumstance forces her to flee with her family to the South under a charge of murder. Here she meets and falls abruptly in love with Ian’s elder half-brother, imminently heroic and capable Cavalry Captain Robert Norton. Against the backdrop of the Civil War, and the brothers’ separate parts in it, plays out Sophia and Robert’s love affair, unhappily shortened by Sherman’s infamous March to the Sea. About the romance itself, I must say that its masculine origin is unmistakable, less in the sexual portrayals than in the short shrift given the development of the relationship, but there is nothing in it to despise. And the bulk of the story more than makes up for any deficit of the hearts-and-flowers variety.
Based extensively on histories of the period, and on family diaries, this work brings to poignant life the dichotomies and ideals of the War Between the States with its gallantries and sorrows, its hardships and heroics, its privations and bereavements. Particularly, it made vivid the agonies inflicted upon the Nation, both emotional and physical, as well as the courage and fortitude with which these trials were met. Of great interest also, were the alternatives offered to the Union claims that the War’s primary basis was the question of slavery, which view is generally ignored in school. To this point, several characters speak directly, and with so much sense, such sound reasoning, that you may find yourself re-evaluating how we got where we are today, and whether it was worth the price. Not to claim that this is a work of extraordinary erudition, or fusty old facts, but I did find it a fascinating representation of one of the most storied, and painful, eras in our history. Well worth reading.
Though I did not find the adulterous Sophia noticeably endearing, she had resourcefulness down to a fine art, there’s no denying. Robert and Ian, were most admirable heroes, but I must admit that, for me, it was Sergeant Jefferson Lowe, Corporal Stephen Lytton and Lieutenant Benjamin Harper who stole the show. They were such upright and faithful characters, and so much their own men, that they stepped quite out of the supporting cast. Most delightfully, too. And, while the romance of this novel may bear a stronger resemblance to Sir Walter Scott’s than to the type most commonly credited to the genre, I found it entirely enjoyable, and nearly impossible to put down. If you’re looking for fluff, you will probably be disappointed, but if you like a bit of substance in your historical romance, this should suit you fine.
Kaththea Spurlock
LoveRomances.com
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Wow! What a book! Kind of reminds me of North and South.
This book takes place during the Civil War. The descriptions will leave you gaping in awe ... actually feeling as if you were right there watching the whole thing. Someone definitely did their homework for this book!
But this book is so much more. You follow the life of Countess Sophia, who is a spy. After killing a man in self-defense she is forced to run, but life gets even more confusing when she meets Robert Norton, a Confederate officer who she meets and falls in love with. Now not only is she a murderer but she is also unfaithful to her husband the Count! Just what will he do to protect his interests?
Wow! What an emotional roller coaster! One minute your heart is racing as you follow the latest battle and the next minute you are breathless as two lonely hearts steal a few moments together.
Excellent job!
Contributed by Cynthia
Book Review Cafe
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SENSUAL RATING: Blazes - HOT, very graphic love
scenes
RATING: 4 Flames - Rare Find
The time period is 1864, Countess Isabelle Sophia Bario is bored with her life. Trapped in a marriage arranged for her when she was a child, Isabelle gets more than she bargains for when she agrees to become a spy.
Ian and Robert Norton are brothers. Separated by their beliefs, they end up on opposing sides of the war. However, more than the war separates the two when they both fall in love with Sophia.
Then there is the fourth main character, the war. Author, Derek Hart, takes the reader on a journey covering both sea and land, and the excitement danger and intrigue of the time is fully alive. Hart is to be applauded for his ability to give the reader a solid look at history while never once beating us over the head with it, or pulling us away from the joys and sorrows surrounding Sophia, Robert and Ian.
I question the listing of For Love or Honor Bound as a historical romance. I believe most readers will find that it is better suited as a mainstream historical novel.
Bottom line, be it historical romance or mainstream historical, For Love or Honor Bound is a unique find and a thoroughly enjoyable read.
Reviewer: D.L. Bolk
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Countess Isabelle Sophia Bario appears at first glance to be a beautiful but conventional woman but looks are deceptive, for she has recently been recruited to be a spy in the War Between the States. Married to a much older man she does not love she yearns for excitement and romance, and gets both and more in spades. Waiting out there is Robert Norton, a confederate cavalry officer and his brother Ian who is in favor of the Unionist cause and the commander of the USS Superior. One of these she will fall in love with, as she flees across America with her family and plays a very dangerous game indeed.
Derek Hart’s previous books Crooked Cross Factor and Tales of the Yellow Silk have shown him to be adept at novels of military adventure and espionage. Now he turns his attention to the historical novel, and has concocted a heady mixture of romance, action and derring-do balanced nicely out with plenty of genuine Civil War history. There is grittiness in here, but this is not a tale of the gory blood-and-guts reality of warfare a la James Carlos Blake; with its female lead it can be enjoyed by fans of traditional Romantic Times type romances as well as those interested in military history and a different genre. In short, in spans the genres neatly and ought to appeal in equal part to both sexes which is a very positive thing to say about any book in my opinion. The epic scope of war is there, but it is the lives of its three protagonists that are to the forefront, giving them plenty of time to develop. To its detriment it is somewhat overlong and could certainly stand some editing and in parts a little repetitive which slows down the action which is so much a part of the story, but an impressive feat all the same in its scope and cross-genre appeal…surely it is too exciting to be a mere midlister!
Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde
MyShelf.com