To Win Her Favor by Tamera Alexander

A gifted rider in a world where ladies never race, Maggie Linden is determined that her horse will become a champion. But the one man who could help her has vowed to stay away from thoroughbred racing forever.

An Irishman far from home, Cullen McGrath left a once prosperous life in England because of a horse racing scandal that nearly ruined him. He’s come to Nashville for a fresh start, hoping to buy land and begin farming, all while determined to stay as far away from thoroughbred racing as possible. But starting over proves harder than he’d wagered, especially when Maggie Linden’s father makes him an offer he shouldn’t accept yet cannot possibly refuse.

Maggie is certain that her mare, Bourbon Belle, can take the top purse in the inaugural Peyton Stakes, the richest race ever run in America. Maggie only needs the chance to prove it. To give her that chance—and to save Linden Downs from being sold to the highest bidder—Maggie’s father, aging, yet wily as ever, makes a barter. His agreement includes one tiny troublesome detail—Maggie must marry a man she’s never met. A man she never would have chosen for herself.

 

To Win Her Favor is the second book in Tamera Alexander’s Belle Meade Plantation series, coming after To Whisper Her Name. I’ve always enjoyed everything Tamera writes, so it’s always a good day when I get to read one of her books, and this novel was no exception. I have also for some reason always loved the kinds of stories where the marriage comes first and the love comes later, so I was really excited to discover that To Win Her Favor fit that description.

When I first started this story, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, other than a rocky beginning to a marriage of course, but I definitely found so much more than I ever expected to find. Not only is this the story of their unexpected marriage, and the rocky ground the topic of horse racing leaves them on, this is also a story about slavery, and what has been happening in the South now that those slaves are free. It’s a story about segregation, and how it wasn’t just between blacks and whites, but how the Southern people weren’t all that fond of the Irish either (which makes me really sad because the South is my home, and I can’t abide the thought that our people could be so close minded, so against anyone who wasn’t a white Southerner).

This story is an eye opening story. It’s not just about the love, the romance, and whether or not they’re going to race Bourbon Belle and save Linden Downs. On the one hand, it is about those things, and the struggles they face as they learn to accept being married and the decisions that must be made about Bourbon Belle are part of what makes this book so enjoyable, and I loved reading every part of it. There were so many twists and turns, so much back and forth between the two of them, that I was captivated every page. But on the other hand, that’s not the whole of this story. This story is also about the reality of what happened in the South after the war ended. The reality that the Southern people were prejudiced. Close-minded. And that they didn’t care who they harmed or what they did just so long as they had a mask over their faces to keep them from being recognized.

That, I think, is the main reason that I loved this book so much. While I love the romance, I loved watching them go back and forth between arguments and growing feelings for one another, I really love the fact that this book is so much more than that. It isn’t just a romance novel, though if it was, it would still be a good one. Instead, it’s a wonderful romance, that has true history and reality and serious time-period struggles. And I applaud Tamera for tackling that, both in To Whisper Her Name, and even more in this novel.

All in all, I cannot imagine giving To Win Her Favor anything other than all five bookshelves, for every reason I’ve already listed above. Tamera did a wonderful job of weaving together a romance with a story about the true South, and what it was really like for Irish and freedmen in that time, and that bit of history is one I wish didn’t exist but is one I really appreciated learning more about. I highly recommend this novel, as it was absolutely fantastic, and has even made it onto my all-time favorites list, because it is so very worth reading.

Happy reading!

To see where I’m linking up, check out my Where I Party page.

All credit for the italicized synopsis goes to Tamera Alexander and Zondervan Publishing.