What could have been view as just another romance goes much deeper with family secrets and race relations...the characters move through the story with humor and grace. There is an immediate connection with the characters who are rich and multidimensional. This author is new to me, but having enjoyed this story so much...I couldn't put it down once I started reading...I know I'll be seeking out more of her books.

This book was provided by the Publisher and Netgalley, I am voluntarily providing my honest review.

Eudora (Dori) Bardwell is one of two children left in the Bardwell family after a tragic accident killed her entire family. Her father was a Pulitzer Prize winning author who wrote one on the best known books on anti-slavery. He died with somewhat grandiose ideas as to his legacy which left his two surviving children in virtual poverty. Dori is working two jobs to make ends meet. The family home has been left to create a memorial focused on her fathers writing and she is left to the mercy of the Board who run the legacy, a group of people not quite committed to making her life easier. Then comes out a really bad joke that Dori makes in referring to Blackface and all hell breaks loose. It appears that Dori's parents falsified their past and as a way of avoiding the media madness that breaks about her gaff, Dori decides to go on a field trip to Georgia with her officially designated black friend Maya. What she discovers changes everything.

This book, originally sold as a romance novel quickly turns into something more meaningful when it begins to tackle the subject of race relations in the USA and gives a white girl a hint of what African descent people deal with as an everyday occurrence. The romance in toe story isn't all sugar and spice and all things nice, but it is still a lovely romance to watch blossom. There are real questions tackled about what a real relationship looks like in this modern age. The characters are strongly written and feel realistic. The effects on society that websites like Twitter are explored briefly. There is also a point made about domestic violence.

This book is more than a silly romance to be consumed and forgotten the next day. The topics covered will have an effect on the thinking reader.

A satisfying read.