cover image Tomorrow the Glory

Tomorrow the Glory

Shannon Drake. Pinnacle Books, $5.99 (446pp) ISBN 978-0-7860-0021-0

Drake ( Bride of the Wind ) has chosen the occasionally tricky setting of the Confederacy for her engrossing, sexy historical romance. Desperate to escape from a sadistic husband, Kendall Moore decides to offer herself to a stranger in return for transport. Any man with a boat might have done but Kendall stumbles across Brent McClain, the seafaring second son of a Southern scion--and a handsome one at that. A misunderstanding tears the two apart and leaves Brent feeling betrayed (but smitten) and Kendall forlorn (but smitten). The Civil War brings the two together for brief impassioned interludes before each is drawn off into new exploits--Brent to his blockade running, Kendall to piracy, nursing, prison and more. Slavery rears its head infrequently as when Brent surveying his destroyed plantation and the intact slave quarters admits ``in his soul, he knew that slavery wasn't right'' but the real motivation in Kendall and Brent's war is love of country. In Drake's hands, life on board ship, in camp hospitals, at war and among the Seminoles is convincingly portrayed. Kendall is a spunky and mature young woman and Brent is generally quite tender although Drake has allowed him some physical outbursts unforgivable in the lover of an abused woman. (Mar.)