Path of Freedom

Taylor (Highland Blessings) continues the publisher’s Quilts of Love series with a middling pre–Civil War tale of romance mildly seasoned with adventure. Flora Saferight and Bruce Millikan are North Carolina Quakers brought together to guide to freedom a pregnant escaped slave and her husband. Flora is a midwife, so she is drawn into the plan even though Bruce was her childhood tormenter and she remains mistrustful of him, not knowing that Bruce has become a secret admirer now that both have grown to maturity. The two bicker and face danger together even as the misunderstandings, and the attraction between them, grow. The author’s portrait of mid-19th-century Quakers is unconvincing (they didn’t use the terms “pastor” or “church” during the period) and dialogue can sound anachronistically contemporary (“‘Yeah, all the time thee called her Beaver Face sort of branded her among all the kids’”). She has some talent for developing romantic tension that might work better in a contemporary setting. (Jan.)