Forsaken Dreams

Tyndall (Central Park Rendezvous) introduces her Escape to Paradise series with the sailing of the New Hope from Charleston. The Civil War has ended, and Colonel Blake Wallace finds no shortage of passengers wishing to abandon their ravaged homeland. Having lost everything when Sherman burned Atlanta, Wallace organizes an expedition to Brazil, where he and his cohorts will establish a new colony. Eliza Crawford is southern by birth, but briefly a Yankee by marriage, her husband having died in the war. Despite becoming a Confederate battlefield nurse as atonement for her matrimonial mistake, she fears repercussions should her true identity be discovered. Secrets and sabotage plague the voyage, and the motley group’s misfortunes seem to be the result of more than just bad luck. The book is written from a Confederate point of view, and Tyndall spares no sympathy for northerners as she details the harms some imposed on southerners as retribution for the war. The cast of characters is vast and many assume aliases to avoid the detection of wartime activities. Confused readers may need to refer to the brief description of major players provided at the front of the book. (Mar.)