FORSAKEN DREAMS by MaryLu Tyndall

Two things drew me to read this story.  One, the beautiful cover they put on this book and two, the author, who is a favorite of mine.  She loves to write about adventure on the open sea and this book was another great adventure.  I will say that at the beginning you are given a list of characters and it seemed daunting to me to keep track of everyone as I started to read.  But keep going, because each character will become familiar to you and the further you read, the better the story gets.

Colonel Blake Wallace is leading and organizing a group of people to the country of Brazil to begin a new colony.  The war between the North and the South has just ended and this is a group of Confederate people who no longer want to live under the rule of the Yankees. Eliza Crawford is a widow and was a Confederate army nurse who was married to a Yankee general (but no one knows that yet).  There are a list of more people you will get to know but these two are the central part of this story.  They both have strong feelings for one another but when it is discovered that she was married to a Yankee most folks on the ship want her thrown overboard.  Eliza though is someone who is always willing to help those in need regardless of how she is treated.  The Colonel has a hard time forgetting and forgiving and I appreciated the flawed characters and the way the importance of forgiveness was stressed in this story.  There was no lack of adventure, danger, intrigue and romance in this story.  It left itself wide open for other stories in this series as the colony lands in Brazil and begins their new adventure.  Looking forward to reading more in this series.

The bio on this author at the back of the book says "her passion is to write page-turning, romantic adventures that not only entertain but open people's eyes to their God-given potential."  I would say this books hits that mark!  So come aboard and be prepared for some rough seas ahead.