Today is a good day my book loving friends, because it’s the release day of To Win Her Favor the newest novel from one of my favorite authors Tamera Alexander!
Romance meets horse racing in 1869 Nashville, Tennessee, and the stakes have never been higher for Maggie Linden and Cullen McGrath. They’re very lives and those they love will be turned upside down as Maggie’s dreams of racing her champion thoroughbred Bourbon Belle collide with Cullen’s secret past, and new dangers and old prejudices arise to threaten everything they both love and hold dear to their hearts.
A gifted rider in a world where ladies never race, Maggie Linden is determined that her horse will become a champion. But the one man who can help her has vowed to stay away from thoroughbred racing for good.
An Irish-born son far from home, Cullen McGrath left a once prosperous life in England because of a horse racing scandal that nearly ruined him. He’s come to Nashville for a fresh start, hoping to buy land and start a farm, all while determined to stay as far away from thoroughbred racing as possible. But starting over proves harder than he’d wagered, especially when Maggie Linden’s father makes him an offer he shouldn’t accept yet cannot possibly refuse.
Maggie is certain that her mare, Bourbon Belle, can take the top purse in the annual Drayton Stakes at Nashville’s racetrack––the richest race run in America. Maggie only needs the chance to prove it. To give her that chance, and to save Linden Downs from being sold to the highest bidder, Maggie’s father––aging, yet wily as ever––makes a barter. His agreement includes one tiny, troublesome detail––Maggie must marry a man she’s never met. A man she never would have chosen for herself.
Cullen and Maggie need each other in order to achieve their dreams. But their stubborn, wounded hearts––and the escalating violence from a “secret society” responsible for lynchings and midnight raids––may prove too much for even two determined souls.
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My Thoughts on To Win Her Favor
Years ago, I had no idea that Christian fiction could be so realistic and well written. I thought it would be stuffy and boring. Beyond this Moment by Tamera Alexander is the first Christian novel I ever decided to give a chance, and I was in awe of her writing because she was not afraid to broach very real subjects and yet did not water down the message of a loving God. And now, I’ve read each book she’s written, and have never once been disappointed. And after reading To Win Her Favor, that record still holds true! In fact, this is my favorite so far of her Nashville books.
The descriptive backdrop of post-civil war Nashville, the Belle Meade plantation, as well as Maggie and Cullen’s home Linden Downs takes you on a visual journey back in time. The characters jump off the page- both the heroes and the villains, the supporting characters, and even the racehorses become real in your mind.
To Win Her Favor is a beautifully written novel that approaches the subject of racial prejudice in a very real, very hard way. If a book I’m reading makes me decide to pray and ask God to reveal my own thoughts (the way Maggie’s character does in this story), then I’d say job well done.
This is also a romantic book about a husband and wife. And yes, intimacy between the two is implied, and those of us who are married will relate, and those of us who aren’t will see how a loving marriage can be. That being said, I believe that those intimate moments between Maggie and Cullen are very tastefully written, and very clean, and not inappropriate at all. God created intimacy between a married couple after all, and He designed it to be beautiful.
Many Christian novels I’ve read take place while a couple is dating, and the end they often get married, and live happily ever after. This is written as a marriage of convenience in the beginning, and we see love grow between the two.
This is not necessarily a novel for young teenage readers, but not all Christian books are supposed to be. Just because it’s a Christian novel does not mean that very mature subjects (intimacy, abuse, prejudice, rape, abandonment, neglect, etc.) won’t be discussed in a book. We live in a real world, with real evil, and real hurts. I applaud an author, whether they’re writing fiction or non-fiction, that can bring truth to light and offer the message of a loving God who can take our past and redeem it.
Regarding the depth of the subject matter of books, there are Christian novels that I love and have read over and over (Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers, for example) that I would not have let my daughter read at age 15. Not because I think they are inappropriate, but because based on the maturity of a person at that age, I don’t think they could handle the subject matter. As a young teenager, I may not have let her read To Win Her Favor just yet, but at age 18 I would.
I enjoyed this novel very much, and I give To Win Her Favor 5 stars and highly recommend it to mature readers.
Question and Answers with Tamera Alexander about To Win Her Favor
Q: To Win Her Favor is the second in your Belle Meade Plantation series. Can you tell us where the story picks up in the series? Is it directly connected to the first book?
Each of the Belle Meade Plantation novels are standalone novels, so each tells a complete story. However, you might just catch a glimpse
Coming in July is a Belle Meade Plantation novella—To Mend a Dream. To Mend a Dream continues the story of a secondary character we meet in To Win Her Favor, Savannah Darby. Savannah is Maggie’s closest friend and while we learn about Savannah’s struggles in To Win Her Favor, the culmination of her story is told in To Mend a Dream, a novella in a Southern novella collection entitled, Among the Fair Magnolias (written with authors Shelley Shepard Gray, Dorothy Love, and Elizabeth Musser).
Q: You are a resident of Nashville, which is a city rich with culture and history. Is this why you chose to set your series there?
I’ve always had a love of history. Southern history, specifically. Being from Atlanta, I grew up around antebellum homes, so when I was in Nashville on a business trip in 2004 with my daughter, we toured the Belmont Mansion, and I knew then I wanted to someday write about Belmont’s fascinating history (A Lasting Impression and A Beauty So Rare). Likewise, when I learned about Belle Meade’s thoroughbred legacy, the ideas started coming (for To Whisper Her Name and To Win Her Favor). I’m honored to write about these two Nashville estates and their real history. It never gets old for me.
Q: How many times did you visit the actual Belle Meade Plantation while writing this book?
Oh gracious, I’ve lost count how many times I’ve been out there (Belle Meade is only 25 minutes from my house). Just two weeks ago, I met a book club of about 30 women at Belle Meade. They were from Alabama, having a girl’s weekend out! After they toured the mansion, we walked down to the old Harding cabin, one of my favorite places at Belle Meade, and where Belle Meade all began. No visit to Belle Meade is complete for me without stopping by that cabin. It has such a presence about it.
I’m grateful to Belle Meade’s director, Alton Kelley (a descendant of the Harding family who owned Belle Meade in the 1800s) and to Jenny Lamb (Belle Meade Educational Director) for opening up the family files, letters, and artifacts to me. I couldn’t write these books with such historical detail about the house, the family members, and the servants without Belle Meade’s assistance.
Q: How much of the novel is based on actual events and how much is from your imagination?
The backdrop of the novel—Nashville’s history, the Belle Meade mansion, outbuildings of the estate, the family members, and most of the servants at Belle Meade—are from history. I often take documented historical events—such as parties, horse races, or catastrophic occurrences—and weave them into the fabric of my stories. Then I intertwine a fictional story that follows the journey of a male and female protagonist within that story world. In To Win Her Favor, that’s Cullen McGrath and Maggie Linden.
The basis for Cullen’s character is founded in the history of Irishmen who came to Nashville in the 1850-70s, and who faced very real prejudice from Nashville residents. Likewise, Maggie’s character was inspired by accounts of women who were formerly landed gentry (from wealthy families who were major land owners) but who lost everything following the war and the changes that conflict brought. The rest of the details are filled in by asking myself the question writers constantly ask themselves, “What if…”
Q: How was this book different from other projects you have worked on?
To Win Her Favor is definitely one of the more passionate stories I’ve written, and I don’t mean that solely in a romantic sense. From the start, this story was simply more evocative because it delves into the intimacies of a marriage of convenience, and also explores prejudice within a marriage—in addition to examining the prejudices between former slave owners and former slaves. Passions run high between the characters in To Win Her Favor. Everyone was learning how to be with each other in that time period, learning where the new boundaries were, where everyone fit.
As I read and researched for To Win Her Favor, I often found my own emotions stirred by real events that occurred in Nashville during Reconstruction. At times, the accounts were repugnant and heartbreaking. Yet at others, they were remarkably soul stirring with fresh whispers of hope.
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