Ask anyone who knows me, and they’ll tell you: I love romance novels. Seriously — after signing up sort of as a joke, I fell hard for Audible’s Escape Package and binged books about everything from Vermont apple farmers to Regency wallflowers. And while some people might want their escape reading to be as far from their day jobs as possible, that’s not the case for me. As a historian, my favorites are the historical romance novels. A chance to immerse myself in another time period, complete with a hunky hero sweeping me off my feet? Uh, yes, please!
This is what led me to complain on Twitter recently about a lack of romance novels set during the Civil War — I mean, if I had my choice of what historical world in which to be romanced, it would be my time period. While there are dozens set in Regency England, bunches in the “wild West,” and a staggering number in various time periods of Scottish history (which, okay, fair) there are practically no Civil War romances in the Audible Escape package.
I get that there are a million problematic things about historical romance novels. They’re not accurate or nuanced. I also very much get that romance novels are not lofty literature. Maybe I should be reading Jonathan Franzen or Jonathan Safran Foer (are they all named Jonathan?) but let’s face it, it’s not going to happen. I have limited reading time, and I would much rather spend it dreaming about being romanced by a kilted Highlander than being lectured at by an Intellectual White Man™, thank you very much.
So, when I found Tamera Alexander’s new novel With This Pledge at my local library, I snatched it right up. I knew from the cover it was going to be a trip: a distressed-looking white woman, dressed in Civil War-era garb, standing before a plantation house. What’s more, a blurb on the front cover assures readers that the book “demonstrate[s] that Christ’s love and romantic love can triumph even in our darkest moments.” Alexander’s book is part of the popular subgenre of Christian romance novels, which are less steamy and more inspirational. These novels typically involve a character learning to submit to Christ as they follow the path toward holy matrimony. (Emphasis on the holy.)
With This Pledge is no different. Set at the very real Carnton Plantation near Nashville, Tennessee, the story revolves around Lizzie Clouston, a young Southern governess working for the wealthy McGavock family. When the battle of Franklin turns Carnton into a Confederate field hospital, Lizzie has no choice but to become a nurse. She encounters patient Roland Ward Jones, a Confederate sharpshooter, who asks Lizzie if she will advocate on his behalf to ensure the surgeon does not amputate his wounded leg. Roland gets to keep his leg, and later Lizzie comes to his rescue again when she convinces Union officers to let the most severely wounded soldiers stay at Carnton to stabilize instead of going to a prison camp. Over the next weeks, Lizzie becomes the angel of the hospital, tenderly caring for the wounded men, sweetly ministering to her young charges, and of course, falling in love with Roland.