Tucker’s Paradise

Riley Goldheart is finally going to get to open the bed and breakfast she has always wanted. But her new plantation home is not quite as abandoned as her realtor had led her to believe. Gilmore Tucker has been wandering the grounds for two hundred years. Riley becomes concerned when she starts to have visions of Gilmore and his true love, Paradise. Gilmore’s tender ways with Paradise conflict with the reports of him killing his wife. Gil Baker, a descendent of Gilmore and Paradise, has returned to right a past wrong. Riley is instantly in lust and wonders if she could have a lasting relationship with Gil.

Gil Baker has come to the former Tucker plantation to right a family wrong. Although their love was forbidden, Gilmore Tucker and Paradise, a slave, did love one another. Circumstances may have parted Gilmore and Paradise but their love did not die. Riley Goldheart is a beautiful woman that Gil would definitely like to know better, but their differences may be hard to overcome. Gil knows that while some things are different in the South, some things still remain very much the same.

Michelle Bardsley’s Tucker’s Paradise is a charming book that will have the reader wanting more. The two romances – Gil and Riley and Gilmore and Paradise – are both heartwarming as each couple is unwilling to let society dictate who they will and will not love. While the physical side of each relationship is explosive, the deep emotional bond balances the relationship. I enjoyed that Ms. Bardsley took a very honest look at how some looked at and still look at interracial relationships. I also enjoyed that even though Gil’s ancestors had been separated by dictates of the time, their souls could not rest until they were together again.

Reviewed by: Tewanda