Camilla O'Brien has inherited River Oaks Plantation from her grandmother and she moves in on August 29, 2005, just in time to experience Hurricane Katrina and all the danger and destruction it brings.
River Oaks Plantation
B. J. Robinson
Self Published
December 2013
River Oaks Plantation by B. J. Robinson is two stories in one but expertly woven together by the author to make one wonderful story of love and hardship with love winning in the end. The story begins in 1856 when Margaret Turnrow, the fifteen year old bride of Danny Turnrow, sees her new home for the first time. She thinks it is the most beautiful house she has ever seen and immediately starts thinking of the formal gardens that she will plant and she plans to model them after the gardens she saw in Europe on her honeymoon. The Civil War brought many changes and heartaches to Margaret but she had her gardens to help her through the hard times.
The modern part of the story began when Margaret's great, great granddaughter, Camilla O'Brien, arrived at River Oaks Plantation in Vacherie, Louisiana, on August 29, 2005. Camilla spent many summers of her youth at the home and is overjoyed that her grandmother left the house to her and she plans to restore it to its former beauty. She had dressed to impress the manager of the plantation but when she met him she was soaked to the skin from the pouring rain. Camilla and Noah Gautreaux, the plantation manager, spent their childhood summers together but at their first meeting neither recognized the other. Soon Camilla and Noah were swept up into all the problems and dangers caused by Hurricane Katrina.
The author did an excellent job in the development of the story in the way that she interwove the story of the nineteenth century with the story of the twenty first century. I like the way the author included the diary of the great, great grandmother in the story. All the characters were so real that they seemed to came to life on the pages of the book and I felt as if I knew each one of them personally. All the action was so realistic that I was living it right along with the characters in the story especially the scenes that were taking place during Hurricane Katrina. Thanks to twenty-four/seven television coverage of Katina, I had lived through that part of the story and the author's vivid descriptions brought the terror of Hurricane Katrina to life in the book. There were twists and turns in the plot and even a little suspense. Would Danny come home from the Civil War? Would River Oaks Plantation be destroyed by Hurricane Katrina? Would Camilla and Noah end up together?
I highly recommend this book to everyone that enjoys a great romantic story. This novel has two wonderful stories with one beginning in 1856 and the other beginning in 2005.
