Description
Historical romance offers fascinating introduction
to 1846 New Orleans, its passionate Créole people, and a beguiling Créole belle named Désirée Bordeaux.
Arlette Gaffrey has released her latest novel, a historical romance titled
Behind the Columns. A native of New Orleans, Gaffrey returns to her roots
to tell the story of a young Créole girl who is in love with one man but
through circumstances beyond her control is forced to marry another.
The book’s heroine, Désirée Bordeaux, is a beautiful Créole belle living
with her aging grandfather, a heavy drinker and gambler who has accrued
massive debts. When he dies suddenly, Désirée learns that her beloved
plantation Chêne Vue must be auctioned off.
To her great dismay, Désirée finds herself being wooed by Philippe Jaunet,
a cruel man who lusts after her family’s plantation, as well as by the
handsome and wealthy New Yorker Lance Van Buren. Désirée’s heart
belongs to another – the man who broke his promise, broke her heart, and
married someone else – but she finds herself forced to wed in spite of her
feelings. Her tenuous marriage to Lance is complicated when Désirée visits
his home in New York to meet her in-laws and devious forces do all they
can to destroy the couples’ growing but fragile union.
When the historic patroon system is banished along the Hudson Valley and
a bloody uprising threatens, it takes all of Lance’s considerable powers to
work with the tenant farmers who have been with his family for generations.
As important as this work is, it means he is prevented from following his
heartbroken bride, who flees back to her ancestral home after a revelation
that threatens to destroy her happiness forever. Ultimately, Lance and
Désirée find themselves pulled in different directions.
As Désirée reels from the impact of her brief union with Lance, she is also
forced to confront once again the evil that Philippe Jaunet represents. With
her life complicated by circumstances, misunderstandings, lies, and
betrayal, as well as the workings of her own turbulent heart, Désirée fears
she may never know true love.
Power, passion, and deception rule as readers once again enjoy a seductive
immersion into Créole culture and the famed Crescent City in Arlette
Gaffrey’s latest novel, Behind the Columns.