The sleeping night

If I could give this book 3.5 stars I would do so. Barbara Samuel has always excelled at creating romantic tension between hero and heroine, and you can't get much more tension than a black man and white woman in post-WWII Texas who know that they could be killed if they give into their attraction. Throw in a secondary character who survived the Holocaust and you've got a romance novel that was probably much too heavy for today's mainstream publishers. Good for Bell Bridge Books for pioking it up. Would have been nice if either hero or heroine had a noticeable flaw, but some of the townspeople are drawn in shades of gray, showing that racism wasn't just the product of evil people but of good people who are afraid to take action.

I enjoy Barbara's recent Barbara O'Neal books, but have a nostalgic fondness for her old historical romances. I hope The Sleeping Night gets enough buzz that she will consider more frequent return to her roots.

Note: I received a copy of The Sleeping Night through NetGalley.