My Dearest Cecelia begins in 1891, years after the American Civil War, but the novel transports the readers back to 1837 at the dazzling West Point ball bristling with many handsome soldiers and beautiful women. One of the ladies there is Southern belle Cecelia Stovall of Augusta, Georgia, with her brothers, and she is saved from an unwanted man by none other than William Tecumseh Sherman. In the years to come, he will become the South's greatest enemy, but for now, he is a quiet young soldier who becomes drawn to Cecelia's beauty and character. After their first dance, Cecelia and William quickly fall in love with each other, but in the years to come, people like her Southern gentleman of a brother pry the couple apart. Cecelia is sent to London before going back to Augusta, but she and William never stop thinking about each other.
I am really surprised, but warmed, at the chemistry between the two. They barely know each other, yet they both spend years upon years pining for each other. Sometimes, their love appears a bit shallow (hence four stars), but the offense can be pardonable. Cecelia risks her life and country to try to communicate with William, but for years, there is very, very little contact. Even after they are destined to marry other people, and even after William's Union is pitted against Ceceila's Georgia, their love never dies. This is a classic tale of undying romance, and there is some history in the background. Diane Haeger makes the Southerners sound believable with their truncating of the r's in words like "for" and "your" - all the better for the imagination. My Dearest Cecelia can, I hope, satisfy the romantic, the historian, and the Southerner.