Hearts Under Siege

 Alexandra awaits the brief return of her twin brother Jeffy, when a steamboat he is supposed to be on explodes and she fears he is dead.  Refusing to believe her brother to be dead she goes in search of him, bringing herself into the middle of the Civil War.  Her grandfather soon gets kidnapped and she is needed to deliver an important message to Confederate officers.  WHile she travels the lands she is stalked by an unknown man, and protected by a handsome man she believes to be a Yankee soldier.  Through their travels the mysterious stalker turns his sights onto Thomas.  Now they need to struggle to survive and make it through the war torn lands.  Will their affections for one another be strong enough to make it through?

Within the first few moments of this book I found myself gasping, you already find yourself feeling for Alexandra as she awaits her brother only to have the steamboat explode! Holy crap, I may have also audibly whispered "NO."  There were a few things that had me a little weary such as the events leading to Alexandra and Thomas's first meeting.  Thankful nothing too graphic was described and I like that about Kelly's writing, there isn't anything graphic or explicit in this novel.  I would be willing to allow a teenaged reader to read this novel.  It is a clean romance, by that I mean little to no sex scenes.  GASP what do I mean?  How can there be romance without sex right?  Kelly focuses on the build-up of their relationship almost in a courting like sense.

There were points when Alexandra would have memories or dreams about something and it flowed with the same text as when she was awake, it would have been easier to distinguish if the text was in italics to differentiate the state of consciousness.  There is a lot that happens throughout the story from Grand-pere being arrested, to Jackson being shot, Alexandra trying to deliver this message through war zones and the romance building between her and Thomas.  The time period is the 1800's so a few things don't fit, but at the same time would it be as interesting if the dialogue fit exactly to how a Southern Belle and gentleman solider would?  I actually liked the more modern way of speaking as it made it easier to understand their emotions and get a feel for the characters. 

There are some surprises and twists to the story and the characters are relatable.  They develop slowly and pretty much stay true to their original characteristics they had in the beginning.  I have read other reviews about the story jumping around a lot, but I honestly do not see that within this book.  It all remains pretty consistent and true to the original plot.  When George comes into the picture, I am unsure of how Thomas figures out who he is, I caught onto something that wasn't addressed during this point and doesn't makes much sense, but I may have missed something in my reading leading up to it.


That being said, I enjoyed reading this book, I pretty much finished it within a day. Hearts Under Siege was the perfect novel to read on a rainy spring day.  I do recommend this book for those who like clean romances, historical romances, and romance in general, even chick lit in general.  If an I am not mistaken this is the first book in a series and I look forward to reading other books in the series and other books from Kathryn Kelly.  As for a rating, I would give this a 3.5 because there did seem to be moments where things didn't add up for me, but it was still a great book to read to pass the day away.