Boulevard of Confusion

Hart (Avenue of Betrayal) serves up a dramatic romance with a side of intrigue in this endearing if occasionally unconvincing second entry in her Spies of the Civil War series. In 1862, 19-year-old Beatrice Swanson and her widowed cousin Meg travel from Washington, D.C., to Richmond, Va., to visit Bea’s aunt. Bea’s father has shifted his loyalty to the South and asked Bea to smuggle gold to the Confederate cause during her trip. Bea hates slavery, but with family on both sides of the conflict she reluctantly fulfills her father’s request. Though she later sides with the North, her decision becomes complicated when she falls for Southerner Jay Nickson, a weapons manufacturer who deplores slavery but is otherwise all in on the Confederacy. To win Jay’s heart, Bea must overcome Jay’s suspicion that she’s a Union spy, and with fighting encroaching on Richmond, they rely on their faith to carry them through. Overall, Hart’s well-observed characters are convincingly complex as they struggle with the moral consequences of choosing between divisions of family and country, but the author stretches credulity in trying to make Jay a more palatable character by having him oppose slavery but swear allegiance to the Confederacy. Still, fans of Civil War romance will enjoy this. (May)