Windswept Plantation, 1800s to the Present; St Gregoryville, Louisiana, Past and Present; Present Day Houston, Texas

Barrett Browning (yeah, her first name is Elizabeth), assistant Professor of Women’s Studies at the University of Texas at Grand Prairie, has been in talks with Edgar Preston Jamison, owner of The Windswept Plantation in St. Gregoryville, Louisiana. The plantation, which is in excellent condition, is to be given to the state. But all the family papers collected through the years, beginning in 1830, need to be inventoried and catalogued to determine if there is any historical value to them. Edgar and Barrett have almost reached an agreement when he dies, leaving his grandson, Davis, as executor of his estate.

To say the least, Davis is skeptical that such a young, non-tenured professor is up to the challenge of more than a hundred years’ worth of secrets and hum-drum daily life of a plantation. After talking to Barrett, he decides to follow his grandfather’s wishes and hires her for the monumental task.

Barrett can scarcely believe her good fortune! Davis has given her practically carte blanche. She can have sole access to the papers and write whatever she wants about her findings. She can also stay at his home in Houston for the summer for easy availability. But neither she, nor Davis, expect to fall in love or, that their passions would rival the Texas summer heat.

But not everyone is happy with Davis’s decision. His cousin, Lloyd Walker, demands on more than one occasion to see the papers. His mother, Cecilia, is convinced that something dark and terrible is hidden somewhere in the papers that could harm the family even now. Davis tells him no…several times. Horace Glover, also a professor at UT Grand Prairie wants very badly to have the papers. Both men will stoop to just about anything to bypass Davis and Barrett to get their hands on the papers. And Davis's ex, Sandra Reed, wants to get her claws back into Davis.

WINDSWEPT is smooth-as-silk storytelling. Davis is gorgeous and yummy. His brother, Bill, and his sister, Martha, are a large part of his life. Barrett is spirited and beautiful. Her brothers, Phillip, Greg, and Mark are worried about their sister and behave as typical brothers do. Eva and Jesus Gonzales, along with Ricardo, are the staff at Davis's home and soon become very good friends with Barrett. Ann Macela takes a large cast and makes everything work, and with the journal entries of Mary Maud Davis Jamison, tells of a living past at Windswept. Is there a deep, dark secret? If so, will Davis still let Barrett make the final decisions about the papers and what to reveal to the public? You will have to read WINDSWEPT, one of the best contemporaries I have read in a while, to find the answers. I think you will like it as much as I do.

Vi Janaway