Category: Young Adult/Teen Publisher: Treble Heart Books
ISBN-10: 1932695974
Pages: 258
Copyright: November 9, 2008
ISBN-13: 9781932695977
Sixteen year old Elizabeth Hausman seems to have it all: a loving family, popularity and a special love interest. Life is going just the way it should for a teenage girl in central Pennsylvania until her father dies unexpectedly. Elizabeth's mother struggles to keep things going without her husband, but troubled by Elizabeth's reckless behavior with her boy-friend, she takes a new job, moving them both to southern Louisiana.
Everything Elizabeth thinks she knows about life, family and friends will be forever changed by the people she meets at La Beaux Plantation. As she struggles to adapt to the new climate and lifestyle, she finds friendship in unexpected places and meets a very mysterious little girl named Kasi. Elizabeth almost dismisses the tugs on her skirt, the crying she hears around the house, the way Kasi comes and goes and yet no one seems to mention her. Almost.
Even today, things aren’t always as they seem. When Elizabeth’s dad dies unexpectedly, her mom finds work as a housekeeper at a 158-year old plantation in southern Louisiana. When they arrive, Elizabeth finds herself immersed in a world out of time—for the inhabitants of La Beaux Plantation, time seems to have stopped in the early 1900’s.
Elizabeth is a high school junior unexpectedly transplanted from a troubled urban existence into a southern culture that could have come straight out of the pages of Gone with the Wind. In order for her to become the woman she’s destined to be, Elizabeth must shed her past and learn to appreciate the most important things in life—her family, friends and loved ones.
Ben, the plantation owner’s son, is a high school senior. His outward calm and southern charm belie his internal struggle with leaving the plantation to continue his college education and his desire to be with Elizabeth. During his final year of high school at the plantation, he and Elizabeth become fast friends and ultimately something more.
As the school year draws to a close, Ben readies for graduation and prepares for advanced college placement tests. Despite Ben’s focus on his studies, his thoughts always stray to Elizabeth. As Ben begins to spend more time away from the plantation, Elizabeth realizes she is incomplete without him. After a series of relationship starts, stops and miscues, Ben and Elizabeth find one another after Ben’s graduation and finally share a long awaited and much anticipated kiss.
Welcome to La Beaux Plantation follows Elizabeth on a year-long journey of self-discovery, personal loss, and blossoming relationships. It’s a slow southern stroll down the path to her adulthood. It’s steeped in southern culture, refinement and tradition. It’s full of colorful characters, dialog and an often unseen visitor—a little girl named Kasi.
Excerpt
I stepped outside on the front porch and it was just as hot out there as it was in the house. I realized that they didn’t have air conditioning.
“So much for a breath of fresh air,” I muttered to myself as I made my way to a rocking chair and flopped down in it.
“Found yourself in southern plantation hell, have you?” Ben asked as he walked around the corner of the porch.
With no doubt in my mind I believe in God, but I swear I never believed God could have or would have created something so perfect on Earth. Ben was indeed the most perfect boy I had ever seen. The way he spoke. He had a southern accent, but the way he said things just made them sound so wonderful. He could give an hour lecture on the Black Plague and get a standing ovation.
He came and sat in the rocking chair next to mine and I thought I would faint. All I could muster up the strength to say was, “What?” Between the heat, him, his mother and mine, it had already been quite a day.
Ben smiled. “A little too much South for you, darlin’?”
Darling? Oh wow. Okay, I can do this. I took a breath.
“I’m from PA,” I said. “We don’t have y’all and plantations there.”
He laughed and said, “PA, huh?” He got comfortable in his chair and began rocking it back and forth. “We’re the same as you are, Miss Elizabeth. We may speak with a lazy drawl but we enjoy the company of friends and family and we love with the same heart.”
Was that a southern flirtation? Is he flirting with me? I was so excited. I can flirt. That’s what I do. That’s why I was here, according to my mom, anyway.
I went brain dead. I looked at his eyes and his hair and his face and I felt like I was standing at an all-you-can-eat dessert buffet and couldn’t pick a single thing.
After I looked at him for what seemed like an eternity, he said, “You know my mama does enjoy the old-fashioned things in life. She has done her best to preserve those things in her children. We carry on her ideas of traditional manners, education and work ethic because we choose to do so. We know other things exist in the world around us that we are not a part of and it’s all right with us.”
“So, you don’t miss TV or going to school?” I asked shocked.
“No, we enjoy reading and being with each other. We know life here won’t last forever. We’ll grow up and move along and make our own choices, but for now, we choose to enjoy our family.”
“The girls told me about the Ringing In ceremony,” I said trying to act calm.
“The cotillion is the biggest event of the year,” he said almost excited. “I will be a senior so I will be allowed to present a ring to a junior this year.” He grinned at me. “What grade are you in?”
This book was so wonderous, as you already know this is how I felt after reading it -- brought a warm, southern breeze to my soul. Great work on your sites, too, Ame.
The second book in the Megan Martin series takes Megan, her best friend May, and now the nosy neighbor girl, Brianna, on adventures through a haunted house.
