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Where I got the book: review copy provided by the publisher. My review feature on the Savannah Quartet appeared on the Historical Novel Society’s website.

This is the fourth and last book of the Savannah Quartet, and the lives of the Browning, Mackay and Stiles families are now set firmly against the background of the country’s slide into civil war. As with all the other books there is a romance plot, but this time it is a real-life tale of love and heartbreak and is my favorite of all the romance plots in this series because it covers a situation so often encountered by Victorian women—with so many women dying in childbirth, there were a lot of widowers around looking for new brides and it wasn’t all that uncommon for a young woman to be wed to an older, wealthy man who had already worn out a wife or two.

Price doesn’t sugar-coat the situation, and nor does she soft-pedal the treatment accorded to Mark Browning as he becomes increasingly isolated from his former Savannah friends. Mark has the choice of giving up his Northern views on slavery or becoming a social outcast, and his whole family is involved in the political conflict so he doesn’t get much respite at home either.

The only trouble with Mark is that Price refuses to portray him as anything but good. Left with no option to do anything but follow the dictates of his Great Nobel Heart, Mark seems, in Stranger in Savannah, to melt into a puddle of weakness. He becomes physically weak, too, despite having been a vigorous man throughout the series. So I wanted to smack him. And still wanted to smack Natalie. And could still never summon up much sympathy for Mary. And still kept reading till the end, and was sorry that the series had ended. I can see why it has so many fans. ( )