The Promise of Canaan by Jane Kent

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When Underground Railroad conductor Quin Sutton is captured and sold into slavery, his only goal is to regain his freedom. Yet, when the opportunity to escape presents itself, he does not hightail it north as any sane man should and would do. Instead, he heads straight into the heart of danger to honor a year-old promise to a little boy named Thomas…to find Thomas’s sister, Evangeline, and conduct her to freedom.

But Evangeline is not the teenage girl Quin expected; she’s a full-grown woman, and a very beautiful one at that, and, from all appearances, she is most definitely not the saint described by Thomas. Though Quin is disappointed and appalled by the woman Evangeline seems to be, it will not stop him from fulfilling his promise.
Evangeline was born a slave and she has dreamt of freedom every day since she was old enough to understand what the word slavery meant. But she has secrets this stranger, Quin, knows nothing about and beloved people she will never leave behind. Quin’s assumptions, without even hearing the reasons for her initial refusal to leave, are judgmental, arrogant and downright offensive…not to mention, very wrong.

Such an inauspicious beginning does not bode well for the long, dangerous journey to freedom. But as the truth and the secrets are revealed, Quin and Evangeline discover that they have much more in common than only the driving need to escape slavery. Their antagonism changes to respect, admiration, friendship, and eventually the love of a lifetime.

But happy ever after is as much a dream as freedom for the two fugitives. They still have many perilous miles to travel and a risky border crossing ahead of them. And both would rather die than be captured…or see the other captured…and returned to a life of slavery.

Bookwenches.com “I found this to be an outstanding read and enjoyed every single page of the story.”