Fliration Walk by Siri Mitchell

 

 Lucinda Pennyworthy is the daughter of a con man.  When she finds out her father is deceased, she leaves the finishing school where she was and goes to Buttermilk Falls to find her mother's sister and her family.  She wants to start a new life and leave her past behind her.  She doesn't want people know who her father was and her past.  As she is near West Point, she sets her eyes on marrying well and pleasing her relatives.  

Seth Westcost is in his final year at the academy and the top of his class.  He is well on his way to getting a sought after position upon graduation.  When his mother dies, he is unable to return home and his sister has to seal to the sale of the farm.  His sister the looses all their money to a con man who swindles her out of their money.  Seth knows the man was headed west but only the cadets at the bottom of the class are sent out west.  His friends urge him to break the record of getting the most demerits in a single year. 

Lucinda and Seth have their eyes set on each other, but when Seth starts to follow his friends advice, her uncle refuses her to allow her to speak to him.  When Lucinda realizes who the con man was that swindled Seth's sister from their money, what can she do to help Seth get it back?  Will she put into practice everything her father taught her?  Everything she is trying to forget?

I found this book to be slow to start and had a hard time getting into it.  While I liked Lucinda from the start, with the way she was trying to change and put her past behind her, I did not like Seth.  I couldn't image someone who would ruin a perfectly good record to try to get what he wanted.  How he allowed his friends to influence him and never once sought advice from anyone else as to what he could do. 

You could see the ways Lucinda was struggling to change in how she took care of her younger cousins.  She did her best to try to portray herself as someone else and doing what she could.  While she was doing her best to start over, a part of who she was and how she grew up was still there.  Seth also seemed to struggle with breaking the rules and not doing what he should be doing.  

Siri Mitchell did a good job in writing this book.  While I do feel it could have started a little better to draw you in a little sooner, it did end well.

This book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.   I was not required to write a positive review.  The opinions I have expressed are entirely my own.