Reviewed by Melinda Hills for Readers' Favorite

Tender is the first volume of The Trelawneys of Williamsburg Time Travel Romance and it does not disappoint. Rachel Sheppard is a modern young woman with no recollection of her childhood. Rachel, along with her best friend, Camisha, understands that the man who adopted her holds a dark secret and that it somehow relates to actions that occurred long ago at a plantation in Williamsburg, Virginia. By a miracle of time travel, Rachel and Camisha return to Rosalie where they meet the people responsible for the events that led to the present. Little does Rachel expect to fall in love, but her experience at Rosalie and interactions with the people who live there cause a dramatic shift in her thinking about the past and its relevance to the present. Instead of turning the area into another amusement park as her modern-day employer wants, Rachel understands the necessity of learning from the reality of the times and not to simply find entertainment in their re-enactment. The underlying question becomes, then, what exactly has been hidden and who stands to lose by uncovering buried secrets.

Past and present intertwine mysteriously in this delightful yet exciting historical romance by Anne Meredith. Strikingly portrayed, the past of Williamsburg comes alive in Tender. The viewpoint of the characters is clearly described by the reality of the times, whether it is the present as represented by Rachel and Camisha or the past as it was lived and experienced by townspeople, the gentry and the slaves. Although the story is a bit slow to develop, the action quickly picks up and draws you into the day to day struggles that marked the rise of colonial America. Well researched and captivating, Tender is a love story that transcends time and brings us all together. I truly enjoyed this story.