A Lasting Impression

by Tamera Alexander Book 1 in the Belmont Mansion Novels series.

First published 2011

Amazon

4.7(1,420)

Claire Laurent longs to be recognised as an original artist, but her father has trained her to copy valuable paintings for a fraudulent business. Forced to flee New Orleans in 1866, she reaches Nashville and finds work at Belmont Mansion, where concealing her past becomes increasingly difficult. Attorney Sutton Monroe is pursuing justice for his own ruined family and must decide whether Claire is another deceiver or a woman trying to escape one.

Set within Adelicia Acklen’s household and postwar Nashville society, the novel contrasts artistic beauty with the moral damage caused by fraud, revenge and inherited privilege. Claire and Sutton’s romance develops through confession, restitution and Christian grace as both learn that a lasting legacy depends less on reputation than on truth.