I LOVED this book. I have been in a bit of rut the past month or so. I have about 5 books started, and I just can't seem to finish them. I keep losing interest. I don't know if it is because I burned myself out by reading SO much the past 9 months, or if I have just been picking the wrong books lately. Well I could not put this book down. I started reading it last night after the kids went to bed. I read all night. I just loved it.

Tillie's mother had trained Tillie to be a Lady's Maid, so she could travel the world and live a more exciting life than one as a plain old maid. Tillie is Head Palor Maid at the Biltmore Castle in Ashville, NC and her chance to become Lady's Maid has just come in to view. Nothing was going to keep Tillie from accomplishing her lifelong goal. Until a handsome mountain man comes to work for the Vanderbilts, and it is Tillie's responsibility to train him. Mack falls for Tillie the moment he sees her and is determined to get her to admit she feels the same way. But Tillie knows that falling in love would definitely squander her chance at being Lady's Maid.


I just loved how instantly Mack fell for Tillie. Sometimes it feels like books try to rush the attraction and the feeling of love too quickly, but this felt very natural. From their first conversation I could feel how instantly he was enthralled with her. I loved reading how their story unfolded. And I love how much closure I felt at the end of the book. It wasn't a quick ending where she wrote a paragraph or two tying up loose ends. She really took the time to write out all the things I normal WISH I could read at the end of novels.

There were no parts of the story where I felt frustrated with the characters, and their decisions. I could understand where they were all coming from and why they made the choices they made.


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I don't have any favorite quotes, but I do have a couple of favorite "scenes". Deeanne Gist does such a great job painting the picture of what is happening, I feel like I am watching it rather than reading it.


Excerpt from chapter 12: The whole castle is in a hustle and bustle as lots of guests arrive. Tillie was serving as a Lady's Maid to one of the more persnickety house guests. She was a bit frazzled due to some poor circumstances at the guests arrival, and because this was her chance to show what a great Lady's Maid she could be to Mrs Vanderbilt. Mack and his twin brother Earl were helping her find a dress for the guest, even though they should be getting ready to help serve dinner.


"Found it!" Earl raised a wood brown shirtwaist with a diagonal plaid.
Tillie exclaimed from deep inside the room, then scurried out holding dainty slippers of the same fabric. "Oh! You did it! That's it! Thank you so much."
Giving her a broad wink, he bowed. "At your service, miss."
The smile she bestowed on him sucked the breath right out of Mack.
"You better hurry, though," Earl said, straightening. "The hourglass is running short."
"I know. Thanks again."
Earl laid the garment back in the trunk and headed toward the stairwell. "You coming, Mack?"
"Right behind you." But instead, he waited until Earl had disappeared, then turned to Tillie. "What all do you have left?"
"Thats it. I have everything gathered and brushed, so it's just a matter of getting it down to her dressing room."
He nodded. "Well, fix your hair. You're a mess."
She touched her head, found locks of hair straggling down her back, then shoved the shoes she held toward him. "Here."
He caught them against his gut, then watched her pull the hat combs loose. Whipping off the snowy cap, she handed it to him, too, it's long streamers floating down to rest against his trouser legs.
She yanked out half a dozen hairpins, stuck them in her mouth, lifted her face to the ceiling, and shook her head like some forest sprite, sending waves of black curls to her hips.
His heart slammed against his chest. Never had he seen a woman do such things before. The grace with which she moved, the silkiness of her hair, the lashes lying along her cheeks, the white teeth clamped around celluloid pins. All of it mesmerized him.
With quick, efficient movements, she gathered her hair into her hands, then wrung it like a mop and twisted it to her head, jamming pin after pin against her scalp.
Snatching her cap from between his fingers, she propped it on top of her head and tucked in the combs. "Thanks."
He stood tongue-tied and off-balance as if he were a youth discovering life's mysteries for the first time.
She rushed back inside and returned with hat, gloves, stockings, and who knew what all draped underneath a large ruffled petticoat.
"I guess I'll have to come back for the dress. Thanks again, Mack." Grabbing the shoes he'd forgotten he had, she rushed to the stairs, white streamers flapping behind her like wings.
It took him less than ten seconds to snatch up the brown-checkered shirtwaist and skirt, then follow her to the passageway which led to Miss DePriest's room.



xcerpt taken from chapter 26: Conversation between Tillie and Mack

"Quitting? You mean, Biltmore? You're quitting Biltmore?"
"Yes." Lifting his chin, he buttoned his shirt and adjusted his collar
"But why?"
"I'm going to be useful man for the orphanage."
She shook her head. "I don't . . . what about . . . where will . . ." She looked around the workroom at the wire, twine, and five arrangements she'd been working on for the past hour.
"I'd like you to come with me," he said.
Her gaze flew back to his. "Go with you?"
Stepping inside, he closed the door.
"What are you doing? Open that back up. We can't be in here alone."
He skirted the table. She scuffled backward. But there was nowhere to run.
When she'd backed herself in the corner, he braced his hands on either side of her head. "Marry me."
The smell of man, starch and determination enveloped her.
"I've already told you I-"
He kissed her. Not a hard, demanding kiss, but one as soft and delicate as one of her tea roses.
"Marry me."
"I-"
He kissed her again, his knuckles grazing her jaw, her neck, her collarbone. He allowed a hairsbreadth of space between them, but only long enough to repeat his entreaty. "Marry me."
He again sought her lips with gentle, persuasive touches, which she found much more devastating than when he released his full passion upon her.
Groping for her hand, he found it and brought it to his cheek. "Marry me."
He angled his head, continuing to coax a response from her.
Breathless and confused, she rested her other hand on his shoulder, then crinkled his shirt with her fist. "You can't leave. Please don't leave."
He spoke against her lips. "Come with me."
"But I-"
He kissed her more urgently, his body tight against hers, then he pulled his head back. "Don't say no. You can't say no. Because I'm really leaving. Today. And I want to leave knowing you'll be mine, just as soon as we can arrange it."
An ache, deep and sharp, gripped her beneath the rib cage. "Why, why?"
"Because I love you." He drew her to him, running his hands along her back and shoulders and arms, every allowable inch. "Do you love me? Do you?"
She squeezed his shoulders. Yes. Yes.
But she didn't answer.
He tipped her chin with his thumbs. "Do you, Tillie? Do you love me even a little?"


Ugh SO GOOD!