Veil Of Pearls
by MaryLu Tyndall
Slavery. But not the physical kind of slavery, although that subject is addressed in the story, but the kind of slavery we all find ourselves stuck in from time to time. The Bible says that whatever we worship, we become enslaved by. Whether it be wealth, success, status, position, beauty, fame or whatever we put number one in our lives above God, we become it's slave. That is the real theme of Veil of Pearls and the reason I wrote it. The story revolves around an escaped slave trying to hide her race and blend in with Charleston society, while running from her prior owner. Courted by a slave-owner, the exact type of man she loathes, she soon finds herself swept into a world of soirees and balls and plays, a world of opulence she never imagined and before she realizes it, she compromises her values and identity just to become a part of that world.
Seven months
Yes, the herione, Adalia. She has suffered immensely yet her faith in God remains strong. All she wants is to be free and make a life for herself, but she gets caught up in adventure and romance and a desire to finally be a princess instead of a slave. She's brave and kind and everything you want in a heroine, but she's flawed like the rest of us with deep longings and insecurities that get her off the right track.
There's so many lessons woven through Veil of Pearls: the horrors of slavery, how wealth and status and beauty and fame can never make you happy, how striving to fit in with the popular group can only lead to pain, and most of all, how God's opinion of us and the value He places on us is the only thing that matters.
Charleston, South Carolina seemed the prefect place to set my story. In 1811, the city had both an aristocratic upper class and a lower working class. It had both wealthy plantation owners and slaves. It had high society functions and a "season" similar to London where only the elite attended fancy parties and balls while the lower class remained outside. It seemed the perfect place for an escaped slave from Barbados (my heroine, Adalia), to try to blend in. yet end up socializing with the very type of people who'd once enslaved her.
All my life I've struggled to gain favor from people around me. In school, from my classmates, at work from colleagues, and even in my own family. Other people's opinions of me could make or ruin my day. I allowed them to dictate my choices in life. I became a slave to popular opinion. We all want to be liked and included. It's a natural human need. But when it starts to run our lives and becomes an obsession, it isn't healthy. Besides, I've found human opinion to be quite fickle and unfullfilling. The Bible says that "the fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe". In other words, don't worry about what others think of you. Only God's opinion matters.
About
The Author MaryLu Tyndall, a Christy Award Finalist, and best-selling author of the Legacy of the King’s Pirates series is known for her adventurous historical romances filled with deep spiritual themes. She holds a degree in Math and worked as a software engineer for fifteen years before testing the waters as a writer. MaryLu currently writes full time and makes her home on the California coast with her husband, six kids, and four cats. Her passion is to write page-turning, romantic adventures that not only entertain but open people's eyes to their God-given potential. MaryLu is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers and Romance Writers of America. Connect with MaryLu online | The Book She Thought She Could Outrun Her Past. Be swept away to Charleston of 1811, a city bustling with immigrants like Adalia, who is a runaway slave so light-skinned that no one guesses her past. Terrified her secret will be discovered, she settles into a quiet life making herbal remedies for a local doctor. But when Morgan, the handsome son of a prominent family, sweeps her into his glamorous world—a world in which the truth about Adalia’s heritage would ruin them both—suspicions and petty jealousies are aroused. What will Morgan do when he discovers that the woman he has fallen in love with is a runaway slave?
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