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shannanh's review
5.0
Champion left Windslow GA and left his one true love, Cordelia “Delia” Bledsoe. Now Champion has a 60-2 record, but knows the real money is in boxing against a white man. His goal is to tain well enough to fight in a month or 2 time, but is also told by his doctor that if he gets hit in the face, the results can be detrimental. Champion then decides to go back to his home town to train. While there, he runs into the love he left behind 7 years ago. Delia is a local school teacher who has one child of her own to raise, plus has taken on the task of raising several abandoned former students.
It’s not too often that you want to knock some sense into the heroine and you’re rooting for the hero, but that’s how I felt as I was reading the story. Usually it’s the other way around. There were several times I wanted to shake some sense into Delia, but as a woman, I understand her wanting to avoid heartbreak again. Champion was a 17 year old boy when he left town, but did grow up, gained sense and came back home to reclaim his love. This was an exciting read that was full of surprises. You will not be disappointed.
It’s not too often that you want to knock some sense into the heroine and you’re rooting for the hero, but that’s how I felt as I was reading the story. Usually it’s the other way around. There were several times I wanted to shake some sense into Delia, but as a woman, I understand her wanting to avoid heartbreak again. Champion was a 17 year old boy when he left town, but did grow up, gained sense and came back home to reclaim his love. This was an exciting read that was full of surprises. You will not be disappointed.
cakt1991's review
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I’ve hoped to read A Champion’s Heart for a while, since I first read the linked book A Virtuous Ruby, and am glad to finally be able to. Piper Huguley writes such richly detailed and researched Black American historical romance, with this one being no exception.
Secret baby is a trope I don’t love, but the way Huguley writes it as a facet of Champ and Delie’s relationship, is well done. I loved seeing Delie thriving, receiving higher education and taking in orphaned children with her sisters. And Champ is a great hero, and I loved that he had dreams of making it as a boxer, but also wanted to make things right with Delie too. Their relationship is a beautiful one, and I rooted for them to work through the challenges they faced to find happiness together.
This is an inspirational romance, and whether you enjoy it will be dependent on your feelings on the genre. I personally liked that it felt believable for the characters, and given the general whiteness in the more mainstream areas of the genre, I appreciate titles like this that have an intersection of faith with the experiences of racism (or other marginalizations).
This is a delightful gem of a book, and one I’d absolutely love to see get more attention. If you’re looking for more American-set historical romance, especially with Black leads, I recommend picking this one up.
kjcharles's review
I wish someone wrote English histrom like Piper Huguley writes American histrom.
I've been following the adventures of the Bledsoe girls since the first, A Virtuous Ruby, and I am in awe of the way this author handles the setting, the characterisation, the appalling cruelty of American institutional racism and the way it affected people, black and white. Some of the detail in here is jaw dropping--the "breeding" of boxers, God help us; what it was like for black people to travel in the Depression era South with the risks inherent in stopping for petrol--it is just extraordinary to read. Really incredibly powerful and vivid.
I loved Champ, the boxer hero, and Delie, the wilful girl he left behind. The basis of the conflict, Champ's uncertainty about the parenthood of Delie's child, could have been more strongly developed, and didn't quite carry the weight it had to bear as the source of their conflict. But the romance was intense, and I teared up at the end. Secondary characters terrific as always and lovely to see the Bledsoe girls again (and Jay, always my favourite hero).
This is very much an inspirational, with a lot of focus on faith, which isn't to all reader taste, but hey, I'm a humanist and I loved the book. I strongly appreciated the different perspectives on that, including the characters for whom genuine faith doesn't necessarily translate to love or charity.
An author going from strength to strength.
I've been following the adventures of the Bledsoe girls since the first, A Virtuous Ruby, and I am in awe of the way this author handles the setting, the characterisation, the appalling cruelty of American institutional racism and the way it affected people, black and white. Some of the detail in here is jaw dropping--the "breeding" of boxers, God help us; what it was like for black people to travel in the Depression era South with the risks inherent in stopping for petrol--it is just extraordinary to read. Really incredibly powerful and vivid.
I loved Champ, the boxer hero, and Delie, the wilful girl he left behind. The basis of the conflict, Champ's uncertainty about the parenthood of Delie's child, could have been more strongly developed, and didn't quite carry the weight it had to bear as the source of their conflict. But the romance was intense, and I teared up at the end. Secondary characters terrific as always and lovely to see the Bledsoe girls again (and Jay, always my favourite hero).
This is very much an inspirational, with a lot of focus on faith, which isn't to all reader taste, but hey, I'm a humanist and I loved the book. I strongly appreciated the different perspectives on that, including the characters for whom genuine faith doesn't necessarily translate to love or charity.
An author going from strength to strength.
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