Fans of Civil War romances will have something to celebrate when "Seen by Moonlight" is released in January 2004. Seen through the eyes of the South, author Kathleen Eschenburg captures the conflict that pitted brother against brother, father against son and tore apart a nation.

At 18, Annabelle Hallston is an orphan attempting to care for a younger brother and coping with an older brother's departure to join the Confederate Army. Before her father's death, he and longtime family friend Peyton Kincaid concocted a pact that would join their families together. The bargain insured her father's debts would be paid, but an unwilling Annabelle would be joined in matrimony to an equally unwilling and much older Royce Kincaid, Peyton's son. Annabelle would be guaranteed security and a home for her younger brother, Bo, on whom she dotes. Though Annabelle feels she is selling her soul to the devil, a woman left alone in 1861 with no means of support, could not survive.

Readers will root for the plucky Annabelle, who is definitely the anti-Scarlett. The tall, thin Annabelle is not known for being a conventional beauty, but rather for her common sense and kind nature. Though Royce denies the marriage and will not consent to being a husband in any sense of the word, Annabelle maintains his family's ancestral home throughout the four years of devastation wreaked by armies of both sides tramping through Lexington, Virginia.

When Annabelle and Royce meet on the battlefield, more than just the boom of cannons are heard as the hard-hearted man finally loses the personal battle he is raging and loses his heart. The author weaves in historic figures such as Robert E. Lee as though they were old family friends. She explores the dark side of slavery, but also shows the deeper bonds that tie people together regardless of color. The book is a richly woven tapestry that describes one family's triumph over adversity. Though fictional, "Seen by Moonlight" could be the story of many families in the South during a war that shook our fledgling nation to its core.

Here's a bit of information to entice Civil War buffs: The author modeled Royce Kincaid's military service after the career of John Singleton Mosby, also known as The Gray Ghost.

SEEN BY MOONLIGHT by KATHLEEN ESCHENBURG (January, Avon, 416 pp., $5.99). DD

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