A powerful and unforgettable love story, THE MEMORIES OF BELLEVUE is the first book in the Bellevue Trilogy, a hypnotically compelling series that blends rich historical fiction with riveting intrigue. In THE MEMORIES OF BELLEVUE, La'Chris Jordan combines the narrative allure of Charles Frazier's "Cold Mountain" and the simplicity of Michael Blake's "Dances With Wolves" to tell the story of two unlikely lovers in the years preceding the Civil War. The year is 1861 and the possibility of war is consuming the nation, especially in the Union stronghold of New Orleans, Louisiana. But Thomas White, a wealthy slave owner and "conductor" in the Underground Railroad, is determined to rid himself of slavery once and for all and return to the North despite being torn between the past and present, racial prejudice, and the shifting alliances of an impending conflict. Yet, days before his planned departure, Thomas finds an old diary from his past -- a diary filled with private thoughts and reflections on Jeyne, the beautiful slave girl he shared his life and dreams with as a young man on his family's plantation.