I was attending a Rotary Club meeting this evening and their guest speaker was Nancy Brewer. She is an HF author living in my own back yard, apparently--about 20 miles from my house here in Charlotte, NC.  She's written a series about the outbreak of 'The War of Northern Aggression' and apparently is good enough to have written and published at least four sequel novels to Carolina Rain, her debut novel.

So, taking one for the team, I promptly purchased the first in the series and will report back to you, my fine friends.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11461757-carolina-rain

http://nancybbrewer.com/carolina_rain.html  (this link is to chapter 1 by way of a preview)

It seems I only see positive reviews on Goodreads. That's encouraging!

Always happy to learn about new authors! Thank for being the guinea pig, Colleen!