The Red Castle Women

I read this book when I was in junior high and in my memory had judged it better than the average romance novel. Turns out it was written by a Pulitzer Prize-winning librarian (she shared the award with Carl Sandberg, for pete's sake, but who has ever heard of Margaret Widdemer?). The story and writing have not held up well at all. It was published in 1968, takes place in the 1800s in upstate New York, and has a weird anti-Southern vibe throughout (“yet there are some honorable Southern gentlemen, alas”). There is also a lot of ordering about of the supposedly strong heroine by her mysterious but handsome husband. Spoiler: they discover they're cousins, but that seems to be okay in the 1840s.