FAIR PLAY makes great use of research Deeanne Gist used in her earlier book, It Happened at the Fair but moves the focus to social change happening in Chicago (and one can assume other urban areas in the United States of that time), giving a realistic, yet not too harsh, look at the time of the World's Fair in Chicago (1893). The romance this time centers around a female doctor, Miss Billy Jack Tate and Texas Ranger Hunter Scott.

Hunter's discovery of a foundling in the World Fair building he guards leads to the dismaying revelation of dire living conditions for children in Chicago's slums. Enlisting the captivating (and frustratingly independent) Miss Tate, he vows before he returns to his job in Texas he will make a change for the baby boy and others who live in the Nineteenth Ward.

I love FAIR PLAY (and Deeanne Gist's earlier It Happened At the Fair.) The combination of a realistic love story for the time period and the research into social change adds meat to what at heart is a sweet romance between two people struggling to find their place in a world changing around them. I highly recommend FAIR PLAY.