The Blue Bicycle

I have had this book for over a year, I had gotten it since I had heard that it was basically a rewrite of Gone With the Wind, the author was sued by the estate of Margaret Mitchell and lost, but won her appeal.  It was claimed that after the first 100 pages things went into a different direction, while that it true, remembering the beginning I still found it very similar to the basics plot.  I did enjoy reading it and I'm glad that I got the other two books to find out what happens next, I didn't love it.  I would much rather read Gone With the Wind again.  About this book, and here is a spoiler.....Lea (Scarlett) doesn't just kiss Laurent (Ashley) but sleeps with him.  There is a lot of sex in this book, after reading this I think I actually like Ashley a lot more than I did previously, the Melanie character is Camille and I found her so irrataing.  I do like that the sisters get along better than they do in Gone With the Wind.  Francois is Rhett, and to me doesn't have the appeal that Rhett does, but he's more like able than Laurent is.

Would I recommend this?  I think I might only to see what others think about how close the book follows Gone With the Wind.