Faith Meets Fiction

I have said over and over that I am a sucker for the mail order bride or the bride who marries someone she barely knows. I was excited to read the description of this book because it is a a collection of short stories about just that!  I am not familiar with all the authors, but I do enjoy reading Cathy and Kelly Hake's works so I knew I wouldn't be disappointed.  

There are 9 different short stories in the collection.  Overall the collection was good, but I think that the 7 in the middle absolutely went together in a collection and the first and last were a little out of place. 

The last story, Finishing Touches, was good, but didn't fit the wagon train/frontier genre.   The first story, Joie de Vivre,  was not only out of place, but just wasn't an enjoyable read for me.  There was too much french without translation and I understand a little bit of french from the years I took classes.  The setting of the first story didn't appeal to me and therefore made the story just ok.

THe 2nd story, Button Strong Bride,  was wagon train marriage that was right up my alley.  I liked the button strand that was a major part of the sweet story.  I had never heard of it before.  I don't know if is was a real tradition to start a button collection for young girls, but if it wasn't it should have been. 

The 3rd story, The Wedding Wagon, was once again a wagon train marriage that I really enjoyed.  It was a sweet story of a young lady marrying her best friends brother that she has only met just a few times.  I think I would have liked to have read more about this family.

Stories 4-7 were all connected.  In Halter to Alter four sisters are sent off to be mail order brides, but arrive to meet a man who wanted four bridles and not four brides.  All four books are the stories of the four sisters and the men that win their hearts.  The other stories are From Carriage to Marriage, From Bride to Pride, From Alarming to Charming.  I enjoyed reading about the sisters and how they found love.

The 8th story was A Vow Unbroken.  It was a sweet mail order bride story that I enjoyed reading.  It probably had the most spiritual content of any of the stories and made for a nice afternoon read.

The last story, Finishing Touches, was a good story although a little misplaced.  It was an arranged marriage were the sister took the place of the bride.  The setting was different than the majority of the book, but still a good read. 

This book was given to me free of charge from Barbour Publishing in exchange for my honest review.