Review: A Bride for Keeps

About the Book:
Although Everett Cline can hardly keep up with the demands of his homestead, he won't humiliate himself by looking for a helpmate ever again--not after being jilted by three mail-order brides. When a well-meaning neighbor goes behind his back to bring yet another mail-order bride to town, he has good reason to doubt it will work, especially after getting a glimpse at the woman in question. She's the prettiest woman he's ever seen, and it's just not possible she's there to marry a simple homesteader like him.

Julia Lockwood has never been anything more than a pretty pawn for her father or a business acquisition for her former fiance. Having finally worked up the courage to leave her life in Massachusetts, she's determined to find a place where people will value her for more than her looks. Having run out of all other options, Julia resorts to a mail-order marriage in far-away Kansas.

Everett is skeptical a cultured woman like Julia could be happy in a life on the plains, while Julia, deeply wounded by a past relationship, is skittish at the idea of marriage at all. When, despite their hesitations, they agree to a marriage in name only, neither one is prepared for the feelings that soon arise to complicate their arrangement. Can two people accustomed to keeping their distance let the barricades around their hearts down long enough to fall in love?

My Comments:
I like mail-order bride stories so I grabbed this one when I saw it on NetGalley.  Everett, as noted above, has sent for mail order brides in the past, but they have jilted him, or died.  When a friend tries to fix him up with Julia, he's convinced it won't work--she is so pretty and so cultured, and he's not.  Julia has basically run away from home.  Her rich father wants her to marry for money--and her fiance raped her.  Needless to say, the physical side of marriage doesn't appeal to her very much.

The book is Christian fiction and part of the resolution of the relationship includes a relationship with Christ.  It also includes the Christian (Everett) realizing that he isn't always as Christ-like as he would like to be.

Like many romance novels, this one leaves something to be desired in the realism department but I enjoyed watching Julia and Everett get their happily ever after.  There was nothing deep or profound here, just an enjoyable easy read. Grade:  B.