Despite her spoiled upbringing,
twenty-year-old Lenore Fulcher isn’t pretentious. She simply believes a
marriage should be built on true love. Her father, however, thinks she’s wasted
enough time searching for the perfect husband. He wants to marry her off to one
of his business partners—who is seventeen years her senior—an idea that is out
of the question for Lenore.
Kolbein Booth, a young lawyer
from Chicago, arrives in Seattle looking for his headstrong sister, who he
believes may have answered an advertisement for mail-order brides. Sick with
worry, he storms into the Madison Bridal School, demanding to see his sister,
only to learn she isn’t there. But Lenore Fulcher is, and something about her
captures his attention.
Is this the man Lenore has been
searching for? She may not have long to find out…
I am
writing this review a little bit differently than I usually do; you'll see why in a moment. Let me start of by saying that I have read many of Tracie
Peterson’s novels and, up to this point, have thoroughly enjoyed every one of
them. She usually has a wonderful writing style that draws you into the
setting, the story, and makes you love the characters. Clearly you can see why I
would be disappointed when this book fell flat for me. Now, I hate writing bad
reviews, but some things just have to be said, so I’m going to try to explain
this in the nicest way possible. And, hopefully, you won’t find any of the
information I relate contains spoilers.
Based
on the synopsis, you would think this novel—the first book in Tracie’s Brides of Seattle series—focuses on
Lenore and Kolbein, correct? Wrong. I expected it to as well, and was extremely
disappointed when I found that at least one-third of the book—if not more—was
actually about Lenore’s best friend Abrianna, whose own book is supposed to be
the third in the series (releasing in October). With so much of the book being
devoted to another character—and the six point of views this novel bounced
between—I had a hard time really getting to know Lenore and Kolbein. What
little I did learn about the two of them was not necessarily very good, with
Lenore being a bit shallow and whiny, and Kolbein being somewhat judgmental and
very wishy-washy.
On
another note, the romantic aspect of this novel was very difficult to find
believable. Lenore and Kolbein ‘fell in love’, and got engaged, rather quickly,
had a fight, practically broke off the engagement, and then all of a sudden,
with hardly any mention to their struggle with the subject, made up and started
planning their wedding once more. As well as that, Kolbein’s search for his
sister is picked up and dropped and then picked up again so many times it
almost seemed like he didn’t really care enough about it, but then he would be
in so much pain over it a few minutes later. And his sudden realization that
she had ‘grown up’ once things were resolved didn’t help matters either. Also,
for a man who was madly in love with Lenore, he spent a good amount of time
trying to convince Abrianna that she was a beautiful woman.
On that
subject, let me speak a little about Lenore’s friend. Abrianna is portrayed as
a heart-of-gold, fearless do-gooder who has no worries for her own safety, and
has serious self-worth issues. Without regard for the dangers of the world, she
constantly escapes the confines of the bridal school she lives in to help the
poor and needy in the worst areas of town, completely and utterly alone. And we
are assured—more than twenty times to be exact—that her friend Wade Ackerman is
like a brother to her and is VERY concerned for her welfare. So, it appears
someone is attempting to look after her, although apparently not enough because
she sneaks out anyway, despite the fact that three men are murdered right
outside their home. That is another issue I have with this book, as the murders
are never resolved. I am curious to see if that is part of a lead-in for the
next book, which releases July 7th, so I will most likely be reading
that one as well. I am hoping that—as has been the case before with other
authors—the second book will turn out better than the first.
All-in-all,
I did find a few things I liked about this novel. I do love the idea of a
Bridal School, as it makes for some very interesting stories, and the three
ladies who ran it did give me a few laughs. I also fell in love with Abrianna’s
friend Wade, and am hoping to hear more about him in the following books,
although Abrianna is a little to chatty and flighty for my tastes.
Unfortunately, I have to limit this novel to only three bookshelves but, if
fluffy, somewhat disconnected stories are something you like to read, you might
very well enjoy this novel more than I did.
Happy
reading!
If you want to try this book for yourself or pick up the next one in the series, you can find both here.
All credit for the italicized synopsis goes to Tracie
Peterson and her publishers.
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