A Bride for All Seasons

A Bride for All Seasons: The Mail-Order Bride Collection is a collection of four short novellas by Margaret Brownley, Debra Clopton, Mary Connealy, and Robin Lee Hatcher. It is basically four books in one and each could stand alone and are around 100 pages or less each.

The first is And Then Came Spring by Margaret Brownley. The second is And Ever-After Summer by Debra Clopton next comes Autumn’s Angel by Robin Lee Hatcher and lastly is Mary Connealy’s Winter Wedding Bells. I will not go into the description of each story in this review because of the different story lines. I will say that the common thread for each story is only “The Hitching Post, Mail Order Bride Catalogue.” Each is a different tale of the experiences of four different potential brides and grooms.

I really enjoyed the mini books and read through them very quickly finishing in just a few nights. They are typical, historic, romance novels or novellas in that they are pretty predictable but still very enjoyable to read. Each leading character has their own personality and is fun to get to know. The time is set just after the Civil War when a lot of women want to get married but there aren’t enough men out there so they turn to the catalogue. At the beginning of each story there is a short prologue that helps you get to know who the people are and what they are looking for. Three of the four stories explain the mail order letters the other explains more of the predicament that the parties are in and why they are looking at mail order marriages. I find the owner of the Hitching Post, Melvin Hitchcock, a funny character kind of playing God with these people’s lives. If he doesn’t approve of the way a letter is written he tweaks them so they will be more appealing to the potential spouse on the other end.  Sometimes more than not the letters are completely different than what they started as and make for awkward meetings for the couples.

There is a spiritual side to each of the meetings usually one or the other feels that it is God’s will that things happen the way they do. I can’t imagine ever being a mail order bride but I’m assuming that it may have been pretty common place in the early history of our country. This book is fun and gives a good picture of the time. I can imagine myself being there seeing the sights and sounds of each of the small towns. If you enjoy light historical romances you will love this book. I would recommend this to others. Each author has done a great job and even though every story is completely different and set in different areas of country there is still cohesiveness between them.

I received this book at no charge from booksneeze.com in exchange for an honest review.