Review: exceptional historical romance
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 20, 2012
I am a fan of historical romances(hr) but just read them for entertainment without expectation for a hr book to have any litery value. Most hr follow a very predictable formula and that is beautiful gal meets handsome well-endowed man, fight, love and fall in love then live happily ever after. Mail Order Bride by Verna Clay definitely does not follow the stale formula for most hrs. Without going into detail about the story, let me point out some vast differences:1. Abigail(A) is a 38 year old virginal, and spinsterish schoolmarm experiencing a life reflection and grief after the death of her parents.  (HR heros are usually 5-15 years older than the woman.)2.A is a plain woman as opposed to a beauty or raving beauty of the woman heroine.3. Heartbreaking experiences with no pat solutions.4. Book ends on positive note but you get the feeling that life is not going to be all roses but love and family will prevail.While I think the A character is much different then the usual hr but Brant is pretty much the same kind of macho man with the character of kindness.I laughed, and cried.  I wanted to slap the teenage son at times but marveled at A's patience.  The sex you typically find in these tongue-in- cheek books is there but unlike most hr it is NOT explicit or CASUAL like most.  Take that away and you have a book that meets Christian standards. This is not saying that Christians are against the beauty of sex between a man and wife but rather the book has Christian themes of love, kindness, patience and generosity as well as happy and healthy sex.I will definitely seek more Verna Clay hr with higher expectations than for most frivolous historical romances.