Review: Much to dislike; much to recommend
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 20, 2014
I borrowed (as it's lending enabled by the publisher) a friend's purchased copy of THE MAIL ORDER BRIDE by Diana Bold.  I'm simply not willing to spend $5.99 on a book that's 108 pages (minus front- and end-matter)...especially as this is my first exposure to Ms. Bold's work.  I wasn't sure whether to expect it would be worth every penny or not.  As it turned out, I'm glad I borrowed it.  I have (upon occasion) spent that much on a novella by an author I adore (and automatically buy anything and everything they put out)....but Ms. Bold was an unknown to me.  I see she's published many titles and no doubt has a following that doesn't flinch at what seemed to me to be a significantly overpriced novella.Sensuality level: spicy, hot, explicit (not sure if the author was going for erotica...but it fell short of that)Language: Rated R, anything goes, often crassTHE GOOD:~ Very well written.  Ms. Bold's writing is clear and concise.  Point of view is solid and deep.~ A damaged hero (Luke Chandler)  whose approach to our heroine (desperate mail order bride Sarah Montgomery) is coarse and mean...but the author motivates this rotten behavior very, very well.  I could believe he'd behave this way.  Because he felt so poorly about how he treated her, I found I liked him, despite it all.~ Very entertaining storytelling.  Portrayal of Colorado Territory seemed (much, but not all, of the time) to be historically accurate.~ Portrayal of a wounded war veteran was rich with truths about human nature.~ Dynamics between Luke (our dubious hero) and his family members told a lot of truth about family dynamics; brothers are often both aggravating and our best source of help.~ I could believe the hero and heroine grew to love each other.~ Despite the brevity of the conclusion, I found the novella's resolution satisfying.THE BAD:~ Though novella was clearly professionally edited, there were still errors.  Misuse of homophones grates on me worse than most travesties of the English language: calloused does not equal callused.~ Crass language in the heroine's point of view didn't ring true.  In the hero's, yes, but the heroine's, no.  Couldn't believe she'd refer to her own anatomy with such lewd word selections.~ While well motivated, I didn't like that the hero took so very long to decide marrying Sarah was the right thing to do.  He knew exactly what he was costing her...and while he cared, he didn't do anything about it until the consequences were thrown in her face.~ We never did understand why this little town in the Colorado Territory were full of such judgmental people.  Their refusal to treat Sarah cordially and with a modicum of decency, based upon their assumptions of her morality, seemed forced-- and not a fair representation of human nature....even for post War Between the States era.  Come on!  Where are the Polyannas who want to believe the good in everyone? who take what a person says at face value?Recommended, with reservation, to fans of mail order bride romances, fans of historical American frontier romances, etc.