Review: Enjoyable, Emotional, Powerful, Simply Beautiful
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 21, 2014
WOW.  This is the first book I've ready by Verna Clay...and I enjoyed it.  It's a bit of an emotional roller coaster from tears to compassion to hope, though (IMHO) not every gloriously happy.  The ending does leave us with a sense of completion, hope for a brighter future, a happiness during a time where life was so fragile and times were much simpler.ABBY: A MAIL ORDER BRIDE runs about 100 pages (minus front- and end-matter).  It's set in the latter half of the 1880s (my FAVE time period), a fun contrast of City Girl and Country Boy.  The story is rich in themes of loss and new love, family and hope, grieving and compassion.  I enjoyed the true-to-life characterizations of a woman who simply needed to be truly part of a family, and a man whose family needs her care.  The children's personalities were particularly spot-on.  Our hero, Brant Samson is a man I could fall in love with-- gentle, kind, firm (with his naughty son), never hesitated to tell his children he loved them, determined to support his family.  He loved his first wife so deeply, I just *knew* he'd come to love his mail order bride Abby just as much and as her own, unique person.  He did not disappoint.While not error-free, the editing is crisp and mostly free of misspellings.Sensuality level: moderately spicyLanguage: PGRecommended to fans of more serious-minded historical romances, particularly those in the mail order bride category.