Review: Really Enjoyable story!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 13, 2014
This was a wonderful and touching story of Cassie; a mail order bride who came out West after losing her parents. Feeling like a burden to the Uncle who took them in. As a strong and independent young woman, she decides to take a risk in striking out on her own as a mail order bride hoping to find love and a brighter future. The hardest part was leaving her younger sisters behind in a bad situation but felt she could help them more by taking one less "burden" from her uncle and hopefully finding a good life that would allow her to eventually be able to also help them as well.Cassie had been lucky and found her new groom, Joshua, who was all she could have hoped as a wonderful, caring, hardworking man. The story begins with her lost in thought, grief and remembrance of how they had  built a home, worked the land and developed a deep respect and love for one another. Sadly, Joshua suddenly became ill and had died within a matter of days; gone less than a year after their marriage. Devastated and terribly alone Cassie is working the land as best she can alone, determined to continue with their dream, instead of giving up. It was a very different beginning to a mail order bride story but I enjoyed it and thought it showed right away the kind of character she had and person she was.Luckily, there were some very caring neighbors and townspeople who saw how it was wearing her down and they took it upon themselves to search out a new husband. Though at first Cassie was very angry, felt they were butting into her business and a terrible betrayal to the recent loss of her husband. Her best friend convinces her to just meet with the women and give them a chance, because they truly cared about her and had put great effort and time into finding the perfect man for her; especially since by now Cassie is beginning to feel maybe she just can't do this alone and devastated that she may have to give it all up, head back east to live with her controlling Uncle. A situation which she knows from her sisters recent letter, has become intolerable.Though not happily, Cassie decides to at least meet with the women, thinking they're just old busy bodies who can't mind their own business. To her surprise, she finds they truly do care, want her to be able to stay and convince her that it's not a betrayal to her husband and their love but a sad fact of life to survive as well as something Joshua would wish rather than for her to have to give all up to go back to a miserable life; which she also realizes would mean she could never help her sisters either, as their situation gets more dire. So she agrees to take a look at the picture and the letter from the man the women have singled out as the perfect mail order husband for her. She's very surprised at this introduction to their ideal husband, Ethan.This is just the highlights from the beginning of what to me was a very heartwarming, touching story of a strong, caring woman who was able to accept the realities of life in that era and growth of a beautiful, clean romance and joy of growing together, building trust as they overcome various obstacles to find a true and binding love.I've noticed some reviews on grammatical errors and repetitive usage of words which is true, there are some (which I'm finding true of most books these days) but they didn't take away from the story at all for me. It's a book that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys a really good romance without all of the sexual details, or others that tend more towards the religious aspects than the story. If what I read, that this is the author's first attempt at writing is true, I personally will be watching for future books; because though it's not a long book, I felt it was a beautifully written, heartwarming story that I thoroughly enjoyed.