Review: Wow!  What a First Book!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 4, 2014
This is a most unusual mail-order bride romance novella.  As I read, the story that unfolded caught me completely by surprise.  First of all, it is impossible to tell that this is Ms. King's first book.  It's so extremely well written!  Not to mention, the book is beautifully edited.  Furthermore, the characters are wonderfully well developed.  When we first meet Nora, she is a young, nave girl, who travels out west seeking adventures, looking forward to Indian raids, kidnappings, forest fires, and the like, just like in the adventure storybooks she likes to read.  As the story progresses, we see Nora grow and mature into a sensible woman with a more realistic view of life.After reading tons of adventure stories set in the wild west, Nora decides to become a mail-order bride and live a life of excitement, instead of "settling" for a mediocre life in Harrisburg.  When the story begins, Nora and Arlen meet for the first time.  Arlen is a widower, who suffered the pain and humiliation of his first wife's abandonment.  Arlen is kind, caring, and protective, but his past experience with his first wife has a major influence on his relationship with Nora, which becomes more apparent as the couple's life together progresses.After Nora and Arlen first meet and marry, the story then skips ahead some nine months at which point we get to see how Arlen and Nora's marriage is developing.  Unfortunately, things aren't going as well as they could be, as Nora, still caught up in her fantasy of a life of excitement, is disappointed by the reality of the life she is actually living.  The nave Nora is actually crestfallen because there's been none of the exciting events she had looked forward to--yes, Indian raids, forest fires, etc!  Try as she might, to hide her dissatisfaction from Arlen, he can't help but notice that Nora is not the happy, carefree woman he married.  Arlen becomes afraid that Nora too will end up leaving him, just as his first wife did.  Unfortunately, his reaction to this fear only makes matters worse between himself and Nora.The story then fast forwards several more months, matters between Nora and Arlen are up and down, but overall have not improved.  Eventually, however, things come to a head, thanks to a significant occurrence, and finally Arlen and Nora must face their feelings for one another and towards their marriage.The story that develops is extremely touching.  It elicited many emotions within me, from anger and dismay, to happiness and satisfaction, when Nora and Arlen finally achieved their HEA.  At times, Nora annoyed me with her silly naiveté, yet still, I felt real empathy for her because she was so severely unhappy.  When Ms. King described Nora as being haggard and unhappy, I was actually able to picture her in my mind's eye.  I was just as conflicted about Arlen's character.  On the one hand, I hated what he was doing to Nora--really his behavior was almost cruel--but on the other, I felt very really sorry for him because of the deep-seated fear of abandonment and the insecurity he suffered with regards to Nora.This is absolutely not an ordinary mail-order bride romance.  Nora and Arlen don't meet, have a few problems that they overcome in a matter of mere days or weeks, and then miraculously realize they are in love.  Instead, this story is a realistic portrayal of the lives of two strangers who marry, depicting the obstacles they must face and overcome in order to forge a lasting and happy life together.  It is as fantastic as it is unique...I've read tons of mail-order bride romance novels, I have a weakness for them, and I've never encountered another like this one.Although this is classified as an Inspirational novella, IMO, the Christian aspect is very mild...there are no bible verses quoted, and the story is in no way preachy.  Arlen and Nora are just two ordinary people, trying to live their lives to the best of their ability, who have a Christian faith with which they struggle everyday...just like most folks do.I thoroughly enjoyed this story.  It's a fantastic first book, and the author deserves many accolades.  Kudos to you Ms. King!  My only complaint is that I wish there had been some kind of physical description of Nora and the ages of the characters would have been nice (although that is less significant than physical descriptions)...at least we are given a description of Arlen.  Nonetheless, I highly recommend this book as an amazingly good read.  FYI, this is a clean romance.  Happy reading!