Review: Turbulent mail-order marriage
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 16, 2012
1885Jason grew up in a family terrorized by a violent father. The tragic events resulted in his beloved sister committing suicide. To spite his father and prove him wrong, Jason has overcome his harsh childhood to build a coffee plantation in the Amazon. His friend Derek in New Orleans is the closest person to him and they correspond regularly. Caroline has come on hard times and taken a job with Derek and ends up taking care of that correspondence when Derek is busy - initially at his request, but the correspondence soon takes on its own momentum. Jason is unaware that he is revealing his innermost thoughts to anyone but Derek. He asks his friend to arrange a marriage and send a wife to him. Derek never sees these letters. Instead Caroline believes that she is doing the right thing by sending herself as his wife, even though she does not match his specifications.This is a very different romance, charged with raw emotion. Jason is not an easy man to like. He is tortured by his past and unwilling to risk opening his heart. He protects that vulnerability behind hardness, rudeness and insensitivity.Caroline is a widow with many disappointments in her own past. She has come to know Jason through his letters and knows that there is a very different man behind the cynical faade. She also knows that his people admire and respect him as a good man. She is on a self-imposed mission to save Jason from himself and she is prepared to bounce back from each hurtful episode.This is not a sweet love story. It is a turbulent, raw romance in a challenging environment. Caroline is strong, intelligent and determined. Jason seems irredeemable, but of course that is the essence of this story.