Review: Beckham Brides Finale, Now Onto First in Suitors of Seattle!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 12, 2013
The Bechkam Brides Series has been interesting and so much fun. Harriett Long, the owner of the original Beckham Brides mail order bride business, finally decides to begin her own new married life by taking a giant leap and becoming a mail order bride! Harriett has been very busy for years, successfully placing brides, while trying to overcome her physical and psychological abuse from her first marriage. She has felt, if she could find the right man for each of her brides, then maybe they would not be as naive as she was and marry the wrong man. She and her faithful butler Higgins, have always investigated each gentleman to make sure her brides made the right choice, as well as sending off each bride with the promise to be there for them if their marriages did not work out.One letter in particular had captured her interest. Harriett begains a correspondence with Max Farmer, who runs a lumber camp in Washington Territory. Harriett has written Max for two years, and has convinced him to wait an additional year for her to accept his marriage proposal. Finally she is off to Washington Territory, but not before she has her faithful butler Higgins, travel first to Washington Territory in order to investigate Max. Readers of the popular Beckham Brides Series have been wondering about Harriett throughout the series and the mysteries of her noticeable limp. Now we finally learn the entire horrible tale, the deep, secret connection between Harriett and Higgins, and why it is so important for Harriett to see that each Beckham Bride marry the right man.Harriett's new marriage to Max is totally different from her horrible first marriage. As Harriett settles in and becomes comfortable with Max, Max is becoming more uncomfortable with Higgins and his strange connection with Harriett. Before there can be problems within her new marriage over this strong connection, Harriett and Higgins decide to tell the awful tale of how a woman of means and her butler could have such a close tie. The story is a difficult one. Once Harriett and Higgins tell their secrets, a new business begins to take shape for Harriett and Higgins.Harriett, always having something to do while running a very busy mail order bride service, is falling deeper in love with Max, but is finding a life of leisure difficult. What is Harriett to do with two overprotective men in her life....one a loving husband and the other a loving father figure? Now that she has shared her difficult past with Max, his sister and brother-in-law, Harriett realizes, when she meets another battered woman in the local mercantile, what she must do; especially when she has married into a family with eight precocious and exuberant nieces, all beautifully named for particular flowers.Harriett purchases a home in the area for battered wives, and after a surprising development for Higgins, Harriett's oldest niece, Rose, who is the same naive, sixteen year old Harriett was when she first married, wants to marry quickly. In a lumber town, where men outnumber women three to one, Harriett realizes she must begin to investigate the men who will soon be courting her nieces. So now an even more intersting and fun series is about to begin with "Suitors of Seattle!"This reviewer must admit that it is sad to see the Beckham Brides series end, but with Harriett's exciting new life with Max and finally her own children, the opening of a battered wives shelter, plus her busiest new project to-date, arranging successful marriages for eight flowery nieces, Harriett's life, as well as the Beckham Brides fans, has just gotten even more interesting! I highly recommend this series. I can hardly wait for more excitement with all of the interesting characters, old and new, introduced to us in this book as well as the upcoming eight books in the new series!