Title: The Christmas Mail Order Bride
Author: Kit Morgan
Publisher: Angel Creek Press
Release Date: October 2013
Length: 228 pages
Series?: Holiday Mail Order Brides #1
Genre: Historical, Romance
Sheriff Clayton Riley asked for a pair of boots for Christmas, not a mail order bride! Unfortunately for Clayton, his brother and mother figured a bride would look better on him than a new pair of boots! After all, he’d been sulking around long enough after the death of his wife, and his family decided it was time to take matters into their own hands and see to it Clayton had a very merry Christmas!
Summer James was young, she was beautiful and, an impoverished orphan. Who would want such a woman? Obviously no one. For here she was, eighteen and now of age to set out on her own. But New Orleans was full of men with evil intent for one such as herself, and she saw no other choice but to take the only offer for survival she could find and become a mail order bride. What she didn’t count on was becoming Sheriff Clayton Riley’s Christmas present!
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This is supposed to be comical and a Western, set post-Civil War in Washington Territory. It is a novella, so fairly short with an uncomplicated plot line.
Summer James grew up in a New Orleans orphanage, but now she is of age and must leave. She has two choices: find respectable work, but that isn’t easy. She is sent off to be a mail-order bride for Sheriff Clayton Riley, a widower. Except he didn’t order her. His scheming brother and mother did. Clayton cannot get past his grief for his late wife. He doesn’t need or want a bride. Not only is Clayton aggravated, he starts their meeting off … on the wrong foot!
There were some drawbacks to this comical story, though. There wasn’t really much romance. There wasn’t much relationship development. I enjoyed his brother when he would pop up in scenes. He was definitely comic relief. The mother was really pushy and I felt a lot of the book was Summer and her. And Summer cried all the time. All the time! There was no strength or resilience to her.
This is a quick and easy read, but not too terrible substantive or involved. It didn’t feel much like Christmas either.
Girl of 1000 Wonders 