Abbie's Reading Corner: The Anonymous Bride by Vickie McDonough

Thursday, March 31, 2011

The Anonymous Bride by Vickie McDonough

The Anonymous Bride by Vickie McDonough

Published: 2010

Series: Texas Boardinghouse Brides(book 1)

Goodreads Summery: Check yourself into the Texas Boardinghouse Brides series by Vickie McDonough, where you’ll meet Luke Davis, marshal of Lookout, Texas, who flippantly tells his cousin he’d get married if the right woman ever came along. When three mail-order brides are delivered to Luke a month later, he’s in an uncomfortable predicament. How will he ever choose his mate? Rachel Hamilton’s long-time love for Luke is reignited with his return to town. So when three mail-order brides appear, she panics. Will she find the courage to tell Luke that she loves him? Or take an anonymous part in the contest for his hand?

Ten years earlier Rachel had broken Luke's heart and married another man. Luke left town and joined the Calvary. Now he is returning to Lookout to be the towns marshal. Rachel is now widowed and has a 10 year old daughter. Her daughter is running all over town dressing like a boy and getting into trouble. Luke’s cousins think getting Luke a mail order bride will help him get over his past feelings for Rachel but the plan back fires when 3 brides not 1 come to town. Will Luke pick one of them or will his old feeling for Rachel relight? Will Rachel tell Luke the secrets of her past so they can move forward together or will she lose Luke forever?

I enjoyed this book. I really like series like this where you get to know quite a few characters and then get to read the stories of some of the side characters in other books in the series. In this book the main story is between Rachel and Luke. We also get to see the romance from Rachel's 10 year old daughters eyes which I thought was kind of fun. I found myself really liking Jack even though she was causing so much trouble.

The only down side was I felt the first book told the story from a few to many of the future book characters. All 3 of the mail order brides and both the cousins where told in this book and I found myself at times wanting to get back to the main story.

I found it interesting this book touched on rape, spousal abuse as well as child abuse. Lots of issues but the author did a wonderful job of working it into the story line. The ending was a good one but also left me wanting to read the next book in the series. Over all a great start to the series!

Book Rating