A Bride for Keeps by Melissa Jagears (5 Stars)

Excellent Historical Romance

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A Bride for Keeps by Melissa Jagear (Bethany House) releases on October 1, 2013

This novel is set in Kansas in the Spring of 1876. Everett Cline has tried three times to get a mail-order bride. Each time ended in disaster. Everett had given up, and bless his heart, I do believe I would have to if all that had happened to me. Everett may have given up, but his best friends wife, Rachel, didn’t give up. She decided if Everett wasn’t going to try again, she would try for him. He was just too good of a man to be all alone on his farm with no help and no company and most importantly, no one to love.

Everett gets a big surprise when he’s in town and the train is due and everyone keeps looking at him like they know something he doesn’t. Well, Rachel, his friend’s wife, made all the plans and now that Everett was finally catching on to what was up, he was not happy. How could he be happy! The last three women had left him humiliated and he was pretty much the town’s laughing stock. But here comes the train and the most beautiful woman he’d ever laid eyes on stepped off and Rachel went to greet her like they were the best of friends! Oh, how he didn’t think he could stand for his heart to get broken again, but there she was, already tugging at his heart and he was bound and determined he was not going to open that door again.

Julia Lockwood had a past of her own and she had been terribly hurt by her father and her former fiancé. So hurt, that she didn’t want anything to do with men again, but her father kicked her out and she had no place else to go. So when the letters from Rachel started coming, they forged a friendship and Rachel told her about Everett and his need for a wife to help him on his farm.

This whole book was delightful. The back and forth between Everett and Julia, the problems it created with others in the area. And oh, the love that was growing, yet was being pushed back at every chance. Sometimes I just wanted to jump inside the book and grab both of them and tie them together and say “you’re not going anywhere until everything is said and settled!” I love books that draw me in and make me feel like I’m there and want to talk to the characters (sometime I do talk to them, yell at them, and laugh and cry with them). This is one of those books.

It’s hard to believe that this is Melissa’s first novel. Great job and I can’t wait for more books from this new author!

You’ve got to go out and get this book and read it! I totally recommend it to anyone who loves great historical romances! You can buy it from any major book retailers and if you have an e-reader you can download it in a second and be reading before you have time to say “mail-order-brides”!

I will donate this book to our church Media Center so our patrons can check it out and enjoy it also. I can pretty much tell you that everyone will love it. Some of our regular patrons who love historical fiction will be fighting for it! Just kidding, we don’t fight in our Media Center! 🙂 But there will be a waiting list, I’m sure of that.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Bethany House Publishers and the author for my honest opinion and did not receive any compensation for a favorable review. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Let’s meet Melissa:

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Bio: Melissa Jagears, an ESL teacher by trade, is a stay-at-home mother to two small children on a tiny Kansas farm with a fixer-upper house. She’s a member of ACFW and CROWN fiction marketing, and her passion is to help Christian believers mature in their faith and judge rightly.

Author Contact Information:

Website: http://melissajagears.com/

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/melissajagearsauthor

Blog: http://inspirationalhistoricalfiction.blogspot.com/

Facebook Blog Page: https://www.facebook.com/InspirationalHistoricalFictionIndex

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6929011.Melissa_Jagears

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/melissajagears/

Email: mjagears AT gmail DOT com

Endorsements:

“Melissa Jagears is a stand-out talent! Her fresh new voice is strong, stylish, and makes A Bride for Keeps a page-turner for anyone who fancies a stirring love story. Vivid description and unforgettable, heart-tugging scenes between hero and heroine transform the ever-popular mail order bride storyline into something much more real and three-dimensional. In this appealing novel, Ms. Jagears demonstrates beyond doubt that the aplomb of the writer determines the quality of the story.” – Rosslyn Elliot

“As slow and gentle as a prairie breeze over the wheat plains of Kansas, Melissa Jagears has penned a tender tale of a mail-order bride who takes both the groom—and herself—by surprise when love comes softly … quietly … to heal their broken hearts.” – Julie Lessman

“Melissa’s book is just beautiful.Her writing put me in mind of Janette Oke’s sweet prairie romances but with a bit more edge, which I found compelling. The heroine’s trauma at the hands of a man and the hero’s former attempts at finding a wife echo their feelings of worthlessness. I particularly loved how Everett, with his conflicted feelings finds in his own way he’s brought Julia to the same kind of pain that Ned brought Helga. The two couples, one who overcame through faith and one who didn’t, reflected each other in a way that made the whole story more powerful. I loved it.” – Mary Connealy

“A Bride for Keeps treats readers to an engaging prairie romance when God’s will and love collide, delivering a heart-warming, satisfying read reminiscent in the style of Kim Vogel Sawyer.” – Maggie Brendan

Professional Reviews:

“Beautiful, descriptive writing makes for excellent storytelling in Jagears’ debut. Everett and Julia are two stubborn, strong-willed yet vulnerable characters at the center of a story about surrender and love. With a well-crafted plot, Jagears deftly expresses the characters’ struggle to overcome feelings of self-doubt on their journey toward God and each other.” –RT Book Reviews

Melissa has also written a novella, Love by the Letter, that released on September 1, 2013. This was excellent too and the best part is that for now it’s a FREE download on Kindle. It may be on other e-readers also, so check your store. But, get it, read it, and savor it…it’s delightful also!