A Bride for Keeps by Melissa Jagears

Book Details:
Title: A Bride for Keeps
Author: Melissa Jagears
2013, Bethany House
ISBN: 0764211684
Genre: Christian Historical Fiction

Book Summary:
Everett Cline will never humiliate himself by seeking a mail-order bride. Not again. He's already been jilted by three mail-order brides and figures a wife just isn't in his future. However, a well-meaning neighbor hasn't given up on seeing him settled, so she goes behind his back to bring yet another woman to town for him.

Julia Lockwood has never been anything more than a pretty pawn for her father or a business acquisition for her former fiance. A mail-order marriage in faraway Kansas is a last resort, but she'll do anything to leave her life in Massachusetts and the heartbreak she's experienced there.

Although Everett doesn't see how a beautiful, cultured woman like Julia could be happy sharing his simple life, he could really use a helpmate on his homestead. Determined to prove she's more than just a pretty face, Julia agrees to a marriage in name only. Faced with the harsh realities of life on the prairie and hesitant to explore the tentative feelings growing between them, can Everett and Julia ever let each other in long enough to fall in love?

My Review:
I don't have anything very inspiring to say about this book. It is told from the POV of both Everett and Julia. They are both nice characters and I am always a sucker for a good marriage of convenience-type book. It was well-written and had kind of a different twist in the idea that Everett had been jilted by several other mail-order brides previously.

It just seemed like it had a hard time keeping my attention. I found it a little weird that the other brides didn't want Everett since he seemed nice and handsome (I mean... what else can you ask for when you come out on a train to meet a stranger?). I also found the main accident that happened a little far-fetched and contrived. 

Overall though, I liked the characters and the story. It just wasn't awe-inspiring for me. It was a good, clean, typical mail-order bride historical fiction.

Disclosure: This book was sent to me free of charge by Bethany House publishers for my honest review. No other compensation was received and all thoughts and opinions are strictly my own.