3.5 stars. This was a fun, quick read. I'm always a sucker for marriage of convenience stories, so that made this an enjoyable read. I was also happy that this wasn't as much of an instalove story as some of MLM's other books. But I still would have loved to watch them fall in love a little more--like actually witness more interactions between the couple and etc. instead of the girl just suddenly realizing she has been in love with the guy forever and just ignored her feelings before.So if you're in for a fun, novella length love story this is a good pick. (Not amazing, but sometimes you just want a snickers bar instead of fine chocolate). I met Marcia over seven years ago. Wow, I can’t believe it’s been that long. She had just written Dusty Britches. At the time I was not interested at all in romance books. Why you ask? Because many of the romance books today are pretty dirty. I’m not only talking about the content, but also the cover itself. So needless to say, when I met Marcia and I found out she was a romance writer, I inwardly cringed.However, I’m grateful to say that due to her enthusiastic and bubbly personality (plus she told me how one of the scenes in the book came from a real life experience), I decided to give it a try. I was pleasantly overjoyed, and have kept up on reading her books ever since.A Bargained-For Bride is one of her latest books, and isn’t too big. So it is a quick, easy read. I actually read it in half a day (remember, I’m a voracious reader J). A Bargained-For Bride follows an 18-year-old woman, Jilly Adams, through the trials of young love, embarrassment and humiliation, and finally true love. It begins when Jilly is courting Jack Taylor, the most handsome young man in Mourning Dove Creek – well the second most handsome man according to Jilly – and Jack has decided to court Jilly over all the other young women. Needless to say she is quite thrilled!However, her heart is broken when she finds out that Boone Ramsey, the town hero and a stranger to her as well as the most handsome man in Mourning Dove Creek, made a bargain with her Grandpa Doolin Adams…Boone would take care of Jilly, if he could have her hand in marriage. Jilly is completely distraught that her grandpa has accepted the bargain despite her obvious love for Jack. She runs to Jack and explains what has happened, and he doesn’t care. Jilly realizes that he had no real intentions toward her anyway, and is humiliated and embarrassed. Therefore, she honors the bargain her grandpa and Boone had made, and becomes Boone’s wife.This was quite a bit shorter book than many of Marcia’s previous books, which I was surprised, but also grateful. I love her long books, but sometimes I just want something I can read quickly that uplifts and makes me smile in the moment. This is one of those books. When I finished it, I felt satisfied and went to bed with a smile on my face.Now, I love Marcia to death, so this is said out of the utmost love and respect J. One thing that bugs me about many of Marcia’s books is the misspellings, missing words, or punctuation and grammatical errors. As I said in my last post, I’m a Technical Writer/Editor, and so I’m trained to find those things and fix them. However, I am happy to say that I didn’t find as many mistakes as I have found in some of her past books.I recommend this book to all those female hearts that want a feeling of romance, a smile to their face, and a contented sigh of satisfaction added to their day. Go and enjoy!
What do You think about A Bargained-For Bride (2001)?
Loved this little novella. It was cute, the only downfall- it was done in one afternoon!
—pravn
What a fun little story. I really enjoyed seeing the characters open up to each other!
—jon
So sweet! I loved it. and I wished it was longer!
—kriztianangel_27
Cute, little romance, exactly the way I like it!
—Nathan
