Christmas Mail-Order Brides: Four Mail-Order Brides Travel The Transcontinental Railroad In Search Of Love (2010) - Plot & Excerpts
I read this novella in paperback version as part of the four novellas in one collection in Christmas Mail Order Brides. This was 90 pages and I read it in one night, actually got up from bed to finish the end. Carrie Turansky received the American Christian Fiction Writer’s Carol award for this novella. Authors – I felt this was a great example of the use of Swaine’s methods from “The Selling Author” which is a book I recently rediscovered after reading it thirty years ago. Because it is a novella the writing had to be tight. She effectively uses all of his techniques with great results. I am going to be honest, as a writer I was a tad distracted by catching the various ways Carrie Turansky made use of these methods.Readers – Annika is a Swedish immigrant who was orphaned and worked in Chicago until she agreed to marry the young man who she thought she was corresponding with – a widower with a young child. When she arrives in Wyoming she instead meets his younger brother, Daniel. Her betrothed doesn’t even come to meet her. That is because he has no intention of marrying her but was threatened by his Pa, who wrote the lovely letters that made Annika want to accept the proposal! Little Mariah and Annika form a bond as Daniel falls for his brother’s fiancé. Great holiday read. I highly recommend it even if you only read the first novella by Carrie, like I’ve had to do. Three other lovely authors also contributed their novellas – Susan Page Davis, Vickie McDonough, and Therese Stenzel. Savor them on another wintry evening, too!Lovely voice, tight writing, nice story line, and loveable characters. I will be reading more of Carrie Turansky’s novels! I was privileged to share a table with her at the ACFW conference and hope she gets a very special man’s story written. I won’t spill the beans but I love this particular American hero. Bibliotherapy elements: Grieving, abandonment, and life transitions. Just in time for the Holiday season, Barbour's collection of Christmas novellas made an enchanting romantic escape. Three mail-order brides head west to seek new lives and hope for love as they meet their matches through Mrs. Mayberry's Matrimonial Society for Christians of Moral Character. As a delightful conclusion, the fourth novella involves Mrs. Mayberry herself.Carrie Turansky tugged on my heartstrings with Annika Bergstrom's story, a Swedish immigrant who must leave her newly married sister to seek a place and a husband of her own. When the man whom she believed to send for her rejects her, she faces the fear of abandonment, until an unexpected love blossoms right where God planted her. Tender, real and touching, this story kicks off the four-part novella collection with a gentle hero that stole my heart.Next, Vickie McDonough brings an action-packed tale of a young emancipated orphan escaping the odious clutches of her new employer. Jolie Addams is bound for Nevada to set up house with a shop-owner, but when a gunman holds up the stage on which she rides and shoots her traveling companion, her plans take a detour. Can she find love in a hostile land where her very reputation is on the line? The chemistry between the hero and heroine in this novella had me up past midnight to find a great happily ever after.Therese Stenzel writes a story of suspense and secrets between a woman scorned by her former fiance and a widower seeking a new start for himself and his daughters. Elisabeth Lariby is thrust into a contract of marriage with Zane Michaels, a gentle, philanthropic soul who longs to win her reticent heart. Their unsettled past seeks to drive a wedge between them, and they each must lay it to rest before accepting God's future for them. Finally, I had the pleasure of reading my first Susan Page Davis story, and from the first lines, Mrs. Amelia Mayberry won me over. It takes a writer of refinement and grace to depict a character with those attributes, and Amelia was all of that and full of warm genuineness, too. Facing retirement from her matchmaking business, Amelia has one last loose string to tie--her late husband's best friend Lennox Bailey. She had failed in her prior attempt to find Lennox a suitable wife, but with God's help, she is determined to succeed this time. Will the matchmaker find the love she has sown out to so many other happy couples? These engaging stories are sure to brighten many Christmas seasons with hope, love and a happily ever after.
What do You think about Christmas Mail-Order Brides: Four Mail-Order Brides Travel The Transcontinental Railroad In Search Of Love (2010)?
I enjoyed this book. Some stories were better than others but on the whole a pleasant light read.
—Elayna
One 5, one 4 and two 3s in this collection. so a 3.75 rounds to 4 :)
—Anne
I liked it. But then again, I'm a sucker for mail-order brides.
—docwho0101
Great book! Love that there were 4 small stories :)
—Joe
