Book Review - Bride By Necessity

I volunteered to read Bride by Necessity directly from the author, a woman I have personally met at our Faithwriter Conference - Linda Glaz. With summer here and I'm free from work responsibilities, I jumped at the chance for a free book, as you can imagine!

Linda is, "married with three children and three grandchildren. Her triple-A personality allows her to be an agent with Hartline as well. She loves anything with the written word, and loves stories based on family lore. Rich stories wait to be fictionalized and written, stories handed down through families, no matter legend or exact truth. Linda loves the opportunity to write or find "just the right book" to shake up the industry. She's a charging train: "All aboard!'"

Bride by Necessity is her fifth Love Inspired Heartsong book with the sixth to come out in October.  As she describes herself, she certainly is a charging train. That's the only way I can resolve myself to give the review that I have to give.

This book takes place in England in 1855. It starts with bad news, as many do. Payton Whittard is the female main character. She is suddenly whisked from a very humble, poor beginning to living with a very rich man she always feared.

I wish that's all the description there was to this book. I was able to guess almost everything that was going to happen. Either too much was given away in order to sell the book or it was too contrived to make it move along faster. That wouldn't be Linda's fault. The Heartsong books are short. I enjoyed the characters: Payton is a tom-boy; Jonathan is still trying to recover from a broken heart.  I also liked several of the servants that Linda brought to life.

I got lost in a couple of places but I believe it was because of the pacing. It was way too fast. First they were mad at each other and the next sentence they weren't. It was hard to keep up - like a teenage romance but neither of these were teens. And Payton was hardly an orphan, as the blurb describes her. She was twenty years old - I'm sure an orphan status in the 1800's but it's still hard to imagine for us now.

I so wish Linda had the opportunity to write this book in full. There is so much more she could have done to let us explore the characters and understand the reasons behind their decisions much better. It's not an awful book but it did put me in frustration mode. I truly enjoyed Payton and Jonathan.

So, even though this was a hard review to write, Linda asked for honesty. I would like to know what you think of it.  Buy it!  Read it. It will take you a day or two and will transport you to another time and place. That's not a bad thing, huh?!

Thank you Linda, for letting me read your book. I can't wait to read more!