Dacey; Bride of North Carolina is a pretty formulaic mail order bride story, with the woman being more detailed than the man. This is a part of the American mail order bride series, where various authors created their own mail order bride stories out of a common background about a factory that burned down and thus scattering the former work mates to all the states of the union. This one... was quite nicely polished but shows no creativity beyond the trope.
To recap, Dacey Butler went to North Carolina to marry a stranger when the factory she was working at burned down. She grew up on an Oregon ranch and loved riding, and she expected to be a farm wife. She did not expect to arrive at Asheville's Douglas Mansion... or that the handsome and ruggedly suave man, Braxton, to be her groom. Actually, neither did he, as this was completely his mother's idea. Braxton had enough of the conniving local women who just want him for his fortune. He was determined to resist Dacey, even though her vivacious spirit seems to be exactly what he was looking for... But will he change his mind, when there are gossipers around town who would NOT want to see them paired up?
A lot of these mail order bride books are written to a formula... Meet cute, reluctant groom, get to know, growing fondness, gossip and distrust, grand gesture, HEA. This one is more polished, but the idea that a girl can be confident enough to ride horses, travel across the country to marry a stranger, yet insecure enough to believe random overheard gossip, was too cliche.
Category: Historical Romance
Primary Plot: Young woman grew up on Oregon worked in the East, and had to become a mail order bride to North Carolina to marry a man who didn't even know he's getting married... (blame his mother)
Tropes: reluctant groom, mail order bride, different worlds
Overall Rating: 3/5
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