GRR Reviews The Bride Lottery (Prosperity's Mail-Order Brides) by Kristin Holt

The Bride Lottery is a historical Western mail-order bride story that managed to find a fresh beginning instead of the typical "widow/ingenue forced to go west", and the book was a delight as well, as it managed to deliver emotional impact while not needing any sex scenes. While some of the plot development are tropes, the overall result was still a joy to read.

To recap... Evelyn Brandt loved the wrong man, who got her pregnant, but he's a married man now in Europe. Everlyn's parents exiled her to live in California with her uncle, give birth, give up the child, then travel back as if she went for an education, and pretend nothing happened. On the train heading West she came to know 14 girls who are traveling to become mail order brides in a mining town with 40 bachelors who are looking for brides (and 2 who are not). One NOT looking for a bride was Sam Kochler, owner of the mercantile in town. Sam got his heart broken by Gabriela, who refused him three times, once when he's leaving the city, and twice more after he's established. Sam had no use for city girls. So when Evelyn Brandt stepped off the train along with the 14 girls, Sam, as the justice of the peace and owner of mercantile, ended up as the chaperone of all the girls, including Evelyn. As a former city dweller, Sam recognized Evelyn seems to be much more refined than the girls, and even he recognized signs of the pregnancy, but Everlyn fibbed it away as if she's a widow with an unborn child. But the more time she spent in town, the more Sam and Evelyn came to like each other. But things did not go their way when both Gabriela and Evelyn's parents arrived in town... Just as Sam proposed to Evelyn in front of the whole town...

The story does include a lot of characters, but it was not difficult keeping things straight, And while the ending was trope with arrival of Gabriela the evil ex as the darkest moment, the grand gesture was appropriate, and all the twists and turns leading up to it were properly set, rewarding the readers with a fun, sweet, and enjoyable mail order bride read that's heads and shoulders above the rest.

Category: Historical Western

Primary Plot: Pregnant girl exiled to California decided to join 14 mail-order brides to a mining town, was courted by mercantile owner...

Tropes: mail order bride, fish out of water, pregnancy, triangle, evil ex, family pressure, clean

Overall Rating: 5/5