GRR Reviews His Perfect Bride (The Brides of Paradise) by Merry Farmer

His Perfect Bride (Spicy Version) is a historical Western "mail order bride" story that contains sex scenes (thus "spicy version"). It is better plotted than most mail order bride stories, and featured a good background of characters with room to add more brides in the future.

NOTE: Also available as "Corva: The Perfect Bride" which is clean.

To recap, Corva Collier had to escape her life in the East and mail order bride to a little town of Haskell Wyoming was her last chance. She was an artist, but her life in the East did not allow her to pursue that. She did not expect to find her husband a cripple who can barely walk and did not really wanted to marry her. But Franklin Haskell (yes, the town's named after his relatives) was an honorable man, and between marrying Corva to help her vs. sending her back and marry some other women in town (who has designs on his fortune), Franklin chose Corva, even though he surely does not deserve her. But Corva thought the same... surely a lowly painter does not deserve the richest man in town with a good heart... So in a way, they are perfect for each other...

While the plot is somewhat trope-ish (jealousy, inadequacy, etc.) the important part is the author was able to balance the inadequacy of both the MMC and the FMC. A lot of mail order bride authors made the FMC either too strong (super-woman who can do everything, from carpentry to housewife) or too weak (being rescued from various circumstances, like sold to a bordello or married to a mean drunk) or neglected to write an interesting MMC. This author managed to balance the MMC and the FMC with weaknesses *and* strengths and how they come to accept each other, in addition to the external conflicts like obligations and town gossip. And that deserves recognition.

Category: Historical Western

Primary Plot: Female painter married herself out west as mail-order bride as last resort; found a rich man who can barely walk as her reluctant groom...

Tropes: mail order bride, different worlds, fish out of water, disabled, no good for you

Overall Rating:  5/5