GRR Reviews Beth: Bride of Massachusetts (American by Ashley Merrick

Beth, Bride of Massachusetts, just feels like more of an adventure novel than a mail-order bride story. There's no conflict in the book.

Beth Mitchell and her sister India work in the clothing factory in Lawrence MA when it burned down, leaving them with no prospect of work, and she had no choice but to offer herself up as a mail-order bride, with the stipulation that her mother had to come along. Enter business owner George Montgomery. He is actually filthy rich, and he needed a wife to care for two kids he suddenly inherited from his sister's family when both his sister and her husband died of influenza. Having a grandma is a bonus to him. However, George needs to know she's not a golddigger, and she's deeply ashamed that she may not have been fully truthful in her ads. But together, they'll figure out the truth...

There's a secondary storyline about how George will want to figure out if the factory can be saved, with his investment, how the previous owner was hoping for a quick sale and may have caused the fire himself, but it feels completely secondary and almost superfluous. There's really nothing that's stopping them from coming together. There was no conflict on either the romantic front or the business front.


Category: Historical Western

Primary Plot: Mail Order Bride with her mother found a rich man who will take them both in; but what will she bring to this marriage?

Tropes: mail order bride, conspiracy, different worlds, sudden family

Overall Rating:  2/5