GRR Reviews Lone Pine Bride (Brides Of Lone Pine) by Sylvia Damsell

Lone Pine Bride is about the trials and tribulations of a couple thrown together by circumstances. It's more adventure than romance, but it is quite charming.

Seth was waiting for his mail order bride along with couple other townfolks at Lone Pine. The brides were just getting off when an earthquake struck the area. While most of the buildings in Lone Pine survived, the neighbor town Middle Pine did not fare as well. One of the brides, Hannah, took charge and asked for Seth's help, and Seth went along, but Seth was actually waiting for a different girl, younger, not this hard-charging adventurous girl. She said she came to marry Seth... but the older more respectable Seth... the OTHER Seth in town. But as they spent the next few days together, digging people out of collapsed buildings, helping people cope with aftershocks, they started to behave like a married couple, even though they were not promised to each other...

There's a bit of deus ex machina / gift of the magi twist at the end. Aside from some possibly anachronistic details, like having extra bits of steel around, enough to make a bathchair (wheelchair) and even the milking stand is made of steel (really?!) used to prop up a door before the house collapsed. But overall, it's definitely better than the typical mail order bride stories.

Category: Historical Western

Primary Plot: Can the mail order bride help the man she was NOT betrothed to save the town after a devastating earthquake?

Tropes: forced proximity, mail order bride, adventure, wrong guy

Overall Rating:  4/5