GRR Reviews The Lost Ex-Amish Bride by Faye Sonja

NOTE: Book is no longer available on Amazon Kindle, this is a link to Goodreads.

The Lost Ex-Amish Bride has a darkest hour that barely makes any sense, and things just happen, with not too many decisions to make.

It is the year 1884. Agnes was exiled from her Amish community when she brought back English medicine to save her mother. She thought of becoming a mail-order bride, but when the groom was rude, she broke it off. Temporarily taking care of orphans in the library, she almost died in the library fire, leading her to believe she's cursed. But she was rescued by Charlie, a rich man with a ranch nearby. Charlie invited her and the orphan to stay on the ranch, as they had nowhere else to go, but his brother is suspicious of any woman nearby. Can Charlie love the woman and child that brought joy back into his life?

Charlie was introduced way too late to make any sense. And the darkest hour wasn't even that dark. And the resolution was a simple change of heart.

Category: Historical Western

Primary Plot: Ex-Amish woman tried to live outside the community, and after a fire, was rescued by a rich man, but can they love?

Overall Rating: 2/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews The Crippled Bride and The Ambitious Miner by Faye Sonja

The Crippled Bride and the Ambitious Miner didn't have much of a plot. Things just happen, and the characters just feel so... passive.

Ava has a bad limp since she was 18 after a bad accident, which led to her being unmarriable. Her father was a politician, and appearance was everything. She was thirty-one when her father claimed to have caught her mother cheating, and kicked them out. Ava is unemployable with her limp, and her only way out was to mail order bride herself out West to California, where a miner, supposedly well-to-do, needed her to help the new community of Gold Creek. She can send back money for mom later. Upon arrival, the miner, Jackson, turned out to be co-founder of the town with political ambitions. However, the mine had not actually struck any gold yet. Jackson knew Ava was too good for him and the town, and worried about she is not ready for the rough life of the frontier town, esp. with that limp. Will they learn to understand each other?

This author's stories don't flow right. Things just happen, rather than being caused by character's actions and inactions. Farmer's complaint about the mine used too much water and ruined his crops was mentioned, then never again. An enemy of Jackson turned out to be stealing gold from the mine, but that's just a "sudden" deus ex machina revelation near the end. And there really wasn't much of a fight between Jackson and Ava after they acknowledged that both had lied to each other. the plot just doesn't flow.

Category: Historical Western

Primary Plot: Can a crippled woman marry a miner as a mail-order bride when the town seems ready to throw them out?

Overall Rating: 2/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews ADELINE - The Strong-willed Bride for Her Lonely Farmer by Faye Sonja

Adeline tried to set up a smart bride giving her groom an unexpected solution, but it seems the author forgot historical research.

In the year 1870, Adeline had to leave New York when her father died in debt and the debtor Lex Baxter, intended to take one of the sisters as payment. Adeline managed to stall the evil man for six months of mourning and answered a mail order bride ad... All the way out in Goldrush, California... // James Blair suffered some poor heartbreak, and is about to be forced off his land if he cannot get a good crop going. Finding a wife was supposed to help him free up more time in the fields, not about love... but Adeline may have some solutions to James' problem, however unconventional they are if James will just stop being stubborn... Or was it Adeline being unreasonable by insisting on hiring the Chinamen to help work the fields?

The story doesn't make sense on multiple levels. The bad guy was willing to wait "six months", really? Also, 90-99% of Chinamen that came over are male, no wives or children at all. Any research would have shown that. Yet the plot was local bad men, hoping to drive the Chinamen away, kidnapped their women and children. That made absolutely no sense at all in itself either.

Category: Historical Western

Primary Plot: Mail-order bride tries to help her husband by proposing some unconventional solutions to save his farm and her family

Overall Rating: 1/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews Lost, Abandoned & Secured by Her One-Armed Hero by Faye Sonja

Lost, Abandoned, & Secured by her One-Armed Hero is, hate to say it, a very boring historical mail-order bride romance.

In 1871, Isabella, a trained doctor in her thirties, had to leave the south after her parents perished in the fire that also gutted the town. She travels to the town of White Elk as a mail order bride to marry Kit. Other towns say bad things about White Elk, about beasts around the land, haunted lake... and ignorant people. Perfect for a doctor, right? What will Isabella say when she finds out her groom, Kit, only has one arm? Or he did not believe in doctors or medicine?

The story just didn't flow right. The theme was basically beat people over the head with facts, rather than slowly come around. Things just happen, not people causing things to happen.

Category: Historical Western

Primary Plot: Female doctor went out west as mail-order bride, her groom is one-armed and does not believe in doctor or medicine...

Overall Rating: 2/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews The Barren Bride & The Abandoned Baby by Faye Sonja

The Barren Bride and the Abandoned Baby seems to rely way too much on serendipity and the author's voice seems to be WAY TOO PASSIVE to make the story exciting.

Sidney is barren due to a childhood disease. She thought nobody would want her, so she was surprised when the mail order bride agency matched her with someone who wanted her with no child (nor expect any). But moments before she's due to get on the train, she found a baby abandoned on her doorstep. As she already gave up her room, she was forced to take the baby along... // Isam and his best friend were mining gold in a small town in Texas. He already buried one wife and child, and his heart is dead. He needed a wife but did not want any children. When Sidney arrived with a baby, however, Isam can't turn her away. But what are the chances the baby will find its way to the real mom when he's halfway across the country?

I honestly don't feel a connection to this story. Things just HAPPEN to the characters, and they react. They don't seem to ever attempt to actively change their situation. Isam is just doing the strong silent type. He didn't want children, but when his "barren bride" showed up with one, he said nothing, because he's a "good guy (tm)". And Sidney... She could have dropped off the baby off at a church or something, but no, she had to make it HER problem by taking the baby along on the train ride across the country. And obviously good things happen to people who are good. Hah. The twist at the end was a deus ex machina.

While I kinda enjoyed the tale, it's just way too passive for me.

Category: Historical Western

Primary Plot: Woman who can't have children found an abandoned baby just as she was about to leave town as mail-order bride...

Overall Rating: 2/5  (downgraded, was 3/5)

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews The Barren Bride Claimed By Her Bad Wild Marshal by Faye Sonja

The Barren Bride Claimed by the Bad Wild Marshal had an interesting matchup, but the love between the two characters is unexplained.

It's 1905. Faith Coleman is barren. She moved out West to Perry Lake Kansas to be a seamstress after her first husband left her because of her fertility issues. She took in five children because they needed a home. She never expected to fall in love with the former bandit, now marshal Joshua Reaper. Joshua found God and is mending his old ways. Faith is the woman he needs, but is he what she wanted?

Why did the two fall for each other again? Can the Marshal accept five kids? I honestly don't feel the chemistry here. Things just... happen. Didn't feel much of a struggle at all.

Category: Historical Western

Primary Plot: Infertile woman in wild west with 5 foster kids falls for the ex-bandit marshal

Overall Rating: 2/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews Orphaned, Betrayed & Cherished by Her Foreign Artist by Faye Sonja

Orphaned, Betrayed, and Cherished by her Foreign Artist is a western bride series that really made no f***ing sense if you stopped to think about the plot.

Zelda, Grace, and Elizabeth were sisters. When their parents died, she trusted the wrong man and all were captured and separated. Zelda ended up in the West, as a worker at a brothel, essentially a slave, but swearing to reunite her sisters. One day, she was suddenly told she'll be set free. Then she was dumped onto a wagon, blindfolded, driven to the desert, then dumped. Then another man found her, dragged her onto the horse, then dropped her at someone called Charles, and yelled the debt had been settled. It was clear that Zelda has been traded like property to a man who "won" her at a Poker game. Zelda must work on saving her sisters, as one of them was not far from her. She was also in the wagon with her... But she can't take Charles' help... He's a gambler and God knows what else... but he seems to be the only man that was kind to her...

The story made no sense when you think about it. Why would the gang keep the sisters close (only a town over) for TEN YEARS? What are the chances they'd all end up in the same Utah town? The next two books will be about the adventures of the sisters, but this one basically bored me. Things just happen to this woman. There was no decision, no action. It's all tell, no show.

Category: Historical Western

Primary Plot:  bad things keep happening to the three sisters with a suddenly happy ending

Tropes: betrayal, adventure, protector, woman in peril

Overall Rating:  2/5

GRR Reviews The Governor's Half-Blind Scarred Bride ( by Faye Sonja

The Governor's Half-Blind Scarred Bride by Faye Sonja is a Western Histroical Romance that was just too heavy-handed with its "spiritual" message. Add to it the anachronistic conventions like stiletto shoes and expressions that showed up 50 years too early, and you have a rather below average novel.

To recap, Tara Whitter is blind in one eye, and a scarred face only made her worse. That's why she's still living at home at 28, despite her kind and noble countenance. She works as a waitress at the family diner with younger siblings who also treat her like dirt. Until one day someone showed her another way: become a mail order bride, not to just anyone, but then governor of Texas... and become a mother to the widower's son. She understands he may not want her, after seeing her in person. But he can change his mind... will he?

The theme about looking past the scarred exterior was way too heavy-handed. It is the year 1874 and the characters are saying stuff like "so sue me"... which wasn't documented until 1950's! There's also wearing stilettos, but that didn't debut until 1906! Even when these details are fixed, the story is still really boring.

Category: Historical Western

Primary Plot: Mistreated and scarred woman became a mail order bride... to the governor!

Tropes: mail order bride, different worlds, scarred

Overall Rating:  2/5