A Bride for Keeps

The last thing that Everett Cline wants right now is for another woman to step foot off the train looking for marriage from him. After three unsuccessful attempts to finding a wife to help him on his farm, and all of them not working out in his favor he has lost interest in finding anyone who will marry him. After his failed attempts at finding love through mail order brides, first one married someone else before getting off the train, the second one died before arriving and the third took one look at what he was asking her to help with on the farm, and opted for someone else. Now his sister Rachel is involved with a friend who believes she is just the right woman for Everett. But when Julia Lockwood arrives in town, she turns just about every head there is, women and men.

Julia Lockwood answered Rachel's request to marry her brother Everett in hopes of alleviating the constant demands of men wanting her for her beauty and what they hoped she could provide as the wealthy daughter of a prominent businessman from Boston. Not afraid of hard work, Julia hopes she can provide just what Everett is looking for, someone to help him out on the farm. She has already seen what her looks can do to a man that wanted to be a part of her father's business and insisted on getting it from Julia despite her attempts at refusing his advances. Now assured that besides having more than her beauty robbed of her, she's hoping she can convince Everett to marry her to ensure men won't be looking at her for anything more than being someone's else's wife. She isn't looking for love and hopes she can convince Everett she isn't one to run away from anything.

But since both Everett and Julia have been burned by their pasts, they will do whatever they can to put up false fronts that will do more than build walls around their hearts. It will also keep them from learning to love and forgiving those that have hurt them instead of making one another pay for someone else's mistakes. Yet what will it take for either of them to become truly honest and work to heal those painful pasts and teach each other what God truly wants from unconditional love? Will it take the risk of losing one another to make them appreciate what they really have or will they simply fade away into the sunset and suffer in silence with their dark mistakes?

I received A Bride for Keeps by debut author Melissa Jagears compliments of Christian Fiction Blog Alliance and Bethany House Publishers for my honest review. I did not receive any monetary compensation for a favorable review and the opinions expressed in this review are my own. This is such a believable novel for me when you consider the challenges of being a mail order bride. There is no courtship and at times even those marriages are often worse than remaining single and alone. I found Julia's story to be just what I would expect and loved Everett's challenge at trying to keep his promise to refrain from taking advantage of Julia just because he is married to her, despite her beauty. She works hard to prove herself something we all try to do to earn our way into God's good graces, such is the story of Julia trying to earn Everett's favor. It simply doesn't work. This is the first novel by Melissa Jagears and it certainly won't be her last. For those of you that love a great Western Romance, this one is guaranteed to capture your heart. I rate this a 5 out of 5 stars and it has found a permanent home in my library. Melissa Jagears is now on my MUST READ list!

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A Bride for Keeps by Melissa Jagears

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• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Bethany House Publishers (October 1, 2013)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764211684
• ISBN-13: 978-0764211683
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 1 inches