Saturday, August 23, 2008

The Bride Bargain-Kelly Eileen Hake

The Bride Bargain
Kelly Eileen Hake
Barbour, Sep 2008, $10.97
ISBN: 9781602601758

In 1855 in Buttonwood, Nebraska Territory, lonely Josiah Reed wants his son to remain in town to help him with his general store and to practice medicine here. However, he understands Saul the doctor came home temporarily out of love of his father and frustration with sanitary conditions in Baltimore where he worked; as much as he cherishes his dad he feels there is nothing in Buttonwood for him.

Kicked off the wagon train heading to Oregon, Clara Reed offers Josiah a deal he cannot ignore. If she can persuade Saul to stay and marry a local, Josiah will give her and her Aunt Doreen ownership of his beautiful home. Josiah accepts because a house is not a home without family. Saul learns about THE BRIDE BARGAIN between Clara and his father so he promises himself to teach her a Prairie lesson about intruding in someone’s life; he courts her.

Combining humor and faith, Kelly Eileen Hake provides her readers with an entertaining pre Civil War romance (make that two romances). The story line is character driven as Clara and Saul engage in a gender war that leads each of them to fall in love. Although the Bleeding Kansas compromise that impacted Nebraska is somewhat diminished, fans will enjoy this amusing inspirational historical.

Harriet Klausner

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