The Maiden's Court: Book Review: Grace: Bride of Montana by Debra Holland

Monday, April 11, 2016

Book Review: Grace: Bride of Montana by Debra Holland

Grace: Bride of Montana by Debra Holland
Book 41 in the American Mail Order Brides series
Unabridged, 3 hr. 45 min.
Lara Asmudson (Narrator)
March 30, 2016
★★★★☆

Heat Rating:

Genre: Historical Romance, Western

Source: Received audio download from author for review

Grace: Bride of Montana by NY Times and USA Today best-selling author Debra Holland is number 41 in the unprecedented 50-Book American Mail-Order Brides series.

Practical Grace Dickinson thought she had her life all planned, including picking out the perfect husband. But she couldn't have predicted the disaster that changed everything, leaving her no choice but to become a mail-order bride to a most imperfect man.

Grace’s story is technically book number 41 in the 50 books series American Mail-Order Brides; but don’t be fooled by this statement, you do not need to read them in any order. Each bride is simply from a different state in the United States. Grace is the bride of Montana – although her story starts in Massachusetts and with a sort of tragic story.

Grace sets her mind on becoming a mail-order bride because the company she works for burns down and her romantic prospects take a huge flop. She is desperate to get as far away from where everything has turned toward the worst and can’t perceive anywhere being further away than Montana. When she arrives in Montana she is met not only by her future spouse, Frey, but also Trudy and Seth Flanagan. It was interesting to see Grace interact with Trudy as Trudy arrived in Montana as a mail-order bride herself (she even has her own book!) and she could offer experience and someone for Grace to relate to in the new world. The scenes between Grace and Frey are sweet and develop from a friendship and into love. They both give each other time to get acquainted with their situation and don’t try to force something that isn’t necessarily there…yet. Grace is still reeling from the failed relationship at home and is both trying to deal with that as well as this new romantic relationship – so she is a rocky boat but trying to make the best of it.

This is a low drama novel; its strength is in its character building. I appreciated that the author allowed the characters to get to know each other and not have them fall in love at first sight. All of the characters are very likable and I found their conversations to be downright funny at times. There is one dramatic scene toward the end that really cements this new relationship, a pivotal moment that caught me off guard as I was used to the low key nature of the plot.

The heat rating is very low on this one – as I said, they are really just trying to figure things out and Grace is still mourning her last relationship. There are sweet thoughts, some hand holding, and a chaste kiss or two – it all made sense with how their relationship was forming.

I enjoyed this novella and would love to read more set in this world of Sweetwater Springs – which is excellent as there are not only many written by this author but a few written by other authors as well!

★★★½☆☆

I had some issues with the narrator, most notably the voice that she used when reading the lines and thoughts of Frey, the male protagonist. It sounds like she was trying hard to pull over a low pitched voice, which didn’t quite come off natural, but felt a little forced. It would shake me from the story every time Frey would come back into the story, which was a little unfortunate as he was very often there. I didn’t have any issues with her other voices, even for the other male character, Seth Flanagan. I think it would have been markedly improved if she did not try for so low a voice for Frey. Ms. Asmundson narrates many of the novels in the Montana Sky series, particularly the Mail-Order Brides of the West segment, so I’m hoping that this doesn’t continue to be a repeated issue for me, since I would like to enjoy more of these on audio format. I enjoyed her pacing of the story, it felt natural and even overall.

Buy the Book: Amazon

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