A Bride Most Begrudging

So I have a very bad habit of getting sucked into books at bad times. Like last night. I had just received a box of books that I ordered from Barnes and Noble and was putting them in my room to sort and figure out which I would read when I was done with Mila 18, which I am currently reading. Anyway, I picked up A Bride Most Begrudging and looked at the back. Then, I wanted to see how it started. Keep in mind that this is happening around 10 PM. So I started the book and then I wanted to see what would happen. I knew the basic idea of what would happen but I wanted to see how Deeanne Gist had decided to pull it off. Finally, I managed to look up from the book long enough to check the time and realized it was 5:30 in the morning. After that, I figured I should at least try to sleep for a while and when I woke up, I quickly finished off what remained of this rather light and enjoyable book.

A Bride Most Begrudging is about Lady Constance Morrow, who is brought to the colonies against her will and sold for three hundred pounds of tobacco as a tobacco bride. Drew O'Connor, who wins Constance in a card game from the man who had purchased her that morning, has no need or desire for a wife and doesn't like to make emotional attachments, knowing that many people don't survive long in the colonial wilderness. All Constance wants is to get back to her family in England but, first, she needs someone to believe her. Drew needs someone to help cook and clean but he has already bought an indentured servant for that. Finally, when the town council sees that Drew has two women living in his house, he is forced to marry Constance.

One of the best things about this book is how Gist incorporated the difficulties of early colonial life into the story. The practice of kidnapping women to use as tabacco brides, the difficulties between the indians and the colonists, the constant threat of disease: in short, many real elements of the time that people faced were brought into the story in ways that made it seem a little more real. It made a good book even better.

This is a good, light Christian romance that was very easy to enjoy. The Christian ideas which sometimes stifle in this genre were barely noticeable, at least in comparison to Lori Wick and her long conversion scenes and stories that inevitably end up in the story. All in all, it wasn't bad and I may have found a new author for fluffy, rainy-day stories.

Rating: 4.0