"A Bride in Store" by Melissa Jagears

A Bride in Store (Sept. 2, 2014) by Melissa Jagears.*

Special delivery! Mail-order bride Eliza Cantrell from Pennsylvania has arrived in [fictional] Salt Flatts, Kansas. She arrived by [robbed] train. She had decided to arrive early to meet her intended, but Axel Langston isn’t in town. Instead she meets his business partner, William Stanton, and has nothing of the $500 cash dowry she had told Axel she would be contributing to the general store. Fortunately, she is very adept at business, and she’ll try to keep her focus on the store, because otherwise …

            … it falls on Will. He knows Eliza’s Axel’s fiancée, yet he can’t help but picture her in his arms. She isn’t classically beautiful, and she’s stubborn, but her passion for the store and her tenacious spirit attract him too much. As his friend Everett Cline says of his feelings toward Eliza, another man’s betrothed, Will is “in a war … and war was ugly.” So true. But surely he couldn’t really be what Eliza would want. After all, she wants a general store, and she’ll have that with Axel. Will just wants to go to medical school, but saving up is slow-going, and he already helps anyone in town who asks for his medical advice.

            Things do not settle down when Axel finally returns to town. If anything, they worsen.  Someone’s stealing from the merchants and families about town, even though the train robbers were supposedly captured. Warring feelings are also at play. Eliza has fallen for Will, even if she doesn’t want to admit it, and Will is head-over-boots in love with Eliza, though he fears the love doesn’t reciprocate. Can Will leave town without Eliza? Can Eliza just watch Will leave?

            I am pleased that this book snagged my attention from the first chapter. The plot is sturdy, and the story isn’t without humor: “Why did Lynville just step closer to her? To prove he stank?” Despite pops of humor, this Christian historical fiction novel doesn’t downplay the hardships of eking out an existence in small town 1881. If anything, it hones in on it by including competing general stores and touching on the medical knowledge of the time. I found this story to be fairly fast-paced and appreciated the author’s attention to historical detail. I also liked how the main characters struggled with their faith as they became closer to God again, but that Jagears wasn’t all preachy about it. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Christian historical fiction with a touch of romance, plenty of doubts, misunderstandings and stubbornness. And also faith and love and hope.

* Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Bethany House Publishers. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions are expressly my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”