Mail Order Brides of the West (1) - This Bride's Christmas by Claire Dawson
I give you This Bride's Christmas by Claire Dawson (not translated), the first part of the Mail Order Brides of the West trilogy. I read it in English were it contained 51 pages. Girls, 14+. Originally published 2015.
Having lost nearly everything with her father's murder, Anna Bradburry is almost glad for the letter: She has been accepted as Mail Order Bride and is supposed to go to the West – where far, far away from home and all she's ever known, her husband-to-be waits for her. Unfortunately, her new husband has not been informed that he will marry... and the wedding will take place two days after her arrival... But convincing her husband to marry her isn't Anna's main problem: The town is. Because they hate strangers...
The style is very well done. The story is very tense and you do learn more about that time, about the way the people think and the idea of Mail Order Brides. But I think that the book would have been better if it was longer. Anna is a complex character – give her time to develop, to really introduce her to the reader. She's tough, resourceful, intelligent and competent. Let her show this! Let the reader fall in love with her, because he will, eventually.
The same goes for Charles. He's charming – let him make the reader fall for him as well.
As for the town itself: Give them opportunity to really hate Anna – in real scenes, not in Anna's thoughts. Give Anna opportunity to react to them, more often than just once, show how she can fight her corner. She has a temper – let her roll with it just once and let her earn the town's respect through that! And don't actually make it one front against her. Give them time and let a few of the people be at least a little tolerant – while maybe let some of the girls be completely antagonistic, until they realise how strong Anna is. Then they could learn to respect her and see her as an equal. And then, maybe tack-team with her, because a strong and independent woman needs all the allies she can get, at least in that time. Then, Anna could swoop the people onto her side after the fire – at least most of them, until she's more or less seen more as a resident then as an unwelcome guest.
What I want to say is, give the book more space! It's a nice story, let it play out. Especially the romance. They have two days until the wedding! Make it weird, let them get to know each other – let them reschedule the wedding, if necessary. The night of the wedding was nicely done, how she had problems lying down on the bed. And the day after? They could actually develop one of these sweet morning rituals.
And there is a mistake in the book: The girls of high society actually did know the basics of “normal” education, even of Math. If Anna is more educated than that, let her say what she can do – exactly. Define how much this differs from the status quo, because in this way, it sounds as if the girls of high society were even more stupid than they actually were.
The historical background seems in general pretty dubious. But it's hard to say because you can't really identify the general time this took place. On the one hand, the rules of high society are even stricter that those of Europe in the late 19th century, so it indicates something in the first half of the century or even earlier. America isn't prosperous, if it's seen as rich to have meat on a regular basis and the high society girls pick their Christmas presents in the category of “One dress”, “One hat” and “One book”. That indicates something damn early. On the other hand, the middle class is very... let's say frivolous and loosened up, if you look at the descriptions of Anna's childhood. AND Fort: the way the people there treat Anna indicate that they have lived there generations without many newcomers. The women in Europe can wear pantaloons if they wish – that would be... what, World War One?
Additionally, people from the middle class have serious problems rising in status, so the American Dream is actually ignored. Of course, the AD was never just as well executed as the Americans would have liked it, but it definitely was possible – in this book, it isn't.
Seriously, I'm not American and American history isn't actually my area of expertise, so to speak, but there's something definitely off here. Even I can see that. And it's sad. Because the general way of writing is very good, the ideas are original and the characters have potential. Just... take care of the historic background, and don't be afraid of investing time and space! There is a lot potential here.
In brief:
In the end, I have to give zero stars, one for style, one for the characters, minus one for the historic background and minus another one for the missing subtleties in development. Sorry!
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