The Irish Bride

The Irish Bride by Alexis Harrington 416

When her employer, the horrible Noel Cardwell, harasses her while she is working on his estate Farrell Kirwan flees back to her families nearby village. There she discovered that her brother had been accidentally murdered while he was trying to collect rent money for Lord Cardwell from their family friends, the O'Rourkes. Michael Kirwan had been a kind man, but he let his greed get the best of him and Aidan O'Rourke could no longer tolerate his dealings, but when he pushed him he did not expect Michael to hit his head on a stone and die. Now Farrell is in trouble because she slapped the Lord's son and Aidan because he killed the Lord's agent and their family agrees their is only one solution. Even though Farrell is to marry Liam, the calm and settled brother, she is pushed into marrying Aidan so that the two of them can run away together. Aidan plans to go to America, the land of plenty, and settle in New York or Boston and provide Farrell with a better life- a life she could never have in Ireland. For years Aidan has wanted Farrell; she is the most beautiful girl in the village, but he has maintained his distance because of her relationship with his brother, but now she is all his and he will never let her go.

Farrell is swept up in the events and the two begin their long journey to America, but they are being followed by Noel Cardwell who is determined to get Farrell and punish the man who took her from him.  The journey is arduous and the ship journey is long, but the two do get to know each other and Farrell realizes she may be mistaken in her judgments of Aidan. But once they dock in America their plans change and Aidan decides that they should move out west to Oregon to get their 160 acres of farmland and Farrell worries that he does not listen to her input. Meanwhile Noel has followed them and hired people to track them down as he will stop at nothing to get them and when Aidan discovers this he decides not to worry Farrell with the problems. In Oregon there is another change as Aidan wants to go into business at a saw mill, and Farrell's hopes for a simple farm life are crushed even while she knows Aidan thinks he is doing what is best for her. The two of them have a lot to work through in order for both of them to understand that what is best for them might not be what is expected and to dodge the men who are hunting them, but when they stick together they manage to find their happily ever after.

This is different then most romances novels I read (Regency) but I have really enjoyed the Alexis Harrington novels I have read in the past and this one looked promising. The circumstances that threw Aidan and Farrell together were immediately engrossed and I wanted to read on to discover how they would make their relationship work under such daunting circumstances and how they would survive their long journey and the men hunting them. Farrell was amazing and I admired her for her strength, her intelligence, and her ability to stand up for herself. She was presented with few options and I liked that she did not sputter and get annoying when she was presented with such a difficult choice, but smartly realized there really weren't any other options for her to take. Her determination to marry Liam even while Aidan was really perfect for her was explained well so I did not feel like she was being naive, just letting her past affect her future. She was willing to work hard to accomplish what she wanted and she was willing to stand up to Aidan when needed, but also trust him to make some decisions. There was a lot of conflict, mainly internal, about her leaving Liam and about Aidan sometimes making decisions that weren't in their best interests.

Normally I would get frustrated with Aidan's complete inability to understand what Farrell really wanted from him, but Harrington does a tremendous job here by making it so clear that Aidan really does genuinely think he is doing what is best for Farrell. While I was upset at him at times, I was struck by how much he cared about Farrell throughout the book and it made it all the more sweet when he did decide to listen to her and realized that what she wanted was what would make him happy. Their relationship was the focus of this book and we got to read about how their relationship progressed from one-sided love to mutual respect and appreciation for the other. There was some sex in the book and it was romantic and sweet, but there was not a lot and I would not describe it as hot.  I really enjoyed the side-plot where they were being hunted down by Noel Cardwell because it was well-written, it served as the impetuous to get the story moving, and it served as a constant in the book without being overwhelming or taking over from the romance. There was some historical information about Ireland and the potato famine and immigration to American during the era of the Know-Nothings which I appreciated since it put the book in context.

Rating: I enjoyed this book like all of her books because of the romance and the focus on the relationship and I would recommend it to people who were into more sedate (not boring) romances.

The Bridal Veil

The Bridal Veil by Alexis Harrington 514

When Alyssa Cannon dies after promising to move to Oregon and marry Mr. Luke Becker, her sister, Emily, decides to take her place. She knows that she is not as pretty as what Luke had been expecting, but she shows up anyway. Luke is not exactly excited to see that he is supposed to marry a woman he knows nothing about and has had no contact with, but he knows he needs a woman to help him take care of his daughter, Rose. So Luke and Emily get married in a simple ceremony at the courthouse and it is only when they get back to Luke's farm that she discovers that they will also be living with his mother-in-law, Cora. Cora turns out to be more of a handful than Rose as she has turned the entire place into a shrine for her deceased daughter, Belinda. Cora is not at all happy at the new turn that life has taken and wastes no time showing the new addition to the family that she is not welcome. Luke is not exactly pleased with Cora's tactics but he worries that making trouble will end up hurting Rose.

Little by little Emily does manage to make progress with Rose, but it seems like all of her effort is wasted by Cora's interference. Emily secretly holds out hope that she will one day have the romance of her dreams, but she believes that because of her plainness such dreams are out of her reach. Luke knows that it is about time he get over his wife's death, but he cannot help but feel guilt over the way she died. An argument between the two of them had caused Belinda to run out into the rain and she eventually caught pneumonia, and the guilt prevents him from truly loving another woman. When Cora takes things one step too far, she leaves the house, and Emily and Luke have the house all to themselves and things begin to get better as they spend more and more time together and share themselves with the other. But Cora is still not entirely out of their lives and she is still determined to stir up trouble and when she does it turns out badly for both Emily and Luke. Together, along with Rose, they need to become a family and accept all the bad stuff that comes along with the good.

I've been on a little e-book kick recently and had a $1 off coupon for this book so I decided to buy it from smashwords and I'm glad I did. Like the other Alexis Harrington book I read, it is very calm and to be honest a little slow moving to the point some might consider it boring. However, she is so good with the character's and her writing that I definitely did not come away thinking that. I love how throughout the novel Luke is there quietly supporting Emily and helping her overcome her insecurities; it just really shows how great these two are together. She makes a great heroine for this novel- she knows her stuff and is not scared to work hard and go for what she wants, yet it is her faults that make her so real and such a great character. Luke is incredibly interesting because he is so noble, yet he is still wracked by this crippling guilt that he so wants to be able to get over. Reading about his journey getting over the guilt is just as good as reading about Emily gaining confidence.

The book was certainly not very steamy but the sex contributed immensely to the romantic development and towards getting Emily and Luke to fall in love. I thought that Cora was a great character for being such an untypical villain; she was a woman, she was older, and she wasn't a jealous suitor trying to steal the heroines money. I really looked forward to the parts that were told from her point of view, and I wished that there had been more- and a big confrontation scene at the very end. Rose was a very well-written, likable, and age appropriate little girl and it was nice to see the impact that having Emily in her life made on her. I liked the setting of this novel immensely and it was almost as if the time period and the setting were characters in themselves. This was definitely not a regency and I could tell while reading that the author had done a bit of research on what life would have been like in Oregon at the turn of the last century.

Rating: Once again another very satisfying novel from Harrington. I liked the plot of this one just as much and the romance was quite well done.

Harper's Bride

Harper's Bride by Alexis Harrington 512

When Dylan Harper demands that Coy Logan repays the $1200 that Logan owes him, Logan is furious and knows there is no way he can raise the money. So he offers Harper his wife in exchange for forgiving the debt saying that Melissa will be able to cook and clean for Harper. Melissa is not excited about the prospect but she knows that things can not be too much worse than living in constant fear for herself and her young daughter, Jenny. Coy has already taken to hitting her and she wonders if it is just a matter of time before he takes to hitting the baby. So with some legal advice from a friend, that probably wouldn't quite hold up completely in court, Melissa becomes Mrs. Harper and she and Jenny move into the small apartment above Dylan's store. Dylan knows that Melissa is terrified of all men and that his reputation as a cold man does help her anxiety. She wants to make the best of things, so she tries to make her impact in his life as small as possible and keep him happy by doing as much for him as she can.

Slowly Dylan comes to like all the nice changes in his life; the clean clothes, the home cooked meals, and having company around. He knows that it will take time for her to completely get over her fear of men after what she had been through. Melissa just wants to pay off her debt to Dylan and start a better life for herself in her daughter and Portland so she opens up a laundry business in the heavily male dominated mining town. But the more money she earns the more she begins to think that she will not be able to leave Dylan. Dylan has also been burned before, by a young woman he fell madly in love with who ended up marrying his rich brother, and he is wary of taking that next step with another woman. His friend, Rafe, warns him repeatedly not to let life pass him by and not to end up with all the regrets that he himself has. When he finds out his estranged family his died his first thought is to go back and reclaim his land, but he is forced to confront his feelings for the little family that has already become his.

I'm not normally one for mining romances but I made an exception as I had just downloaded by Kindle for Mac's and I read a fairly decent review of it on another site. Immediately I was struck by how well developed the characters were and the complexity with which they were written. They both had their own stories and their own secrets and they both wanted so much out of their future and were willing to do whatever they could to achieve it. I loved Melissa's devotion to her daughter as it was completely real and loving not at all overdrawn like it is so often in romances. Maybe it's because she really was the only care-taker for her daughter and they had to live in such close proximity, or because oftentimes children in romance's tend to be the product of one of the father's liasions. I will admit that Rafe's history with his past love was a little overdone and I had a hard time understanding why he was dragging this around with him for so long. I like it when the author can come up with something more original for causing the hero's fear of love.

The relationship between these two evolved in a very well timed and progressive manner as they slowly got to know each other and began to overcome their fears and worries about the opposite gender. The feelings, and eventually the love, they feel for the other slowly builds up and is really a natural outcome of all the great things they each do for the other. I was definitely not left wondering why these two had ended up fallen in love because the story was very well written. I'll admit I would have been interested to see what would have happened if the husband had not conveniently died, but I guess a divorce would have been just too much. Another review mentioned how conversation driven this story is and just how so much of the book is spent with these two talking to each other. While this is certainly the case- I did not find it at all overwhelming and there was plenty of inner monologue and description to keep the book going.

Rating: This was a very satisfying, rather uneventful read. Very good really, and I very much enjoyed it even if I can't quite put my finger on what made it so great.