A Bride of Convenience ~ Review

A Bride of Convenience
The Bride Ships #3
By Jody Hedlund

Zoe Hart's goal in joining the Bride Ships is two-fold - obtain a better life in British Columbia and to find her brother, Zeke. She never expected to take on the care of an abandoned baby just days later, but Violet needs her. Pastor Abe (Abraham) Merivale is helping Zoe get supplies she needs while hoping to reunite Violet with her grieving father.

But when finding a husband becomes imperative to keeping Violet, Zoe lets the eligible bachelors know that she needs a husband. There is just one problem with her plan, Violet's mixed heritage is a definite deterrent in Zoe receiving many offers. One miner alone promises not only can she bring Violet along, but he just may be able to help her locate Zeke. Pastor Abe knows that Dexter is among the worst possible choices for any woman to make if only he can get Zoe to see the truth in time. In a most intriguing chain of events, Abe and Zoe find themselves wed hastily.

But this marriage of convenience has a few drawbacks, especially when both Zoe and Abe start having confused feelings for one another. And then there is Abe's bishop who is anything but supportive of Abe's new married state - with, of all things, a common laborer. And offering a home to a Native child is just not to be done. Marriage is not quite either expected, and they both have some serious work to do if they hope to have a marriage partnership that is more than just a convenience and in name only.

A Bride of Convenience, the third book in the Bride Ships series, focuses on women from a different bride-ship than the first two books in the series. Zoe is determined to not have her heart yet again broken, but she's determined to make sure that Abe doesn't come to regret his decision to marry her and bring Violet into his home. Abe wants, no needs to prove to Bishop Hills that having a wife and won't distract him from his ministry. Can two such determined people come to understand just what God's purpose in their marriage of convenience is?

I have to admit each time Bishop Hills makes an appearance, I like him less and less. As a reader, one can hear the main characters' thoughts, and it can, at times, be exasperating that they just don't talk and clear the air, so to speak. Just think of all trouble they could save themselves in the long run by saying what they are feeling. Of course, then we would have a far less intriguing book to read. And this indeed is and was an enjoyable book to read. This can be read as a stand-alone title, and the reader will have no getting caught up in the story.

I was provided a complimentary copy of this book with no expectations but that I provide my honest opinion - all thoughts expressed are my own.

About the Book:
Unemployed mill worker Zoe Hart jumps at the opportunity to emigrate to British Columbia in 1863 to find a better life and be reunited with her brother, who fled from home after being accused of a crime.

Pastor to miners in the mountains, Abe Merivale discovers an abandoned baby during a routine visit to Victoria, where he joins efforts with Zoe, one of the newly arrived bride-ship women, to care for the infant. While there, he's devastated by the news from his fiancee in England that she's marrying another man.

With mounting pressure to find the baby a home, Zoe accepts a proposal from a miner of questionable character after he promises to help her locate her brother. Intent on protecting Zoe and frustrated by his failed engagement, Abe offers his own hand as a groom. After a hasty wedding, they soon realize their marriage of convenience is not so convenient after all.