Book Review: Want Ad Wedding

Author: Cheryl St. John
Title: Want Ad Wedding
Publisher: Love Inspired Historical
Publish Date: April 5, 2016
Buy: Amazon
Review Copy Provided By: Net Galley
Book Blurb: When Daniel Gardner convinced the residents of his Kansas boomtown to advertise for mail-order brides, he never expected the woman he once loved to respond. But Leah Swann steps off the bride train…pregnant and widowed and in need of a husband. Drawn to protect his fragile childhood friend, Daniel proposes a marriage of convenience.

Seeing her onetime best friend waiting to meet the bride train is a wonderful shock for Leah. After her first rocky marriage, a practical partnership with Daniel sounds perfect—as long as her heart doesn't get involved. But when she starts to fall for her husband, will her plans of a fresh start be ruined…or is a real marriage to Daniel exactly what she needs?

Cowboy Creek: Bringing mail-order brides, and new beginnings, to a Kansas boomtown.

Review: I normally love Love Inspired Historicals, but Want Ad Wedding was a little too choppy to be a great read. It took me days to slog through this one, and it was a book with a lot of potential.

Three friends reunited because of a search for brides for their Kansas boomtown. Daniel and Will both knew Leah in their younger days, in fact, Leah was engaged to Will at one point before the Civil War, and Daniel has always harbored secret feelings for her.

That alone should be enough to make for a great read, except there was too much tossed in to act as drama, that didn't quite make the cut. For starters Leah and Daniel's marriage which is one of convenience. Then Will and Dora's not so perfect relationship. Oh and a gang of troublemakers shooting up the town and stealing things and possibly harming the ranchers livestock.

So much of it didn't really do anything to move the story along, though the outcome of Will and Dora's relationship may set things up for another book in this mini-series.

Then there's Leah, who is pregnant. Her husband was killed months before. She is also seeking work as a midwife. She's also suffered several miscarriages in the past and was under doctor's orders to take it easy.

With a lot of things centering around her and the baby, the story ended without her giving birth. It did have a happy ending, but this is a romance, so that's to be expected.

I just felt like there was so much going on that didn't take the story anywhere. I'm anxious to see if some of the brides that arrived with Leah are part of the next book, and more importantly if Noah, Daniel and Will's friend who was a secondary character here finds love.

Rating: 3 flowers