Carol Cox's A Bride So Fair ~ Reviewed

A Bride So Fair
Carol Cox
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Barbour Publishing, Inc. (April 1, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1597894923







Back Cover Blurb:



A young woman searching for independence and adventure

A handsome Columbian guard striving to protect and defend.

A little boy caught in a web of intrigue and deceit.

Emily Ralston is thrilled when she lands a job in the Children’s Building at the Chicago World’s Fair. And the White City seems to be living up to its promise of excitement when she meets a handsome Columbian guardsman. Surely Emily’s not the only one to sense hte spark of electricity between them?

When Stephen Bridger finds a lost child, he delivers the boy to the Children’s Building to be cared for until his mother is located. But when a dead body believed to be little Adam’s mother is found, a mystery begins to unfold. While unraveling the truth, Emily and Stephen are drawn deeper int danger and closer to each other.

Can Emily and Stephen solve the mystery before time runs out?

Will Stephen find the grounds to win the heart of one so fair?

Review:

Growing up in an orphanage, Emily Ralston has learned just how lonely it can be for a child with no parents. When an adorable, abandoned three year old boy is brought in to the child care center where she works, she cannot bring herself to turn him over to the authorities so he can be shipped off and made a ward of the state. This decision brings about a number of problems for Emily, not the least of which is how to let Stephen Bridger, the handsome guard who first brought the boy to her, know what she’s done. And when the boy’s father, a notorious gangster, comes looking for him, Emily knows she’s in way over her head.

Set in 1893 During the Chicago’s World Fair, A Bride So Fair takes the reader back to a different time period. The setting was so well done that I could see the fair, hear the sights, smell the scents. Author Carol Cox did a fabulous job in recreating the World’s Fair. She also created some wonderful characters that were easy to latch on to. I liked the fact that Emily was a “real” person, struggling with faults and sins, though trying to do what she believed was the right thing. Her determination to help her little self-imposed ward was also endearing. Stephen was a dreamy hero, and I loved his sense of protectiveness toward Emily. Yet he didn’t think only of her, but of the others involved as well.

There was also a deeper subject that was touched on without belaboring the point. And that is the forgiveness of God, even for those who have made terrible choices in life. There is no sin too great for God to reach across and redeem the sinner. The compassion with which this topic was handled really impressed me. It can be easy to judge people for their mistakes, but the author handled this the way Jesus did when dealing with the woman caught in adultery.

The last two chapters could have been shortened considerably, and things wrapped up without dragging them out. But that did not take away from my enjoyment of the story. In fact, now that I’ve read this, I am anxious to find the first two in the series.

A Bride So Fair will be sure to delight anyone who enjoys a good clean romance with plenty of action mixed in for good measure.

Reviewed by: Lianne Lopes