Saturday, December 2, 2017

The Reluctant Bride


The Reluctant Bride
Brides Along the Chisholm Trail, Book 1
By: Maxine Douglas
Narrated by: Evelyn Grace
Length: 3 hrs and 39 mins
Unabridged
Release date: 11-15-17
Language: English
Publisher: Maxine Douglas


I thought this was a good story with a good plot however the narration does take away from it.  One has to wonder how many times something like this did happen back then. I have no trouble believing that someone became a mail order bride to outrun their past or to overcome issues. For me this would have been the best way to start over with a new life and a new name. I do not think that records or not many were kept back then on births and such.  Here the author gives you a story of one woman agreeing to become a bride sight unseen and another woman who saw something she was not suppose to. She took the first women’s place before her boss could have her arrested for his crimes. There is nothing worse than running scared going to a place that is wild and untamed to a man you know nothing about.  I really enjoyed the story.

When listening to the sample the narration sound good but once you download it and start listening there are issues.  The character voices both male and female are really good however some sound robotic.  You know who is talking and for the most part what they are feeling. I did see a difference from listening through the radio to ear phones to speakers. The home speakers I have were the best. I did have to lower the volume on my kindle to make it not sound like the narrator was in a box. This is not a smooth or clear audio, there are volumes and tone changes throughout. The volume changes I think are when the character was thinking and maybe the narrator pulled away from the microphone.  I do not know how other narrators do this but there is no volume change when they do it. There is some kind of echo or something throughout. I did become use to it for the most part and didn’t notice it so much later on. At some points there were changes in the volume of tone and I am unsure as to why. The narrator does do a good job on the emotions I had no trouble feeling what they were going through. From what I can see this is the first narration this narrator has done. I feel with sometime and help from other narrators she will overcome the issues I have found.  I would like to listen to more of her work as she learns and grows.

I really enjoyed the story but feel I would have enjoyed it more if I had read it. At times I felt the story moved a little fast. I did enjoy the buildup of the romance and how Abby worked at winning her new stepdaughters but I thought it was a little fast for her to be calling her mother. She sure did move her affection from the women she wanted as her mother to her new one. I really liked the mystery behind both Abby and Logan and how they found out about things each are hiding. I thought Logan daughter was something else she is so full of her self and doesn’t mind telling things the way they are. There is a lot going on and the author uses no fillers at all giving a believable story that is enjoyable.

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Summary
Roseanne Duncan witnesses her employer push his sickly wife down the staircase. Fearing she’ll have to testify against a prominent man in town, she answers an ad for a mail-order bride in Dodge City. Believing this is a way for her to escape the possible danger of her employer, she travels to Dodge City and marries under the name of Abigail Johnson.
Logan Granger is a Pinkerton detective, assigned to the Dodge City area as an undercover bartender. When his mail-order bride, “Abby", steps off the train, she doesn’t fit the description of a matronly woman who has agreed to his marriage contract of no emotional attachments. There’s no time to reconsider, the preacher is waiting to marry them.
Rose hadn’t expected the handsome man waiting for her to be a bartender with a six shooter on his hip and a badge on his chest. Logan hadn’t expected his soon-to-be wife to be young, beautiful, and a runaway murder witness.

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