Short-Straw Bride is the newest inspirational historical romance from Karen Witemeyer.
Twelve years ago the now twenty-two year old Meredith Hayes fell in love. Or, at least she felt like she did. Perhaps now she’d call it a youthful crush – but it’s sure stayed with her.
She’d always been warned about the dangerous, reclusive Archer boys. They never left their land and guarded it with guns and vicious guard dogs. Yet when she braved crossing the boundary to retrieve her lunch bucket and got herself in a painful situation – Travis Archer saved the day, with an unexpected kindness in his eyes.
That’s why all these years later, though she hasn’t seen neither hide nor hair of him since, Meredith knows that she must warn him of the threat to Archer land. She overheard her intended fiancé (not intended by her) plotting to burn the Archer’s off their land to force them into selling.
So, propriety be damned! Meredith can’t let that happen!
But when her worthy cause turns into a potentially serious injury, Travis Archer finds himself allowing Archer land to permit the damsel yet again. Yet Meredith’s shredded reputation may require an even more gallant sacrifice…
I don’t feel like I want to give too much more than that away of the Short-Straw Bride plot. You might be able to guess more from the title, but you won’t hear it from me!
I really, really loved To Win Her Heart, Karen Witemeyer’s last historical fiction novel. So, I was very excited to read Short-Straw Bride.
And in it, we do get a spunky, brave, limping Meredith – a character to root for. Plus, the Archer brothers and their steadfast loyalty to their land and each other is certainly unique and admirable.
Short-Straw Bride provided some unexpected turns of events that created a story where I couldn’t automatically guess where it would go – refreshing! So, as the charming, involving, fiery, flirty, romantic misunderstandings run awry I found that Short-Straw Bride was about more than romance and marriage but also friendship.
However, despite some of the reviews I’ve seen – Short-Straw Bride was not as dynamic to me as To Win Her Heart. At times, Meredith became tiring in her extremely feminine ways, and her near constant slew of injuries and illnesses gave the impression of a damsel in distress in need of a big, strong man. I can handle that when done properly and in small doses, but something about it in this novel didn’t sit right with me.
I did like Short-Straw Bride, but I was surprised to find it a little on the cliché side when it came to the characters and their relationship to each other. Definitely a novel that’s fun to read – but not necessarily memorable…
*I received a copy of Short-Straw Bride from the Bethany House Book Reviewers program, which you can check out here. Their generosity in no way influenced, nor sought to influence, my opinion of the novel.
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