Mail-Order Brides for Christmas - Tracy Lorraine et al

Reading Challenge Category: Just wanted to read

Official Blurb:

The Mistletoe Brothers are ready to save Snow Valley … even if it means marrying complete strangers.
The six women who arrive in this mountainside town all have very different reasons for agreeing to an arranged marriage. And none of them quite know what to make of the six ruggedly handsome brothers who greet them.
But they do know this: there’s no turning back.
It’s Christmas, the season for miracles … but is it also the season for falling in love?

My Thoughts:

When I first bought this book, my intention was just to read Tracy Lorraine’s story. However, after reading the prologue and Spencer’s story, I knew I couldn’t just leave it there, and I had to go back to the beginning and read the other five brothers’ stories as well. I needed to know how each one would cope with the crazy scheme their mum had come up with! With the mail order bride agency it reminded me a lot of Grace from the matchmaking books. There was an overall sense of magic afoot!
The concept for the book was fantastic, and once again, these authors have worked well together to create the Snow Valley world. When they usually collaborate like this, the books are separate but still set in the same world. This time it is written like one big book but each author getting a brother to write about.

I am going to break each brother down for review:
Christopher by Fiona Davenport Even though the two characters, Christopher and Winter were really fun I was a bit thrown by Christopher’s 180 on the situation. It happened so fast I felt like I had a bit of whiplash. The sowing of his seed was also very off-putting and a bit overdone. Especially as he decides, this needs to happen within seconds of meeting Winter. I’m all for love at first sight, but I just don’t think the author got the recipe for this quite right.
Hartley by Frankie Love Ooooo Hartley was such a grump, I don’t blame Hattie for all her tears. Their little story was adorable though in the end. I was gutted about the 1st of December thing. I’m as obsessed with dates like that too; the writing captured her feelings on this perfectly. For such a small story there was lots of drama and romance built in. It felt very well balanced.
Mason by Hope Ford This had a much more serious feel to it due to Mason’s insecurities. It was nice that even though they got married straight away, they took their feelings slowly. It did feel a little one-sided in the fact that we got to know Mason more than we got to know Mia. I would have liked to know just a little bit more about her. Other than that, I liked these two characters!
Nate by Kelli Callahan The story of Nate and Catriona was slightly longer than the first few and this really aided in us getting to know the characters. I felt like they had a slow build-up to falling in love even though it was only a few days but compared to minutes or hours like the others this is a lifetime in comparison! A slightly different take on the situation, as well as there, was no rush for a wedding, it was just the two of them getting to know one another and exploring each other’s bodies.
Matt by S.E. Law This story was the longest and was filled to the brim with details on Matt and Jenna. I really felt like I got to know them, but at the same time, I think they were the least matched. If I had to say any couple wouldn’t last, it would be these two. Jenna was too young and carefree to be shoehorned into this role of sleepy town, bride and mother.
Spencer by Tracy Lorraine I liked that these two characters had a history as it really gave the story some meat to get a hold of. It was a little confusing at some points as I wasn’t sure if Spencer’s mum had set up this pairing on purpose or what either of them really had wanted from the mail-order bride situation. Ella wanted Spencer but was happy to marry a random. Spencer missed Ella, but again was content to marry a stranger but had bought Ella’s dream dress. It was over too short a period for a lot to be explained or to make sense. The author did offer an epilogue to the story if you sign up for her newsletter (which I must have about 50 entries to that newsletter by now!) and it did clear up a few things, and it was good to read to get the end of the story!

So, overall this was a great collaboration from the authors who approached the mail-order bride theme very differently to one another. I’m glad I read all of the stories in the end! Quite a few of the authors (other than just Tracy Lorraine) offer an epilogue to the story if you sign up for their newsletters. I definitely recommend doing this as it really rounds off their happy ever afters!

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