Two Brides Too Many by Mona Hodgson

My review:
4 STARS (more like 3.5)

Two young sisters travel to Colorado as mail-order brides, but when they get there their intendeds are nowhere to be found.  They leave behind 2 sisters in Maine and a father that leaves for a new job in Paris so there is no turning back, they must stay in Colorado and figure out where their fiancés' went.  Nell is a romantic dreamer and insists that her fiancé' is going to show up and sweep her off her feet, while the more serious sister Kat is worried that her man is good-for-nothing loser and she'll need to figure out her life without a husband.

This is a very unique twist to a mail-order bride story.  Once the girls get to Colorado a whole new slew of problems await them and there are lots of twists and turns that are surprising.  The love stories in this book were sweet but I really thought they should have been more developed. I wish there was a whole lot more to the romantic relationships, it seemed like nothing romantic really started happening until the last 50 pages of the book which just wasn't good enough for me.  If it is going to take that long for it develop there at least needs to be some teasing/flirting going to build up the suspense.

The story line to me was a bit unbelievable at times and predictable at other times.  I found it almost impossible to believe a single dad of this time period would lose his job and then move to a new job in Paris leaving behind his 4 daughters. That part is hard to believe.  And from the moment Morgan entered the story you could predict how that was going to turn out which also frustrated me.  Too simple of a story line that didn't have me hooked to what was happening.  The side characters were really interesting too; I thought Hattie and Boney were delightful additions to the story.

I would have given this 3 stars but I do think that the writing was great even though I didn't connect to the story like I wanted.  I did get involved enough to want to know what happens with all the Sinclair sisters but I just didn't love this story. I think there are a lot of readers that would enjoy this sweet and simple romance.

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About the book:

Kat and Nell Sinclair are headed west—away from the manicured lawns of Maine to the boisterous, booming mining town of Cripple Creek, Colorado to start new lives for themselves as mail-order brides.

Aboard the train, romantic dreamer Nell carries a photo of her intended close to her heart and imagines an exciting and love-filled future, while her pragmatic older sister Kat resigns herself to marriage as a duty, not a delight.

But when the ladies disembark at the train depot, neither fiancé Patrick Maloney or Judson Archer awaits them with open arms. The well-bred Sinclair sisters find themselves unexpectedly alone in the wild, frontier town—a place where fire threatens to reduce the buildings to rubble, the working women strut the streets, rogues will gamble for the shoes on one’s feet, and God’s grace is found amongst the most unlikely of folks.

Two sisters,
Two missing misters,
A shocking welcome to the wild west that leaves both Kat and Nell Sinclair questioning their dreams­and the hope for true love.

About the Author:

MONA HODGSON is the author of TWO BRIDES TOO MANY and TOO RICH FOR A BRIDE, the first two books in The Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek Series published by WaterBrook Press. Her writing credits also include nearly thirty children’s books, contributions to eleven books for adults, and hundreds of short stories, articles, and poems in newspapers and magazines. One of Mona’s favorite things to do (besides writing or eating dark chocolate) is to serve as a speaker for schools, and for women’s, librarians, and writers’ conferences throughout the United States and Canada. Mona lives in Arizona with her husband, Bob. Check out www.monahodgson.com to learn more. You can also follow Mona at www.twitter.com and http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Mona-Ho...

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