Monday, October 21, 2013

Perfectly Matched by Maggie Brendan - a review

Perfectly Matched is the third book in Maggie Brendan's "The Blue Willow Brides" series.  The first in the series Deeply Devoted (read my review here) and the second in the series Twice Promised (read my review here) were absolutely wonderful and I gave them both 5 star ratings. Unfortunately I didn't love this book as much as the first two.

The heroine of the story is Anna Olsen who has left her sisters behind in order to travel to Denver, Colorado to become the mail order bride of Edward Parker. Now I must admit I absolutely love the character of Anna. She has a compassionate heart for animals and begins rescuing them much to Edward's dismay. In time he comes around and helps her in her quest to open up a branch of the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) but most of the book was over before he came around.

Edward Parker never pulled me into his story. He is obsessive-compulsive and on their wedding day he tells Anna that they will not consummate their marriage for ten days. Then he hands her a note of her "wifely duties" telling her what to do and what days to do it on. All throughout the book I tried, I really tried, to like Edward but I just couldn't do it. In fact, I was actually hoping Ms. Brendan would let both characters see that their marriage was a mistake and have it annulled so that Anna could marry Daniel, Edward's best friend. I truly believe they were better suited to each other.

Besides Edward's character the one thing that made me not love this book was the fact that after they finally consummated their marriage it seemed like every other page they just couldn't wait to be together. I truly felt this took away from the story.

I have always thoroughly enjoyed reading books by Maggie Brendan but I am sad to say Perfectly Matched, is not one of my favorites. Does this mean I'll stop reading her books? Absolutely not. I will definitely read her next book.

On a 5 Star scale - 3.5 stars.

I would like to thank Revell Publishing, a division of Baker Publishing Group for my review copy. I received my copy for free in order to ready and give my honest opinion, which I have done.

"Available October 2013 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing"

Smiles & Blessings,






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