Title: A Husband for Margaret
Series:Nebraska Series #2
Author: Ruth Ann Nordin
Publisher: Self-Published
File Size: 151 KB
Print Length: 248 pages
Availability: Smashwords | Print
Genre: Historical Romance
Blurb:
When Margaret Williams posted an ad for a husband, she expected Paul Connealy to arrive, but instead, his older brother, Joseph, came…and he brought four children with him.
FYI:
A Husband for Margaret is a free read from Smashwords and is the second in the author’s Nebraska series. It isn’t necessary to read the first book to understand this one.
My Thoughts:
This was a light, sweet enough read, but I think I would have enjoyed something a bit more substantial and angst-ridden given the characters and their situations. After his brother’s untimely death, a widower with four children offers to marry his brother’s fiancée, a woman his brother met through an ad in the newspaper. This, to me, opens the door to all sorts of possibilities. The story could deal with the hero’s loss of his brother and that of his first wife, of his marrying a total stranger and having to learn to live with and love another woman. It could deal with the heroine and her choice to marry a man she’s never met (something that she accepts all too readily, in my opinion), her struggle to get to know her new husband, etc. All sorts of possibilities are there in that situation – but the author chose instead to focus a little too simply on the two marrying, a comically jealous woman, and a group of busy-body woman who don’t see the heroine as a woman mature enough to care for four rowdy boys. It deals with appearances more than anything, I think. How the townsfolk see the heroine, how she deals with the boys and the jealous woman, the silly plan she concocts to get rid of said woman. The romance between hero and heroine doesn’t develop so much as appears. It wasn’t the focus of the story when it should have been. The husband is barely in the story, and he has little, if any, character development. He seems more a prop than anything. The four boys have more dialogue and interaction with the heroine than he does. In all, I found it too convenient, contrived, and a little too inaccurate when it comes to historical details (1800′s Nebraska with parks, park benches, and kindergarten?). You may enjoy it if you’re looking for a light diversion, but it really wasn’t to my taste.
Rating: 
