A Bride Most Begrudging

I was surprised at the comments from fellow Christian readers. (I also write Christian historical fiction.) There is a strong inspirational element through this story, but it is also balanced with the reality of living in the early colonial times. The heroine is in an extremely difficult and dangerous situation while the hero has his own immediate daily demands and a history of loss that loads him down. Ms. Gist has the research down pat on this (I have also done extensive research and live in this area of the country). The plot line is solid, the characters well developed, and the spiritual arc is there and is realistic. The narrator did a wonderful job. I was pleased to have this available as an audio download. This is definitely an example of the edgier types of Christian fiction coming out and is not a gentle Janette Oke type of book (I also love Ms. Oke and have read her for the past two decades.)

I read the book version and it was nice to hear the audio version and catch things I missed.

I wish she didn't take so much time in between sentences. It sort of became distracting.

I enjoyed listening to this audiobook. There were many parts that caused me to laugh out-loud but it was also suspenseful and of course romantic.

As a historical novel the plot was enjoyable, but I didn't find it to be very "inspirational". The characters' Christian faith was not very important to them and was only an after-thought, they were not passionate followers of Christ. I would have liked to see how their faith informed their day-to-day decision making.

The plot for this book was certainly intriguing. However, throughout most of the book, the author talks too much about their sexual attraction to each other. The characters are not filled out very well but there is certainly the physical attraction that you read about. If I owned an inspirational publishing company, I would not publish this book. I'm sorry that I wasted money on this book.