A Bride for All Seasons

Margaret Brownley, Robin Lee Hatcher, Mary Connealy, and Debra Clopton have joined together to write a series of novellas about mail order brides with humor and grace. Each story tells of a mail-order bride who has been hornswoggled by the mail-order catalog owner; one for each of the four seasons.

A bit of history of the practice:

There are at least two historical roots of the mail-order bride industry that emerged in the 1800s in frontier America: Asian workers in the frontier regions (although Asian workers were scattered throughout the world), and American men who had headed west across the United States to work out on the frontier.

The American men found financial success in the migration West, but the one thing that was missing was the company of a wife. Very few women lived there at this time, so it was hard for these men to settle down and start a family. They attempted to attract women living back East; the men wrote letters to churches and published personal advertisements in magazines and newspapers. In return, the women would write to the men and send them photographs of themselves. Courtship was conducted by letter, until a woman agreed to marry a man she had never met. Many women wanted to escape their present way of living, gain financial security and see what life on the frontier could offer them. Most of these women were single, but some were widows, divorcees or runaways.

While these men and women have needs the other can fill, it's not the most advantageous way to make a match. These men and women work hard to make these matches work. I'd have to say that my favorite novella in this group is Winter Wedding Bells. David marries Megan to take care of his two sons because he's been told he only has about a year to live. Megan refuses to take his prognosis seriously. With her teas and poultices, she brings healing into David's body. With her gentle and indomitable spirit, she brings healing to David's heart. After winter is over, she takes David into town and makes him see the town's new doctor--a doctor who knew the quack that told David he was dying, knew that the quack wanted to sell his snake oil. The story has such a sweet ending that it quickly became my favorite of the four.

Five Stars, Two Thumbs Up, and an advertisement in the Mail Order Catalog.