Customer Reviews

The Bride Backfire (Thorndike Christian Historical Fiction)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

In Nebraska Territory, 1857, there is a longstanding feud between two neighboring families, the Specks and the Grogans. When Opal Speck's father discovers Adam Grogan on their property, he threatens to kill him. Opal saves Adam's life the only way she can think of: by lying that he is the father of her unborn child. Thanks to her lie, Adam's life is saved, but it also results in Opal and Adam being forced into a shotgun marriage.

From the start, Adam doesn't want a real marriage. Not realizing that Opal made up the entire story to save his life, he believes that Opal is pregnant with another man's child, and her purpose in lying was to give her child a name. He is frustrated that Opal continues to refuse to tell him who the child's real father is. Opal doesn't know how to tell Adam that what he is believing is wrong, that she isn't pregnant and only wished to save him from her angry father. When she begins to fall in love with her husband and longs for their marriage to be a real marriage, but she doesn't know if Adam, who was forced to marry her, could ever love her for real. Can she manage to set things right with him?

The Bride Backfire is an enjoyable western romance for readers who like inspirational romances or clean love stories that don`t have graphic adult content. At times I got frustrated with Opal and wished she'd just tell Adam the truth already, but that didn't keep me from enjoying the story, and I would give other books by this author a try.

In this witty romance, we have two feuding families, the Specks and the Grogans. Among the shifty characters of these two families, there are a few redeeming characters. Adam and his sister, Willa on the Grogan side and on the Speck side, Opal and Ben.....they don't talk alot about the others, so you can't make much of a judgement. Like so many families today, who have feuds over simple disagreements, this one started years before with their grandparents and the war went on. Opal is often tormented by one of the Grogan brother's and does not want her family to find out to prevent more feuding. When though, the nice brother, Adam, get accused of crimes he did not do and is about to meet his maker at the end of her father's and brother's shotgun, Opal lies to save his life.....but this lie had consequences. Will he go along with it and marry her to save his life and her's now?

My Review:This was a witty book, it was cute, but did not have alot of depth. I was frustrated as in so many of these stories, where there was a lie told for a "good" reason, no one just tells each other the reason and as lies tend to do, it compounds and makes more and more problems. By the middle of the book, I was saying in a frustrated tone "Just tell him!!!!!!" So, if you like those western prairie romances with spunky characters and mystery wrapped around it along with cliches, pick this one up! It was a fun light read compared to some of the had core reading I have been doing!

After reading an ARC version of the first book in the Prairie Promises Series, "The Bride Bargain", I was confused at two name changes, but that happens and it is my on fault for getting distracted and forgetting that had been an advanced reader copy before final edits.

In this story once again readers are treated with descriptions of food and cooking of recipes on the prairie that bring interest and cause a mouth to water. There were more in the first book, yet this one also offered descriptions of bee-keeping that I never knew before or rather had even thought to ask. It was fascinating.

This book brought a much deeper intrigue for me than the first as I honestly had no clue what would happen in the end of of any of the twists and turns to get there. That impresses me in a novel. I enjoyed picking up on the lives of characters I had met in the first book of the series and applaud Kelly's descriptions of their inner thoughts through what could only be reference as difficult situations. Scripture lessons on life and shocking surprises are woven through the page of this novel and I look forward to the final installment of the trilogy and of more to come from author Kelly Eileen Hake in the future.

The summary sounded good so I got the sample. The sample should have told me I'd hate the book because it was rambling, hick speak and nonsense about "the bloat" and cows. Yet I still shelled out $8 for this book.

Sucker me.

DO NOT buy this book. It's God awful. I don't think I've ever read so much rambling. The hero is a punk and weak, the heroine is a mess, the hero's mother is ridiculous and the most rambling, mentally insane character I've ever read. All her thoughts are ridiculous and the author had a heavy hand on exclamation points.

Get the sample. If you find it even the least bit confusing and think it'll get better as the story progresses, THINK AGAIN.

I'm stone cold convinced the glowing reviews for this books are shills at their finest and friends of the author who will say the sky is purple for her when it's clear as day blue.

THE BRIDE BACKFIRE by Kelly Eileen Hake is an enjoyable historical with touches of humor and plenty of drama.
Opal Speck wants nothing more than to prevent bloodshed and hold off the feud that has plagued the Specks and the Grogans for generations. When Adam Grogan crosses territorial lines, the Speck men are looking for revenge. But Opal, cannot allowed Adam - the man that saved her life two years ago-to be the victim of the ridiculous feud. She knows of only one way to save him . . . tell her family that she is carrying Adam's child.
What follows is a shotgun wedding, vindictive threats, a well kept secret, and the possibility of love to bloom between two families of hatred.
I enjoyed THE BRIDE BACKFIRE, but the pulling and tugging between Adam and Opal got a bit tiresome over time. Midge - Opal's best friend added a good dimension to the story, and of course, Mrs. Grogan was every daughter-in-law's nightmare. Overall, a good story that reads at a casual pace.

I'm sorry to say that I hated this book. The only reason that I finished the book was because I kept hoping it would get better. I found it confusing and nonsensical; and the way people just kept jumping to conclusions rather than finding out the truth was frustrating.

This is the first book that I've read by this author and I was impressed by her bio, but I was definitely not impressed by the book.

Sorry.

I enjoyed Opal tremendously. She was such an optimistic person - not so much that you're nauseous. She listened to the preacher and really did her best to pray and put his words into practice. Opal was a wonderful portrait of a woman who follows God but still lives her life.

What I didn't like about this book: The end. I really just wanted a bit more to finish. Some of the characters storyies didn't feel complete to me.. and yes, I KNOW that it doesn't finish in the next book - The Bride Blunder which I've already reviewed

I don't know what's happened out there in Christian-writer-land, but there are a LOT of good ones; seems to me, all of a sudden too. I love Ms Hake's writing. It isn't predictable like so many out there. I am always surprised. More importantly, I can stay away from the tempting worldly books that do nothing but support that trash that so much television and movies have turned in to. Thank you Kelly Hake for great writing.

A feud between the Specks and the Grogans have gone on for generations. There is no making peace between the two families, especially when Larry Grogan starts stalking Opal Speck. When Adam Grogan wanders into Speck land looking for a stray cow, there is no way Opal's family will forgive him for trespassing.

Determined to keep bloodshed at bay, Opal blurts out the one statement that will stop her family in their tracks. She says that Adam is the father of her unborn child!

Adam has two choices - the truth, saying he had no involvement with Opal, which would mean he dies at the hands of her family, or accept the slur to his name and marry a girl who's trying to pass off another man's child as his!

THE BRIDE BACKFIRE is part of the Prairie Promises series. I thought it sounded like a cute story, but it was kind of jarring bouncing from one family to another's point of view. I did like Adam's attraction for Opal and thought it a shame that the two families hated each other so much. If you like Hake's books you will enjoy THE BRIDE BACKFIRE.

After a bit of encouragement from a friend I decided to continue in this series and boy howdy, am I glad I did! I loved this story and can't wait to get to #3. Thanks to Net Galley for my digital edition for this review. I grew up in Kentucky all around the Hatfield and McCoy Feud stories but this one takes the cake. Opal Speck and Adam Grogan try to be each family's peacemaker in the Speck-Grogan feud that has gone on for generations. Each one struggles inwardly to have faith that God is stronger, even when on the wrong side of a gun, so to speak. These two have grown up with all the angst and danger of the feud and numerous digs from each side to fuel the flame for all their years, so they trust no one. The entire town distances themselves-even at church. So when Opal and Adam show up at church having been 'privately' married just days before, the whole town is knocked off kilter. Is the feud over? Has it begun anew? Why did they get married?

Well, you'll just have to read it to find out. It's another I-couldn't-put-it-down-even-at-2am-and-then-hit-it-again-for-breakfast book. And the heat factor!!! Where's my fan...The sexual tension starts in chapter two, for Pete's sake, and ends with the last sentence in the book, my word! Which, by the way, is the most irritating way to end a book-just when the two characters....well, I don't want to be accused of putting in a spoiler. Suffice it to say I wanted one more chapter-the tidy bow on this gift.

I commented on The Bride Bargain's cover not being to my liking in that book's review. This one's cover at least made sense to me and I liked the picture of the dugout but the rendering of Opal is lacking somehow, just as the one of Clara is on The Bride Bargain. Just sayin', you know?