Customer Reviews

A Measure of Grace (Mail Order Bride Series #8)

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Though not my absolute favorite of Al and Joanna Lacy's books, this one was a very nice read. The entire Mail Order Bride series is worth a look to anyone who likes historical Christian romance.
Anyway, the book is about a young woman, Diana, who lives in fear of an abusive father. She is willing to do almost anything to escape...even become a mail order bride. The man she secretly corresponds with is a selfish young man who places the ad because he is rebelling against his matchmaking parents. He gets his best friend,Knight, who is a writer at the local newspaper, to compose the ad. He later convinces Knight to answer his prospective bride's letters because he has a natural gift with words. Diana falls in love with the wonderful letters that she receives and eagerly journeys far from home to marry the man that has so touched her heart with his words. Knight has unwillingly fallen for Diana as well and dreads seeing her wed to his best friend. But when Diana arrives, her future husband is missing. As she joins the search for him, she is thrown into close proximity with Knight. As she falls for a man she can never have, she thinks that that is the worst possible thing that could ever happen, not knowing that her father has followed her and is determined to bring her home...no matter what.
The plot was interesting and I liked the hero and heroine a good deal, but the number one reason I have to suggest this book is that it features some of my writing. I was the winner of The Mail Order Bride writing contest and the ad and letters written by Diana and Knight that are featured in the book are all by me. I am recognized on the copyright page, or whatever it's called. So, give it a try and if you happen to like my letters look for anything written by me in the future. I'm a bestseller wannabe like most of us out there.

This book was a nice getaway for me. I was able to live inside the story and enjoy the good times and feel sadness for the bad things that happened. It was a story that I could not tell ahead of time how it would end. I feel that it was very well written even though it moved around a good bit to the different characters. I felt like I actually knew the characters by the length of time used to introduce them. Definitely entertaining. I will be reading more from these authors....

While the concept for this story is good, and could have been a good read....it wasn't! The level it was written for seemed to be for very young adults, and things were over explained. The dialogue was unrealistic and way to 'wordy' , and the bride wasn't even introduced until well into the book, after a rather pointless, and seemingly never ending part about the man's life as a young boy. I understand the concept of introducing Christ as a main theme...but it was done in an annoying way, a way that would in my opinion, push people away, as to bringing them to Him. Basically, the only reason I even made myself finish this book was because I have a need for closure! The ending was completely unrealistic and horribly written....I know this review is rude...but I would definitly recommend AGAINST reading this book!