"Twice a Bride" Review

When Willow Peterson settles in the town of Cripple Creek, Colorado, in 1898, she does so in hopes of moving on with her life. Widowed at a young age, Willow now decides to set out on her own to follow her dream of being a painter.

Trenton Van Der Veer is also a newcomer to Cripple Creek. He, too, is moving on with his life, and he hopes opening a photography shop will be the first step in this new direction. When he is encouraged to hire a portrait painter to supplement his line of photography services, he finds a young woman, Willow Peterson, who is perfect for the job.

As Trenton and Willow get to know each other as employer/employee and as friends, they each wonder if their friendship might lead to something more. There are always surprises in the ever-growing town of Cripple Creek, and unexpected visitors might just lead to romance for some and the end of a newly-formed friendship for others.

The final book in the Sisters of Cripple Creek series, Twice a Bride thoroughly explores life’s unexpected turns and how a loving God will lead all the way.

 

When I finished the previous book in the Cripple Creek series, The Bride Wore Blue, I was so excited to find that there would be another book to finish out the series.

In Twice a Bride, the reader mostly follows Willow Peterson, who is Tucker Raines’s sister and who is therefore a sister-in-law to one of the Sinclair sisters, Ida. If you are totally confused by all of these people because you have not read the previous three books, then you definitely need to start at the beginning of the series! If you start reading this one without reading the others, you will be hopelessly lost and will not enjoy the book as much. There are a lot of characters in this book and in the series, and it even took me a while to be able to keep everyone straight again.

 
Speaking of the characters, I really liked the ones in this series. Even though there are a lot of them, I have enjoyed them and been able to relate to them. They are not perfect, but they strive to live their lives according to God’s Word and with His leading. There are some very tough situations and circumstances encountered in these books, especially in Twice a Bride, but through it all, they always have hope and faith in God.

I especially liked Willow and Trenton in this novel. Their relationship formed in an interesting way, and even though their romance was somewhat of a whirlwind, it was still convincing. I also liked the love interest for Miss Hattie. It was neat to see her side of the story a little bit more.

All of the sisters from the series are included in this novel, which made for a lot of scene changes and “head-hopping.” While I enjoyed getting so many points of view, it did get confusing at times. I also thought that some of the dialogue in this novel was a bit odd. I’m not sure if I remember this from the previous novels, but there would be times when someone would say something to someone or ask a question, and the other person didn’t really seem to give an appropriate answer or would seem to ignore them. It was almost as if I was sometimes waiting for the next sentence, and then I would turn the page to a scene change.

The thing I liked the most in this novel and in this series is how the author focused on the characters’ faith in Christ and how they used His Word to guide their lives. This was done so well in this novel. If you have read any of my previous reviews lately, you know that this is something that I think is missing from many Christian fiction books. I applaud Mona Hodgson for not shying away from using the name of Jesus in her novels.

Even though I think my favorite in this series was The Bride Wore Blue, I still enjoyed Twice a Bride. It had a lot of what I love about Christian historical fiction. It also had a very satisfying ending – for this book and for the entire series.

I will give Twice a Bride … 4 Bookworms.

 

 

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from WaterBrook Press. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this is accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."