The Patchwork Bride
A Novel
Sandra Dallas
St. Martin’s Press
Release date June 5, 2018
304 pages, Kindle, Hardcover, Audiobook
Historical Romance, Women’s Lit, Fiction
✭✭✭✭✭
ARC provided by publisher, NetGalley
The cover is simple and lovely. So suitable for this heartwarming story and its many moments that pull at the heartstrings. It tells you that the story is about love, not just once but more than once. And that the love or loves don’t have a smooth path to tread, but that there is a coming together at some point for someone, a mending of the heart. That’s what that simple embroidered heart tells you.
The story is complex and engaging. It’s a story within a story told by a grandmother to her upset, almost-a-bride granddaughter. A story of several loves, of several almost weddings, and of the final mending of hearts, of love.
The characters are so well written that you feel like you know them all. Nell sitting on her porch waiting for Buddy to return, June who’s just called off her wedding, and all the people in her stories like Ellen, Ben, and Emily. Ellen’s argument with Ben was so real, just as two really upset people would fight it out from the heart. And the weird conversation with Emily, the other wife, before the chickens got into the poisoned cake and died. Then the ending when she reveals the rest of the story to June and why it was so important to have a wedding for this bride.
The pace was perfect. The author went with the events and let them set the pace. Falling in love was slower than running out and off to the next place or the breakup fights. Each part had its own sort of tension, but it all built a bit as each story was another canceled wedding, and it really didn’t release until the whole story was shared at the end. Then June’s plans sort of tied things up for a nice ending. It also sets it up for a sequel!
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will reread it. It’s perfect for a hot summer day or a cool fall weekend or even a snowed-in winter day! This is one of those books that you could read anytime and really enjoy it. I can’t recommend it to homey historical romance readers enough.
Highly recommended.
a thoughtful reveal 