Mail-Order Marriages by Debbie Macomber

Mail-Order Marriages

By Debbie Macomber

• fiction
• my rating is 5 out of 5 stars     

The thing I like most about a book series is the excitement you have knowing that the characters you come to love throughout the book will in some way return, through the eyes of another focus character. This allows for a deeper knowledge of a character and how they fit in more peoples lives. In this review, I am looking only at book one, titled Mail-Order Marriages. It is the first of three books but contains in it two stories separated by the titles.  All three books revolve around the O’Halloran brothers and the bush pilot charter service, called Midnight Sons, that they run out of Hard Luck, Alaska. Hard Luck is a very small town located north of the Arctic circle where the scenery is beautiful, but the weather can be rough. 

The first story is called “Brides for Brothers”. This story focuses on Sawyer O’Halloran, the middle brother. When he and his younger brother Christian notice a lot of their pilots are thinking of leaving for someplace where they can meet women, they decide they need to do something to keep them in Hard Luck. They decide to create jobs and offer land to any women willing to live in Hard Luck for a year. As expected, this doesn’t turn out the way they planned. The first woman to arrive is Abby. She is there for a library position. When she arrives with two children, the men realize they may not have thought the plan through like they should have. Sawyer is intrigued, but determined not to get involved with her, and he doesn’t feel like he needs the distraction. As Abby gets settled into the way of life and her kids make friends, Sawyer finds himself starting to fall for her. He finds himself getting more involved with her and her kids, and becoming a part of their lives. This scares and annoys him, and he goes to great lengths to get her out of his mind, including trying to send her back to Washington State. He learns many things throughout their growing relationship about himself, his family and love. He knows life will never be the same, and realizes he can’t live without her.

In “The Marriage Risk”, it’s Charles O’Halloran, the oldest brother, who gets his turn at finding love. Due to the number of women arriving in Hard Luck, Lanni Caldwell is in town getting her grandmother’s house ready to be used for their living arrangements. Her grandmother is in a nursing home and the family has decided to allow the women to use the home rather than see it sit empty. When Charles sees her he has instant feeling, and does not like it one bit. He is determined to stay away and not let her get under his skin. When it turns out she is helping at Midnight Sons for awhile, it seems that is not going to happen. Finally when he allows himself to spend time with her, he learns more about her..and falls in love with her. It’s then that  he finds out things are not as easy as they seem. Turns out Lanni is the granddaughter of his family’s least favorite person. This could be a deal breaker. He is so angry at the fact that she is related to the woman that he thinks broke up his family, he isn’t willing to even think of staying together with her. He begins to fight the relationship with all he has. When Lanni is put in what could be a dangerous situation, Charles has to open up to the fact that he does love her regardless of what the past family situations might be. He has to stop fighting the process of love, and acknowledge what’s in his heart. 

I really enjoyed both stories. I felt the experience of small town living and thinking what fun it would be to visit the fictional town. Not only is it a good romance book, it pulls you in to an experience of being a part of the town where you feel the characters are friends.

Disclaimer:  I was not compensated for this posting. I am sharing this post on my own. My posts are my honest opinions. All images on these posts are directly linked to their source.