Tattered Hearts

Mail Order Brides of Spring Water, Book 1

De: Kathleen Ball

Narrado por: Karen Krause

Amid the aftermath of the Civil War, Georgie O'Rourke, the last surviving member of her family, decides her only choice is to leave her beloved state of Tennessee by answering a mail-order bride advertisement. With only a few items of rag, like clothing, she travels the Southwest Trail by covered wagon to meet up with her groom in Texas.

Captain Parker Eastman, formally of the Confederate Army, travels from his cattle ranch to the Southwest Trail to intercept a woman his mother hired as a companion. He soon finds out that Georgie traveled to Texas to become his wife. Duty-bound to make right on his mother's promise of marriage, he marries the Southern belle. But she is unlike any pampered woman he'd ever known. She was a survivor and did what needed to be done to make a future for herself.

Reconstruction in the South is anything but peaceful. Anger and hatred are harbored on both sides. Fear and violence become the norm. People are no longer the same as they were before the war. Upon arriving at the ranch, Parker leaves Georgia in the hands of his mentally unstable mother in order to address land grabbers.

Mother Eastman thinks that Georgie is to blame for everything that was lost in the war, leaving Georgie beaten and broken.

Can Parker find the wife he'd come to love and admire beneath the terrified and untrusting woman she'd become?

This historical western romance is full of twists, suspense, and amazing romance.

©2018 Kathleen Ball (P)2018 Kathleen Ball

Tattered Hearts

This book has a good storyline. It's after the war. There is no way we can understand how hard people had it. There lives were tore apart. Georgie was in a rough spot. Parker's mom ordered her for Parker. parker didn't want her at start. She was not what parker wanted at start. I Think Parker could have done a lot better I think he was sailfish. Karen Krause does a great job narrating this book. I received a copy of this book from audiobooks unleashed but that has no influence on my review. If this review is any help will you please click on the helpful link below. Thank you.

Somewhat disappointing

I loved the story line but was very disappointed in the narrator, Karen Krause. I'm a several generation Tennessean and I can assure you, we do NOT sound like her southern accent. I would have loved it if she'd taken the time to learn our accent so she would be more believable. Parts of the story I really loved but the narrator would keep talking and I'd lose interest. If this doesn't bother you, I think you'll love the story.

Fantastic

I listened to this one on audio. Narration was excellent.

Fantastic book. It was filled with twists and turns I never saw coming. The writing is excellent. The characters are very well developed and some are a bit...insane. Loved the story and how things played out. I look forward to more in the series!

very good

Loved it !! this story. the narrator is so fantastic it's like your really there!! good overall

Heartfelt !

The characters in this book were just what happened after the civil war. I was so happy to get a mail-order-bride story. Parker’s mother advertised for a bride pretending to be her son. When the bride to be got to her destination, things got really crazy.

Sweet Historical Romance

Fair warning, this is a very unusual romance. The Civil War has destroyed so many people's lives, but strong and sweet Georgie has both the best and the worst in store for her life, in her future husband's home. A place that should have brought comfort becomes a living hell, and while healing does come, it's a long time coming.
The narration was perfect, with the exception of one technical blip in the recording.

Good

Harshness of the civil war, and now to pick up the pieces. She maybe a Southern Bell she knew what work was, and signed up to be a MOB. With expectations can they make a marriage work.
Given audio for my voluntary review and with good narration

Disappointing

This is the first book I have read by this author, and I am sorry to say that it was quite disappointing. The author's writing is odd and definitely inexperienced, despite the fact that she has written quite a few books. This is the kind of writing that you normally see from first time writers. There were quite a few problems with this book. The first is that the characters' dialogue was stilted, very odd and unnatural. It was to the point that it was painful and awkward to read. Secondly, there were a lot of anachronisms of speech, lots of expressions and manners of speech that didn't fit the time period at all. Third is that the editing was horrible. There were quite a few typos (in the kindle edition), and even places where the same passage was repeated in a different place in the book. Lastly, the narrator was awful. Her male voices were horrible. They all sounded like a drawn out monotone, almost bored no matter what they were saying. I ended up switching to the KIndle book because I couldn't listen to her anymore, but as it turned out, the whole book was a waste of time due to the author's inept and awkward writing style.

**Spoiler warning** As for the story, the premise of the book sounded interesting, but it definitely fell short. There was a lot of violence toward the female protagonist from nearly every male in the book, as well as from Parker's mother. I found it disturbing that nearly every male character was portrayed as lecherous and perverted, and there were at least four characters that either wanted to or tried to rape Georgie. I also find it hard to believe that Parker would have so grievously misjudged one of the characters, when, according to the book, he had known him for a long time and worked alongside him in the Confederate army, and especially after his behavior towards Georgie in the woods. I felt like the part with him leaving his new wife alone with a few men and his mother was very contrived and not realistic at all. The parts that followed were even more so, with the violence from one of the men and Parker's mother. I can somewhat understand his mother's insanity, but how did this seemingly normal man suddenly turn into a depraved lunatic? I felt like it was over the top and unnecessary, and I don't see how anyone in their right mind could stay with a man after he had let that happen. I also felt like she recovered from the whole ordeal way too easily and quickly. I was hoping that the rest of the book would get better, but sadly, it did not. As I said, the dialogue as well as the situations in the book all felt stilted and contrived.The author definitely needs to work on her writing.

Terrible narration.

I actually thought at first that the narration was by a computer voice. The story was good. Probably a little far fetched but it had me in tears more than once.

Tattered hearts.

Hero was a jerk for treating her the way he did. Narration was absolutely horrible.