A Reluctant Bride

Bride Ships, Book 1

By: Jody Hedlund

Narrated by: Esther Wane

Living in London's poorest slum, Mercy Wilkins has little hope of a better life. When she's offered an opportunity to join a bride ship sailing to British Columbia, she agrees. After witnessing so much painful heartache and loss in the slums, the bride ship is her only prospect to escape a bleak future, not only for herself but, she hopes, someday for her sister.

Wealthy and titled Joseph Colville leaves home and takes to the sea in order to escape the pain of losing his family. As ship's surgeon, he's in charge of the passengers' welfare aboard the Tynemouth, including 60 brides-to-be. He has no immediate intention of settling down, but when Mercy becomes his assistant, the two must fight against a forbidden love.

With hundreds of single men congregating on the shore eager to claim a bride from the Tynemouth, will Mercy and Joseph lose their chance at true love, or will they be able to overcome the obstacles that threaten to keep them apart?

©2019 Jody Hedlund (P)2019 Tantor

Sweet and interesting

The tale of Mercy and Joseph is interesting on many levels. First, the history of the Bride Ships is fascinating by itself. The route and method of propulsion, the perils and sights all make for interesting reading. Second, the imbedded tale of class differences, attitudes and the idea of whether rank and privilege are adequate judges of intelligence and ability not to mention humanity and a determination of worth made this novel in a rare class above the basic romance. Cheers to Jody Hedlund on this excellent work.

Quite reluctant

a story about a girl refusing to love a man just because of dumb excuses was quite irritating but I suppose it ends well.

Great change up from Scottish/Duke romances

I needed something a little different because everything was starting to sound the same in my favorite historical Scottish or Duke type romances. This was a great change up. Aside of the drawn out inner monologue (that I find all romances seem to have) I LOVED this story!

New series

A little different story that travels from the slums of London to British Columbia. A journey of unexpected highs and lows and a love that could not be denied

Nice Story

Nice story. A little drawn out unnecessarily at times. I didn’t like the narrator’s voice for the FMC. Unfortunately, the book ended rather abruptly too. Overall, a good listen, but I won’t be listening to it again.

I didn't want it to end

Story, character development, and narration are all perfect. I wanted it to keep going forever.

good

I enjoyed it overall, a little boring though. Also repetitive from one character to another.

Liked the story but…

The story was written well. It took me a while to figure out that I wasn’t missing parts of the book and that the writer skipped to different scenes in the story and skipped content in between. Perhaps a pause from the person performing the story would have been helpful.

The story was CLEAN and romantic and that was very nice. The characters were developed well with all their concerns being addressed. The characters’ actions had a linear direction and the back and forth made sense as they each overcame their mental obstacles.

The reader had a voice that was a bit hard on the ears. And it took me a while to realize that the main heroine was not 12 years old. For some reason she was portrayed with a child’s voice as opposed to a woman’s voice. It made her sound very simple minded.

Wish Narrator had used a different voice.

Over all I enjoyed the storyline. I do wish the narrator had used a different voice for Mercy, she sounded like she was a little girl. It made it difficult to really get into the story because it sounded like a love story between a 40 year old man and a 10 year old girl.

Wonderful story

I loved the characters. I couldn’t stop listening until the end. The narration was excellent and the story made me want more and more.