Abby: Mail Order Bride

Unconventional Series, Book 1

By: Verna Clay

Narrated by: Amy Gramour

Brant Samson has fallen on hard times with the death of his beloved wife a year earlier from lung fever. Left with three children, he's desperate to find a mother for them. Ten year old Jenny does her best to care for two year old Ty, and fourteen year old Luke works the ranch with his father, losing himself in dime novels to ease the pain of his mother's death. Brant's options are limited since eligible women seldom pass through Two Rivers, much less settle in the small Texas town. In desperation, he places a classified advertisement for a mail order bride. Marrying a woman he'll come to know through a newspaper ad scares the bejesus out of him, but at this point, he's out of options.

Abigail Mary Vaughn always dreamed of having her own family, but caring for her elderly parents, as well as working as a teacher to help with finances, ended that dream. Her parents are now dead and she's faced with the reality of her dismal existence. After reading Mr. Samson's advertisement in the Philadelphia Inquirer, she garners enough courage to respond. Since she is considered an old maid at the age of thirty-eight, she'll more than likely spend the rest of her life in gut-wrenching loneliness unless she does something unconventional.

This is the first book in the Unconventional Series.

Order of books:Abby: Mail Order Bride, Broken Angel, Ryder's Salvation

Minimal language. Sensual love scenes.

©2012 Verna Clay (P)2013 Verna Clay

Great book, grab a tissue

This book was great. The narrator was fair.
I loved the story and there are some twists and turns you don't see coming at all. Have a tissue handy. The original story was great. I look forward to more in the series.

Good listen

I loved the story and there are some twists and turns you don't see coming at all. It is amazing there were women who left their homes going to a man they never met. I am sure a lot of them didn't turn out very good but in this one it did. It was a great plot. good characters with a few tears.

The narration was good, no repeating of words, no volume changes, no background noise. Good character voices, nice normal voice. I enjoyed the audio.

Good narration

Good story of a mail order bride coming to be a wife and mother to three little ones. To have a home of her own, and to be needed. A good flowing plot by the author , and enjoyable with the narration.
Given audio for my voluntary review

Love is eternal!

What a cute sweet historical novel. Mail order brides is the old E-Harmony. Lol Life was so hard back in the day but the simple joy in life is love.

Historical western romance!!

Loved it! All about new beginnings, grief over lost loved ones and family! Happily ever after ending!!

Very monotone narration ok story

The story remains very superficial, I didn't get emotionally sucked in like a good romance novel can do.

The narration is pretty poor. Part of it is simply because I find the lady's voice annoying, but most of it is her monotone rendition of the story.

There were a few occasions where I wanted to stop, but in the end I did listen to the entire book.

Don't feel like I wasted my time, but at the same time wouldn't ever listen to this book again.

Monotone narrator

What did you like best about Abby: Mail Order Bride? What did you like least?

The story was great but I never got used to the narrator. I won't finish the series even though I really liked the story.
The narrator over enunciated each word and had little inflection in her voice.
Maybe a reader; not a listener.

What other book might you compare Abby: Mail Order Bride to and why?

none

What would have made this romance irresistible?

A great narrator

sweet story

this was a great book I thoroughly enjoyed it it was well worth the time and effort to listen to it I love the fundamentals of the mail order bride theme and the husband the three kids even the fact that she got to experience the loss which they were already dealing with with the first wife that has passed on and then she got experience the little boy that she was raising as her own pasta was her heartbreaking and you know it kind of just brought the whole story home up for me and I just after I really enjoyed it it was well worth the effort

Abby

This is a good book to listen to. Brant need help with his kids after his wife died. Abby is a nice girl and tries to fit in. She becomes very attached to the kids. It is interesting to listen to everything that happens as they grow together. I highly recommend this book. Verna Clay wrote a great book and Amy Gramour does a great job narraiting this book. If my review is any help will you é below. Thank you

Sweet -- Touching!

At first I wondered if a book less than 4 hours long would be worth a credit, but I was unfamiliar with the author and wanted to judge for myself....and I can tell you, with a resounding YES, it was well worth the credit.

Be sure to have a box of tissue handy when listening to Abby: Mail Order Bride, you'll need it.

Verna Clay is a very talented author, and I hope Audible will be adding her next book in this series, as well as other books by Ms. Clay.

Although Amy Gramour's voice is rather monotone, it is pleasant and did not distract from this touching, true to life story about a Mail Order Bride from the East traveling to Texas to care for a family of four who had lost their wife and mother the year before.

I recommend it all soft-hearted romantics.