Finally His Bride (Bride Ships: New Voyages Book 1)

303 pages February 13,2024 publish date

ABOUT THE BOOK

A new world. A new hope. An unexpected love.
What life awaits these brides?

With the cotton mills closed and hunger rampant in Manchester, England, Willow Rhodes’s family encourages her to join the bride ship bound for the Pacific Northwest, where she is assured of employment. Willow agrees to go with the hope that eventually she can save enough money for her family to join her.

Rebellious knuckle-boxing champion Caleb Edwards loves Willow more than life itself. But Willow has been adamant that she sees him as a friend and nothing more. Unable to watch her sail away, Caleb uses his prize money to pay for passage to Vancouver Island to be with Willow.

After arriving, Willow finds work as a maid and Caleb is a farmhand on the same property. As Caleb struggles to keep his feelings for Willow from growing, he’ll do anything for her, even take the blame for a theft to keep her safe. As the crime catches up to them, they’re forced to make choices that could finally rip them apart forever.

Bride Ships: New Voyages
Book 1: Finally His Bride
Book 2: His Treasured Bride

Bride Ships by Jody Hedlund
Book 1: A Reluctant Bride
Book 2: The Runaway Bride
Book 3: A Bride of Convenience
Book 4: Almost a Bride

MY THOUGHTS

If you’ve enjoyed Jody Hedlund’s The Bride Ships series then I also suggest her newest series, Bride Ships: New Voyages.
The Rhodes family are locals in Manchester, England, after trying so hard to stay all together they are resigned to sending their daughter Willow to join the bride ship bound for the Pacific Northwest. She’ll work until she earns the money to send for the rest of her family.

She’ll miss her family greatly, but she’ll also miss her best friend, Caleb Edwards. When he joins her on her journey, she is shocked and how he earned the money to do so leaves her even more shocked.

I really enjoyed reading Willow and Caleb’s story and seeing how he is ready to go to the next step past friendship. Willow is so protective of Caleb and he of her. They have been friends for so long, each one being afraid to take the next step towards a romance for fear of the other not wanting that and losing that special friendship. I just wanted to tell them both, to just take that chance you could open a new world of possibilities.

The author so vividly paints the scenery of the interaction between the characters you can almost hear them taking. Great character development. This marriage of convenience story is not rushed, the characters have had a lot of time to develop their feelings from friends to lovers. This is something the author does well, developing her characters. The secondary characters feel important too and I wouldn’t be surprised to see any of them in future books.

I enjoyed this uplifting and positive faith filled book and greatly look forward to reading more in this series.

I was given a complimentary copy of this book.
All opinions expressed are my own.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jody Hedlund is the best-selling author of over fifty books and is the winner of numerous awards. She writes sweet historical romances with plenty of sizzle.

Have a fabulous day.