The Brickmaker's Bride

I'll be honest; historical romance novels aren't really my thing.  While other girls swooned over Heathcliff or Mr. Darcy, I was reading books about best friends and their adventures--Trixie Belden mysteries, In Grandma's Attic and so on.

Yet, I was drawn to The Brickmaker's Bride.  First, the cover is fantastic.  From the layout to the color scheme to the embossing, this is a beautiful book.  Secondly, the story sounded unusual, unlike other romances I had read. 

I want fiction to transport me.  This did--to a world I knew little about.  Facts about the brickmaking process in the late 19th century were woven in deftly and I stayed engaged to the end.  When it came time to put the book down, I didn't want to leave the characters!

I only had two strong criticisms.  First, I think the first chapter would have benefited from more editing.  "Brickyard" appeared in it twenty-six times. (That doesn't count additional uses of "bricks," "brickworks," etc.)  Thankfully, that redundancy isn't representative of the rest of the book.  Secondly, Ewan's description of Kathleen in chapter eleven seemed very shallow for such a deep man.  I would have liked to see her character fleshed out more, and earlier in the book--but maybe that's just me.

Ewan, by the way, was my favorite character.  As someone with an Irish-American heritage, some of his stories rang true with some of my family's own.  That was cool.

I am happy for the chance to read Judith Miller's fine story and pass it along to friends!

I was grateful to receive a free copy of The Brickmaker's Bride from Bethany House in exchange for an unbiased review of it.