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Twice Promised

Book 2 in the continuing story

by Maggie Brendan

    • Author

      Maggie Brendan

    • Book Format

      Paperback

    • Publisher

      Baker Publishing Group

    • Published

      November 2012

    Read full description

    Today's Price

    £18.71

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    Twice Promised

    Today's Price £18.71


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    Product Description

    ‘Twice Promised’ gives you the second instalment of Magee Brendan’s twisting, turning tale of the loves and lives of mail order brides in the American West. Set in the wide open prairie lands of 1880s Colorado, the story picks up where book 1, ‘Deeply Devoted’ left off.

    In the first book, Catharine Olson arrives in America as a mail order bride. All she brings with her are her sisters, Greta and Anna, her mother’s Bible and a blue willow pattern china dinner service. Married to Peter Andersen, the man who ordered her from Holland, she weathers the storms of new life, old memories and the sabotage of Peter’s over possessive mother. Now, sister Greta wants to try her luck and love in the role of mail order bride.

    The story opens with Greta on the train to her husband to be. When she strikes up a friendship with fellow traveller, Cora Johnson, she has no idea that she too is a mail order bride – and for the same man, Jess Gifford. And what’s even worse, Jess Gifford didn’t even place the ad; it was his brother Zach! And now Jess is furious. Two brothers and two willing brides? You might think the outcome seems obvious, but the two women have their own opinions.

    The whole idea of mail-order brides originates on the American wild-west frontier of the mid-1800s. Men were moving west in search of work, land and even gold. Most met with enough success to settle down and stay. But the one thing missing was the opportunity to marry and raise a family. Very few women lived out west. The only hope of a lonely man was to attract a woman from the eastern states to the more rustic and adventurous life of the west. So men wrote letters to churches and published personal ads in magazines and newspapers. In reply, interested women – Like Maggie Bredan’s ‘Twice Promised’ Olson sisters, would write back with photographs and information about themselves.

    Although hundreds of thousands of white women did travel west, they were practically all married as it was thought unsuitable for women to go west alone. One chronicler of the American west, Mari Sandoz, recounted that the shortage of marriageable was so severe that, inNebraska, "a man had to marry anything that got off the train." The balance was further upset by The American Civil war. So many men were killed that, by 1865, there was an estimated 30,000 single women and war widows in the eastern states. Newspapers began matchmaking or "matrimonial columns" of paid advertisements and photographs. A typical example read:

    "A young lady residing in one of the small towns inCentral New Yorkis desirous of opening a correspondence with some young man in the West, with a view to a matrimonial engagement... she is about 24 years of age, possesses a good moral character... is tolerably well-educated, and thoroughly versed in the mysteries of housekeeping."

    The ads weren’t all placed by women. Men sought wives more frequently than women looked for husbands. While the ad above is more about what the wife-to-be has to offer, this husband-in-prospect writes more about his own demands:

    "A Bachelor of 40, good appearance and substantial means, wants a wife. She must be under 30, amiable, and musical."

    It took about four weeks for letters to go from east to west and not everyone was literate enough to carry on a long distance courtship. Illiterate men dictated letters to typists who, for a fee, would improve the wording of their overtures. Men and women could easily misrepresent their physical attributes, status, or finances. The 1911 Wahpeton Times reports on a New York girl for whom, on seeing the face of her intended on arrival in Buford, North Dakota, "the spell was immediately broken".

    By the twentieth century, matchmaking for profit had arrived and today there are more than 200 internet companies connecting men and women around the world, and charging for their services. For those fortunate enough not to need their help, the mail-order bride business is mocked as an act of desperation or pilloried as synonymous with trafficking and enslavement. Yet it remains that many are unable to meet suitable partners, and Christians are no different in this respect. The loneliness and need to be loved, endured by the fictional characters of Maggie Brendan’s 'Deeply Devoted' and 'Twice Promised', is serious and real in our churches today. Finding a partner is not easy. And for some it’s the deepest grief of their life. I’m not proposing that we all become matchmakers in our churches. I am suggesting that we all need to be a little more sympathetic and understanding of those in our fellowships who endure the single life through no desire of their own. – Les Ellison.

    "Two mail-order brides, one groom and a few misunderstandings collide in the second blue Willow Brides book. Brendan's characters are witty, charming and fun to be around, and she brings her trademark writing style to the Wild West." - Romantic Times
    Seeing how successful her older sister's "mail order marriage" has been and longing to strike out on her own, Greta Olsen answers an ad for a mail order bride in Central City, Colorado. But when she meets Jess Gifford, owner of a thriving mercantile, she begins to harbor doubts. He didn't place the ad to begin with and his business in a busy mining town leaves him little time or energy for love. To compound her troubles, she was not the only bride to answer the ad! Will either bride strike the match she hopes for? Filled with amusing and awkward situations that will keep the reader interested and guessing, Twice Promised is another sweet romance from Maggie Brendan.

    Specification

    • Author

      Maggie Brendan

    • Book Format

      Paperback

    • Publisher

      Baker Publishing Group

    • Published

      November 2012

    • Weight

      273g

    • Page Count

      336

    • Dimensions

      140 x 214 x 23 mm

    • ISBN

      9780800734633

    • ISBN-10

      0800734637

    • Eden Code

      4037636

    More Information

    • Author/Creator: Maggie Brendan

    • ISBN: 9780800734633

    • Publisher: Baker Publishing Group

    • Release Date: November 2012

    • Weight: 273g

    • Dimensions: 140 x 214 x 23 mm

    • Eden Code: 4037636


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