THE BRIDEGROOM

Author: Linda Lael Miller ISBN: 9780373773886 8/2009 HISTORICAL Publisher: HQN
Time Period: 1915 Western

Undercover agent Gideon Yarbro is renowned for stopping outlaws almost before they commit a crime. But now he must stop a wedding—despite the bride's resistance. Lydia Fairmont will lose everything if she doesn't honor her betrothal to a heartless banker. Unless she marries someone else instead ...whether it's a love match or not. Determined to honor his own decade-old promise to help Lydia, Gideon carries her off to Stone Creek and makes her his reluctant wife. Forget a honeymoon for "show"—not with a vengeful ex-fiance on their trail and a hired gun on the loose. But there just might be hope for the marriage... and two hearts meant for each other.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

THE BRIDEGROOM is the first Miller I've read since her Vampire books. By and large I'm not a fan of frontier-set love stories, and since many of her books are set in that time/place I tend to avoid the stories. THE BRIDEGROOM, however, interested me after my sister raved about her other Stone Creek novels.

Poor Lydia—to save her family she's about to be married off to a thoroughly disgusting fellow; except maybe there's a savior! A decades-old promise from a friend (a male friend) might just be the miracle she's hoping for. Send off the letter, pray he hasn't moved on and/or decided that promises made to eight-year-old girls ten years and more ago, are ridiculous to hold...

Gideon, like any good romance hero, feels honor bound to help out Lydia. Except Lydia isn't sure she likes his version of helping out any better than her original problem (well, except Gideon is better looking and definitely more of a gentleman than her former fiancée).

The two of them together were some of the best parts of the book. They're both not too good on planning long term, honestly—rash actions that fix the problem immediately take precedence over well thought-out plans, for the most part. Still Gideon is up front with Lydia about the fact he isn't sticking around, and Lydia is more than happy to tell him how unhappy she was with his brand of 'helping'. Honesty! Such a refreshing change of pace.

The only complaints I had was that sometimes the story felt less like a romance and more like a fairy tale—Lydia's Aunties acting as fairy godmothers; Lydia as Cinderella; Gideon as the reluctant Prince Charming; and Lydia's former fiancée as the Dastardly Bad Guy; all seemed to be over the top, at times. Also, there was a lot of mention of people and events that happened in past books (or so my sister tells me) that are only given brief explanations that don't often have connection to the plot of this book.

Overall, however, I was pleased with the book and will be trying to find the other Stone Creek novels.

Alexandra Cenni