Review: A Bride’s Dilemma in Friendship, Tennessee

Back cover copy:

Heaven’s Stolen His Heart

After witnessing the ravages of the Civil War, Travis Logan vowed to give up doctoring. But when fellow steamboat passenger Caleb Wharton collapses at his feet, Travis knows he must lend his aid. As the old man lies dying, he makes Travis promise to take care of his land and find Heaven. Travis can’t help but wonder what Heaven has to do with a real place, so he heads to Caleb’s farm to fulfill his promise.

Weeks of facing marauders and caring for her father’s home have finally taken their toll on Heaven Wharton. When an unknown young man charges the house, Heaven attempts to fire a warning shot but ends up shooting the man instead. Shocked, she and her sister, Angel, drag a semi-conscious Travis into the house and nurse him back to health.

As Travis and Heaven both struggle to control their destinies, will they learn that only a heart that follows God can ever find peace on earth?

All Travis Logan, a reluctant doctor, wants is to raise horses. But what’s a man to do when someone offers him a Tennessee farm and heaven?

When Heaven Wharton’s ma drilled into her all the proprieties of being a lady in society, she should have included a lesson on the impropriety of shooting a stranger, even if it’s accidental.

This is how the hero and heroine in A Bride’s Dilemma in Friendship, Tennessee meet. He tries to save her father’s life. She shoots him.

As lighthearted as that sounds, from the get-go, we’re drawn into the sad state of affairs in the Wharton cabin. The family of four who once lived a middle-class life in Nashville is now a family of two, one of whom is blind, living on a rundown farm in a backwoods community. Heaven tries hard to take care of her sister, but her mother focused on preparing her for life in society and not the practicalities of keeping a home. She becomes a worrywart whose overprotective tendancies irk her younger sister.

Travis is a likeable character who shows a great bit of patience in dealing with Heaven. He has his own worrisome issues to work through. Does he practice medicine or doesn’t he? Should he marry Heaven and, if he does, how can they have the same type of loving relationship his parents knew? And what does he do once the old beau shows up from the dead?

This is the second of Barbour’s “A Bride’s…” novels I have read and reviewed. (See my review of A Bride’s Portrait of Dodge City, Kansas here.) Okay, I’ll cut to the chase and say both have been pleasurable reads.

Diana Brandmeyer weaves humor through a serious story of worry over daily survival and drives home the point that we should, “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”

In A Bride’s Dilemma in Friendship, Tennessee, she has set up a sequel to this book. At least, I hope she has since she spent a good bit of time and point-of-view on two other characters. If so, it will be interesting to read how she makes Jake Miles into a sympathetic and likeable character.

If you’re looking for a light read to take on vacation—one that sparks laughter and a few “oh,no” moments—then check out Diana Lesire Brandmeyer’s A Bride’s Dilemma in Friendship, Tennessee.

Have you read any of the “A Bride’s…” novels from Barbour? Which one(s)? What did you like best about the book?

Disclosure of Material Connection: This book came to me free from Barbour with the hope that I would mention it on this blog. There was no requirement for me to write a positive review and the opinions I have expressed above are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.