Mail Order Bride

I admit it. I don't read a lot of romance novels and the ones I have read seem smarmy. I picked up this one because during my college days some "friends" played a practical joke on me with a mail order bride. I was pleasantly surprised by Donovan's skill in developing characters you care about and moving the plot in an engaging way from start to satisfying finish. The hero and heroine are not cardboard characters and the reader is carried along by their personal motivation and steamy passion. The supporting cast is superbly filled out as well. Dialogue is crisply written and believable, and the author seems to have researched her historical period well. Romance writing like this deserves to be placed in another category of literature several steps above the average paperback novel. Mail Order Bride reads as smoothly and stimulating as burgandy silk and you will wind up hoping that Donovan will write a sequel.

This is by far the best book I have read. Camille, the heroine is strong and you feel yourself with her in everything she does,from fighting of drunken sailors to charming and romancing Seth Braden. Seth, however , you can picture him in your mind as if he is standing before you. This is the first Sandra Donavon book I have read, I regret to say, but I plan on reading the other four right away. GREAT WRITING! I COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN!