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Rebecca's Renegade : A Brides of Texas Code Story (The Alphabet Mail-Order Brides Book 18)
Carra Copelin
Reviewed by: Mark Heisey, The US Review of Books
“Declan awoke, for the second time in recent memory, hurting all over and wondering where in Texas he’d landed.”
Abandoned at birth, Rebecca is raised at The Wigg School and Foundling Home. Here, she and her “sisters” learn domestic arts and attend to the education of the young ones. However, Madame Wigg, or Wiggie as the girls call her, has informed the young ladies that she is going to die and wants each of the girls to leave the home and venture into the world, preferably doing good for others and opening their own schools. Rebecca and the other girls decide to read The Bride’s Bulletin, a magazine containing “want ads” from single men looking for wives. Although tentative, Rebecca replies to an ad and leaves the rest in the Lord’s hands. What she doesn’t know is that the ad and the response to her letter are written by the sister-in-law of a roguish cowboy named Declan McTiernan, who is unaware of the ad or letters. When Rebecca uses the included train ticket to travel to Dallas, Texas, from New York, she is met by the sister-in-law, Katie, and Katie’s cousin. It isn’t until evening that Rebecca and Declan meet and figure out what is going on. Declan is mad, loud, and vocal. Rebecca is embarrassed when she hears his words and flees to the guest room, determined to remove herself from the situation in the morning.
Copelin’s book is part of a series of alphabet mail-order bride books. Readers familiar with the titles of Sue Grafton’s alphabet-titled series will quickly understand what that implies. In this short, historical novel set sometime around 1900, the backdrop is rural, western America, much like the setting of many Westerns or the classic Little House on the Prairie books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Although there is a gunfight in the story, it is far from the novel’s focus. This work has a lot in common with the Wilder series both in tone and theme. It is most concerned with finding domestic happiness on the frontier. Unlike some romances, this book is written for the reader who doesn’t want to read about the graphic sex or violence found in the common bodice-ripper. Much like a cozy mystery, this book could be considered a cozy romance.
Copelin’s book is short and direct. The sentences are unadorned, and the descriptions that are included are there strictly for storytelling and laying the basic scene rather than delighting a reader who relishes wordplay and eloquent language. It works well here, although there are areas of the narrative that could be improved, including some plot points and character development. However, this book succeeds in delivering to readers the kind of story the writer promises through the first few pages, meeting their expectations. This book will not shock or surprise. Instead, it unfolds in a manner along the lines the reader has likely anticipated and doesn’t hold any major twists. This shows that Copelin knows her audience very well and plays to that strength. The roguish cowboy is a bit rough around the edges and has a head full of “man of the house” ideas. The heroine, however, has the real mental strength and character to tame that cowboy and bend the frontier to her will. This is a beach-read kind of romance that will likely have the audience eagerly looking for Copelin’s next title.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review
