Monday, April 8, 2013

The Bride's House by Sandra Dallas

I love Sandra Dallas' books.  Not only do they entertain me, keep me interested, and make me not want to stop reading, they also make me want to learn more about the places, people, time periods, and items.  In The Bride's House, I found myself Googling Molybdenum at 1:00 a.m.  Maybe I'm the only one who has never heard of molybdenum, but if you don't know what it is, it makes steel more steely.  But I digress.

The Bride's House is the story of 16 year old Nealie Bent, who in 1880 runs away from an abusive father and ends up in the mining town of Georgetown, Colorado. Nealie loves being on her own and away from her father and is working and living  in a boarding house where her job is feeding the men who work in the mines.   At the boarding house Nealie meets, and is courted by two men; a miner named Charlie Dumas, and Will Spaulding, a young man sent by his wealthy grandfather to learn the business from the ground up.  '

Nealie's daughter, Pearl, falls in love with a young man who does not have the approval of her father.  He sabotages their plan to marry and sends Pearl's suitor away and lets Pearl think that he bought him off.  Pearl's relationship with her father flounders, but she is strong and when she gets a second chance at happiness, she jumps at it.

In 1950, 18 year old Susan is spending the summer at The Bride's House and falls in love with Joe. As time goes on she learns first hand of the strength of the women who came before her and the lies and secrets hidden at The Bride's House

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