Brickmaker's Bride
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5.0 • 3 Ratings
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- £4.99
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- £4.99
Publisher Description
In the clay-rich hills of the newly founded state of West Virginia, two families tentatively come together to rebuild a war-torn brickmaking business.
Ewan McKay has immigrated to West Virginia with his aunt and uncle, promising to trade his skills in the clay business for financial help. Uncle Hugh purchases a brickmaking operation from a Civil War widow and her daughter, and it's Ewan's job to get the company up and running again.
Ewan seeks help from Laura, the former owner's daughter, and he quickly feels a connection with her, but she's being courted by another man--a lawyer with far more social clout and money than Ewan. Resolving that he'll make the brickworks enough of a success that he can become a partner in the business and be able to afford to bring his sisters over from Ireland, Ewan pours all his energy into the new job.
But when Hugh signs a bad business deal, all Ewan's hard work is put in jeopardy. As his hopes for the future crumble, Laura reveals something surprising. Can she help him save the brickworks, and will Ewan finally get a shot at winning her heart?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this thin romance set in post Civil War West Virginia, Laura, the strong-willed, beautiful daughter of the deceased owner of Woodfield Brickworks, has a problem that will surely keep any man from marrying her any man, that is, but self-absorbed lawyer Winston Hawkins. Before that Hawkins declares his love, about halfway through the story, Miller (Daughters of Amana series) provides well researched details of brick-making and Reconstruction-era society. Laura is caught in the clash between those who aspire to the new upper class with all its snootiness and the workers, often immigrant, who dig the clay, shape the bricks, and fire the kilns. God-fearing, prayerful Scotch-Irishman Ewan McKay wants the brickyard he has just bought with his unscrupulous Uncle Hugh to succeed as badly as Laura does so that he can bring his beloved sisters to America. Laura's attraction to Ewan is inappropriate, especially since he doesn't know Laura's secret. But as she assists him in setting Hugh's shady financial dealings right so that the business can prosper, prayers are answered, greed is met with justice, and cruel circumstances are overcome.
