The Bride's House
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- $21.99
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- $21.99
Publisher Description
From the New York Times bestselling author of Whiter Than Snow and Prayers for Sale comes a novel about the secrets and passions of three generations of women who have all lived in the same Victorian home called the Bride's House.
It's 1880, and for unassuming seventeen-year-old Nealie Bent, the Bride's House is a fairy tale come to life. It seems as if it is being built precisely for her and Will Spaulding, the man she is convinced she will marry. But life doesn't go according to plan, and Nealie finds herself in the Bride's House pregnant---and married to another.
For Pearl, growing up in the Bride's House is akin to being raised in a mausoleum. Her father has fashioned the house into a shrine to the woman he loved, resisting all forms of change. When the enterprising young Frank Curry comes along and asks for Pearl's hand in marriage, her father sabotages the union. But he underestimates the lengths to which the women in the Bride's House will go for love.
Susan is the latest in the line of strong and willful women in the Bride's House. She's proud of the women who came before her, but the Bride's House hides secrets that will force her to question what she wants and who she loves.
Sandra Dallas has once again written a novel rich in storytelling and history, peopled by living, breathing characters that will grab hold of you and not let you go.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Young, impressionable Nealie Bent catches the eye of many men in her Georgetown, Colo. mining town, none more so than rough, enterprising miner Charlie Dumas. Nealie, however, only has eyes for Will Spaulding, a wealthy engineer. She and Spaulding begin a torrid romance that culminates in her pregnancy and abandonment. She marries the faithful Dumas and dies after giving birth to a daughter, Pearl, who grows up close to Dumas, the man she believes to be her father. Dumas sees the worst in each of Pearl's suitors, so she remains a spinster until Frank Curry, once penniless but now wealthy, is finally deemed worthy. In time, the daughter they have continues the rocky family tradition when it comes to longing and love. The backdrop to all the melodrama is Bride's House, the family's beautiful Georgetown, Colo., estate. While Dallas demonstrates an excellent sense of time (tracing several decades), and renders this tumultuous era well (moving from the 1880s into the 20th century), there's little drama. The love lavished upon the house the novel's real central character is interesting, but no one who inhabits it is intriguing enough.
