Patience Callahan is twenty-five and fast becoming an old maid. But she’s spent most of her life dreaming over romantic European literature and wants a dashing d’Artagnan, not a bookish Bob Cratchit. Alas, the Colorado town of Gilman is chock-full of Cratchit’s without a d’Artagnan in sight.

Peter Foote, the general store owner, has been in love with Patience for seven years. But every time he’s on the verge of proposing, she cuts him off; he can only imagine on purpose. This time though, dadburn it, he’s going to go through with it. Ring in hand, he’s moments from touching knee to floor, when Patience pulls out a list of mail-order bride advertisements and declares her intention to marry a backwoods stranger, on Christmas Day. Peter has two weeks to change her mind.

Plum Pudding Bride is a little cute festive story, perfect for this time of year.

Patience Callahan is Twenty Five years old and longs for a husband, despite local shop owner Peter Foote, having been in love with her for seven years and declaring his undying love for her and asking for her hand in marriage. Patience however wants a hero, an action man, someone full of adventure and she isn’t going to find that in boring Peter Foote.

Peter wont give up, and one day with a ring in his hand and one knee dropped to the floor, Patience blurts out that she is to become a mail order bride to a stranger from Montana on Christmas Day.

With the help of Kitty, Patience’s sister, they have only Two weeks to change her mind and stop her making a big mistake. Peter knows he is the man for her and sets out to prove it.

At only 69 pages long Plum Pudding Bride is only a short book, though I enjoyed this quick read. It did feel like it all ended a little too quickly, but it was still packed with detail and excitement.

There were times when I wanted to shake Patience and tell her to wake up and smell the coffee about her intended husband, but I really enjoyed the story and felt it all came together well in the end.

Anne holds a Master’s in Counseling and Bachelor’s in Classical Liberal Arts. She has had a passion for writing historical fiction ever since reading Rosemary Sutcliff’s novels as a preteen. She wrote her first full length novel at fifteen. She is a military spouse and mother to a little boy, “Joe-Joe.”

Her inspiration for Scorched Earth came from moving to the Colorado Rockies. She loves reading Christian fiction and wanted to weave a lighthearted tale about love, rivalry, and the taming of the west.

When not writing, you can find Anne reading Dr. Seuss for the 100th time, vainly attempting to potty train Joe-Joe, or working on her fixer-upper house with her husband.

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