His Remarkable Bride

4.5/5.0<br />Absolutely delightful! Such a sweet story about what it means to love and be a part of a truly loving family. It keeps one turning pages and sighing repeatedly. Then, as the last page is turned, one realizes they have not only been entertained, they have been uplifted. <br /><br />

ADORABLEEEZZZZZZZZ omg

Meh. At least the one or two sex scenes weren't bad.

We have been seeing Athos Strong since the first Brides of Paradise Ranch book. He's the station manager that no one really pays any mind to, but boy does he have a story to tell. Elspeth is also someone we heard of in Wendy's book. And now she's finally getting her own story. <br /><br />Athos reminds me kind of like Michael from "Our Little Secrets". He's unassuming and easily over-looked but he has a passion in him that burns white hot. And when she calls this spicy, she's not kidding, the scenes in this are spicier than some of her other BoPR books. But how can it not be when Athos is the hero. Like he said, eight children can't conceive themselves... ;) <br /><br />Ms. Farmer writes such delightful characters, I fall in love with all of them and I want to gather them all around me and have a good time at the potluck lunches after church and then the baseball game. So, would I recommend this book? I would, I also hope you love Athos as much as I do.

<strong>Fantastic story involving children </strong><br /><br />MY RATING SYSTEM<br />5 stars--WOW<br />4 stars--would read again<br />3 stars--was good, won't read again<br />2 stars--read it, but didn't enjoy it<br />1 star--didn't finish, it was so awful<br /><br />Do I need to read books before this one: no<br />Cliffhanger: no<br /><br />SUMMARY<br />Athos has 8 children, ages 4-16. His wife died 3 years ago, and he is swamped with work and home. At a church function, his children manage to knock the Bonneville sisters into the food table, get snakes in their dresses, then set the tent afire with a firework. He relents, sends for a mail order bride from the Hurst Home.<br /><br />Elspeth arrives, is overwhelmed by the children, and then sees Athos publicly showing affection for them. She's reassured. They get married immediately. She's again overwhelmed by chaos in the home. The next day, a woman from some society to care for abused children comes to take the children away from a negligent home.<br /><br />EVALUATION<br />It takes parents to raise children, and a village to support the parents.<br /><br />The plot is the primary focus of this story, so we don't see much character development in the couple, partly because the story takes place over a week. We don't get much of their histories or how they were shaped by them, just hints to extrapolate from. For instance, we know Elspeth is the daughter of a marquis; we have to guess how she learned to dress and do her hair herself, how to clean and cook and launder. Athos has been beaten down by life for 17 years, and suddenly sees himself as a musketeer again? Both characters needed more depth. However, the children are delightfully drawn, the situation is dire enough, and the town has new money and old biddies. It's a fun plot. <br /><br />RECOMMENDATION<br />A light read, especially fun for those of us with lots of children!<br /><br />FAVORITE QUOTES<br />Athos smiled at his daughter, at all of his children, with such kindness and affection. Anyone who showed that much consideration for children must be a gentleman, and she was not afraid to marry a gentleman.<br /><br />Raising children is more than just cooking meals and scrubbing faces. It’s being there to give hugs, listening to problems, and sharing a few words of advice and support when needed.<br /><br />Tidying was a hopeless operation, though. Perhaps if he had an extra set of hands, like the strange drawing of a Hindu god that he’d once seen.<br /><br />[Elspeth screams Athos's name] Was someone injured? Was the house on fire? Had one of his children caused a riot?<br /><br />Without children under her feet she was able to think and plan. Without children everything around her seemed pale and lifeless.<br /><br />True men prefer to forget about the time they spent at war and only those who didn’t live up to their duty go around bragging about it.<br /><br />A hero should always show as much nobility of character to the less sought-after girls as to the popular ones, because every woman has the heart of a heroine beating inside of her.<br /><br />“How can you forget [you're a man]?” “Children. Responsibility. Age. The cares of the world. Loss.”<br /><br />“There’s nothing like a beautiful, loving wife to make a man feel like a king.” “Or a musketeer.”<br /><br />“You see, your honor. I may not be perfect, but without my children and my wife, I’m nothing at all. The house might not always stay clean. The children may stumble or act out from time to time. We might not be able to keep quiet when we all get excited. But these children are my life, my heart. And I…well, I’d like to think that I’m important to them as well.”<br /><br />True heroes were the ones who were open enough to experience all of those emotions and to let the world see it as well. Love was never a bad idea.<br /><br />POSSIBLE TRIGGERS (SPOILERS)<br />Sex: multiple scenes, masturbating<br />Language: 0 F words, 2 Lord's name in vain, 0 S words<br />Violence: punches

This is a sweet mail-order bride romance, with a likeable couple. It is a very light, quick read, great if you don't have time for a longer novel. My main complaint is that I don't think Elspeth would have adapted so quickly to Athos' large family. She would have needed more time to get used to the chaos so many children can cause. I won't give any spoilers, but I also don't think it would have been so easy to resolve the problem with his children being taken from him.<br /><br />This book includes lots of characters (many from another series). Because so many of the characters had their own stories in the Hot on the Trail series, I would recommend reading that series before starting this one, then reading this series in order. You can read this book without that, but you will miss out on many important details of all the characters' lives. In this book, in particular, you will miss out on some of Athos' history -- mostly about how bad he needs a wife to help him with his loneliness and all his children.<br /><br />The description says this is the spicy version of the story, but it really isn't very spicy. There are some sex scenes, but they are not really explicit -- and they are between a married couple. But if you want to read books with no sex scenes at all, only kissing, then you should stick with the sweeter version of this book.<br /><br />My rating system is below.<br />1 star -- Hated it, or did not finish. I usually only give this rating if some of the content is truly objectionable to me, like if one of the main characters does something really awful, and gets away with it.<br />2 stars -- Didn't like it. This rating usually means that I thought the writing wasn't very good, the editing was terrible, I didn't like the characters, or it had other major flaws.<br />3 stars -- I liked it, but had some minor issues with it. This rating means that there were minor editing issues, the story needed more character development, it was just too unrealistic, or had some other fairly minor issue. The majority of books I read get this rating – I do not consider it a bad rating.<br />4 stars -- I liked it a lot. This is a high rating for me, and I rarely give a higher one.<br />5 stars -- I loved it, and will probably read it again. Very few books are good enough to get this rating from me. The ones that do are usually classics.

There were bits and pieces of this book I did enjoy, but overall, I did not really enjoy the book. I finished it for the sole purpose of finishing the book (it's an unwritten rule I have for myself that I rarely break no matter how little I like what I'm reading). I found the storyline to be too far-fetched to be remotely believable for this genre (historical fiction is my personal fave - especially western settings) and the dialogue was a little on the cheesy side for my taste. It could have been great, but I found it lacking overall and not a great read.

<strong> Good story</strong><br /><br />I enjoyed reading this story of the mail order marriage between Elsbeth and Athos Strong. Argos has 8 children who are, of course, loud and rambunctious as a whole, tho they are a close-knit bunch who love their father dearly. That love is tested when the children are removed &amp; Argos is accused of being an unfit father. The short time the children are gone from home proves to be an unexpected blessing for Athos &amp; Elsbeth &amp; their new marriage.

According to me the title HIS REMARKABLE BRIDE is not suitable because I haven't seen any remarkable thing done by heroine. No doubt she was caring and supported hero but what else. Everything was either done by hero or by his kids. Therefore, all 3 stars are for hero and his children.

<strong>I loved this book! Such a good story line!</strong><br /><br />This book was sweet, romantic, sexy, great characters, everything you could ask for in a book! Lindsay was the perfect wife for Athios! With 8 children she better be! I just wish it had been longer! I hated to see it end!