HEIRESS BRIDE by Cynthia Woolf picks up the story of Nathan Ravenclaw (introduced in Capital Bride) as he meets and falls in love with his mail order bride, Ella Davenport. The plot is slightly stronger than Capital Bride due to a clearer description of the antagonist, but the book delivers a similar plotline with similar contrived scenes and dialogue as in Capital Bride. I give this book one star and hope that a revised version will be published.
Ella Davenport is an heiress to the Davenport shipbuilding empire built by her father who died in a carriage accident. That same carriage accident left Ella with serious scars on her face and body. Given her notoriety in New York society along with her fortune, she is convinced that being a mail order bride is the only way she will be able to have a husband who is not a fortune hunter.
Nathan Ravenclaw is the son of an Arapaho Indian and a white Pennsylvania lawyer, and so he is ostracized by both the Native Americans and the white settlers in Colorado. He is looking for a wife who accepts him as he is. Trouble follows Ella to Colorado, though, and wreaks havoc on Ella and Nathan's life.
From the beginning of this novel, I recognized the plotline as being so similar to that in Capital Bride that it is virtually the same story. Even though the characters have different issues, the ways the characters speak, interact, kiss, make love, get pregnant, fight against psycho relatives, fall in love and have babies are all the same. The challenge of writing books in a series is in creating different characters and maintaining their individuality throughout the book. Here, the insecurities and hang-ups of the characters are too similar for their divergent backgrounds. This book also had a happy ending, but the resolution was unnatural and forced.
There are several parts where issues in the plot could be expanded to add depth and authenticity to the story: the carriage accident that killed Ella's father, the introduction of bodyguards into the Davenport household, Ella's life as a wealthy woman, her interactions with fortune-hunting suitors, Nathan's history with his last love interest, his ostracization from society and his tribe, and qualities of Nathan and Ella that cause them to fall in love with each other. The expansion of these parts of the book would add credibility to the romantic relationship between husband and wife, showing the development of the characters' feelings. The book also needs another round of editing for grammar, spelling and punctuation in order to convey the story clearly.
Issues aside, I think the ideas behind the plot have merit and would make a great book, but the book must be unique enough to hold its own place on the bookshelf. I would be interested in reading any revised versions that are published.
