Book Review of Mail Order Doctor (Brides of Tombstone series)
Title: Mail Order Doctor
Series: Brides of Tombstone
Author: Cynthia Woolf
Date Published:June 26th 2015
Date Read: April 29, 2016
The Blurb:
Julia O’Brien is a practical woman. A nurse and midwife, she was perhaps the most surprised when she fell in love with Dr. Matthew Reynolds and agreed to be his mail order bride. She sets off for Tombstone carrying his letters and a heart full of hope.
Dr. Matthew Reynolds didn’t want a wife, and is shocked when Julia arrives on his door step with a marriage license bearing his signature. He discovers that his grandfather has wooed the young woman without his knowledge, and made promises in his name without permission. An annulment seems to be the easy answer, but Julia has nowhere to go. Now, his unwanted wife is sleeping in his house, working with him at his clinic, and generally driving him to distraction.
When a call comes in from a desperate young mother, Julia handles the call alone. The young woman gives birth to a beautiful baby girl, but does not survive childbirth. Suddenly, Matthew is faced with a new choice, not only does he have a beautiful and caring wife, but a precious new daughter to fill his empty life. But Julia is not willing to accept less than his whole heart, and when the young infant’s father attempts to steal her away, Matthew will have to move heaven and earth to convince the woman he has grown to love that he can be what she needs.
My Review
2 Cowardly Stars
*** Lots of Spoilers ***
Yeah well hmmm. I am having a hard time expressing my feeling on this book. I have changed the rating 3 times now from 2 to 3 stars and back. See here is the thing, Cynthia Woolf is my go to feel good read when I am craving Western Historical Romance. She is the queen of mail order bride books, and she always gives me the sweet HEAs. The problem with this book is that even though it had all the things I have come to love from Cynthia Woolf, it also had my 2nd biggest pet peeves in it. Cowards!!!! OMG nothing kills my love for a book more than an over the top cowardly hero or heroine. And our hero in this book Matthew, was a huge, mega, over the top, make me want to rip my hair out, and smash my kindle against the wall coward! It really upsets me because I love CW and I was really looking forward to the warm fuzzies that her books always give me.
He is literally the only thing I didn't like about this book. You see in this book Matthew is the town doctor. Now Matt is 39 years old and at some point he was to be married but his fiancee left him at the alter. So Matt's grandpa started writing a Mail Order Bride acting like Matt. Then married said MOB to Matt by proxy by having Matt sign a paper he thought was a will. Now Julia shows up in love with the man she had been writing for months the man she married by proxy. Only she finds out that he had no clue who she was or that they were married and that his grandpa tricked them both. Problem is she still wants the marriage anyways. He was still the man she fell in love with. The letters detailed the real him, even if he didn't write them. Matt wanted an annulment. Julia plans to change his mind. So up to this point I am diggin' this book. I can understand Matt's anger. But here is where it starts going down hill for me. Matt acts like a wishy washy jerk that lets her live with him. Uses her like a slave to cook, work at his doctors office( She is a nurse and midwife) but keeps pushing her away. Then he would kiss her and tell her he wanted her. Then he would push her away again. He does this not for a little while but for the whole book. One minute he would tell her he wants her , then he would tell her he didn't want the marriage and he felt trapped. He would tell her that he was scared she would leave him like his ex. He strung her along so much that I didn't feel bad about his past hurts I just wanted to beat the crap out of him myself.
See I can understand a little push/pull. A little indecision, but he doesn't make up his mind when she leaves. He still doesn't make up his mind when she got shot and almost dies. Not until the very end and only then did he tell her he wanted the marriage. Oh but you know, he doesn't know if he can ever love her. Are you kidding me???? Matt had me so frustrated that it killed everything else I loved about the book. I loved Julia but I felt so bad for her that I didn't want her to end up with Matt's butt. I wanted her to marry Ben who was so good to her. Ben wanted her. she should have ended up with Ben, and Matt should have lost out. Because when you snooze you lose! And Matt snoozed the whole damn book. Matt hurt Julia so much throughout the whole book that he turned her into a doormat. Not that she was weak or anything. It's just that she let him string her along so long. Then took him back without any groveling or begging forgiveness. So it felt like he walked all over her and her feelings. See that's my problem I loved the town, the secondary characters, the plot and Julia. Matt ticked me off some much that he was the killer of my joy!
In the end I have to keeps it real, and give this book a 2 star rating. Because even though I love me some Cynthia Woolf. The hero ruined this book for me. I know I can't love every book even from one of my favorite authors, but I hate giving her such a low rating. The fan girl in me wants to up that rating, just because I love her work so much, but I can't. I will still read every book of hers that I can get my hands on because she is an awesome writer and I love her style.
