Miss Sally J. Pinkerton runs the most reputable ladies boarding house in St. Louis. Situated on the edge of the frontier, it attracts all sorts who are making their way West for a better life. But when her beloved boarder Bess Stapleton dies, Miss Pinkerton promises to find someone to help the girl’s brother, James—a widower with two young children— and in the process, she finds a new calling: helping lonely frontiersmen find brides. And thus Miss Sally Pinkerton’s Ladies Boarding House and Matchmaking Service is born. An Accidental Match is the prologue to the Pinkerton Brides series.
An Accidental Match: The Mail Order Bride by Jane Fairchild is the first book in the Pinkerton Brides series and really sets up the premise of the series. Miss Pinkerton runs a boarding house and accidentally sets up a match, sending a girl out West to be a mail order bride. I liked the introduction to this series of stories. I was a bit surprised at how graphic the story was ~ I didn't expect there to be a doors-open sex scene right off the bat. Some of the story didn't seem believable to me. I would give this book 2.5 stars. I liked it well enough that I want to read more books in the series. These are short, "one hour reads". I received an ebook from the author in exchange for my honest review. My opinion was not influenced in any way.
This delightful beginning to the series carries with it an authentic, historical flair and a range of characters that I instantly fell in love with. Made me instantly click to the next in the series to continue reading!
This was a very cute and fun introduction story to the series! And I can see that this series is going to be an exception to the novellas = insta-love issue that I normally have. No insta-love going on here, as each book in the series will be following a different mail-order bride being sent out to meet her future husband. Even though this is a quick little story, it still gives a good little story. I think it would have even been better though if there were an extra 1-2 chapters showing us the main couples interactions at the end.
Fairchild takes the arranged marriage trope and upends it, doing it well with fantastic heroines who readers will root for to find love and happiness. The setting of the old West and the developed romance is sweet and lovely; looking forward to more in this series.