The Bride by S. Doyle
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐/ 5 stars
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• Book 1 in The Bride series.• 150 pages
• Standalone novel
• Companion novel series
•Ends in a cliffhanger.
•Dual Pov
• Written in 1st person
• Story spans over a period of 16-18 months— “For me, this can either be ultra shitty or unputdownable, so I think it's a 'make it' or 'break it' trope. It's the former for me. That should be fairly self-explanatory.”
• A frigging Countryside romance!!!—“ A recent discovery and boy do I love it! The whole farm/poultry vibe !! UGHHHH! SO FREAKING GOOD! GOD REALLY DOES KNOW HOW TO BLESS MY HOPELESSLY ROMANTIC SIDE!”
• Age gap Romance (10 years)—“MY ALL TIME FAVORITE TROPE. An older man and a younger woman. There's something magically that cooks between the duo. The fact that almost all books I have reviewed are age gaps, says a lot. ” 😩❤️
• A little forbidden (Ellie is not really an adult...oops!!) *hehe*
• Marriage of Convenience —“A little complicated, you'll find out more once you reach that part.”
• Cheating-ish — “ Jake is to blame! But...can you really blame him after all? *smirk*”
P.S If you made it this far, I already love you! YES, YOU! Buckle in your seat belts for this crazy ride of a review from my perspective. Hopefully, it'll encourage you enough to pick up the book! Anyways, let's roll!
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“ Ellie Mason, a girl from a rancher family living in Montana, just lost her father at 16, leaving her an orphan. She is left with 2 options: Go live with her druggie Aunt or Foster care. But with Jake Talley—her dad's ranch worker/ Ellie's Friend who's 10 years older than her— in the picture, another option may just have appeared. GET MARRIED TO ESCAPE FOSTER CARE/DRUGGIE AUNT. So 16-18 months of marriage shouldn't be a problem, especially when Jake is offering marriage as an option, right? But do things go according to the plan? You'll see.
Okay, I know what you'll say," SHE'S ONLY 16! HOW CAN SHE GET MARRIED?". Well guess what? A girl can get married at 16, with parent's consent according to Montana's State law...but in this case...there is no parent...so...yep. Married. Now I don't know how far "The Montana State Law" is true in the real world...so let's just un-see it for a min. That's right...just for a minute because you'll end up loving Ellie and Jake so much that you would no longer care about the damn State laws. Trust me.
The book took off very plain and simple. With her dad's funeral. She is in a state of shock so she obviously doesn't feel any kind of emotion. The book doesn't go in-depth about her pre-relationship with her dad or even Jake for that matter. But with every page, you see Ellie in different lights. She's goofy, practical, cute, and very very mature. Emotionally mature. It's VERY hard to find female characters that don't piss me off. They are usually overdramatic...but with Ellie...I just knew that she was NOT going to fall under the "annoying" category.
Throughout her monologues, Ellie's vivid language infused life into her character. That's not something you find in a lot of books. I laughed my ass off during so many awkward situations. I have literally lost count.
“Sorry! My mental note got lost.” (Ellie)
“I’m not taking Jake to my prom.”
Chrissy seemed to mull that over.
“Do you think Riley will still ask you now that you’re married?
Ugh. That word. I was officially putting married in the same category as an orphan.” (Again Ellie)
For the most part, Jake and Ellie's budding relationship was TOLD TO US, instead of being SHOWN/WITNESSED BY US—readers. Now, those are not the kind of books I love, but with this one....my theory failed. I think that's because I have read a bunch of other Marriage of Conveniences and now, I am a pro at creating those subtle but significant relationship-building scenarios in my head. That's why I wasn't very annoyed with the lack of "oooo" moments. ( Not like there weren't any at all.)
“It’s yours too. I don’t want you to feel like it’s not. I guess… I mean it’s not like you would let me have sex with my boyfriend and he could stay the night.”
He didn’t like that. I could tell because that muscle in the back of his jaw started working hard. I got it. Older brother complex and all that.
“Right. Sorry. I have to remain a virgin until death, but you get to have all the sex you want. No double standard there.”
“Ellie…” He clearly wanted to say something, but stopped.
“What?”
“I can’t have this conversation with you right now.” Then he did the immature thing and left.
That’s right. I scared Jake Talley out of the room with sex talk.
But, I genuinely loved the dynamics of their relationship. They were a family throughout the book, before and after marriage. Jake never saw Ellie as anything more than a friend. Never took advantage. He had an older brother complex towards Ellie. I know it sounds weird, but trust me...it makes sense in the book. Jake is our regular cowboy who works his ass off for the people he cares about. What's more attractive than that? JELLIE'S (🤣) relationship development was legit. You could see how much they depended on each other. Their individual character development was not something I expected. I adored them. Period.
But then the judge said it. The kiss the bride part. Probably out of habit. It wasn’t like he was trying to be lurid or anything. Jake turned and kissed my forehead right in the center.
P.S I teared up in this scene.
To sum up, the things I found lacking in this book, that reduced the rating to 4 stars are:
• grammatical errors (a major turn-off, it could be the version I am reading...or just the book itself... I'll never know.)
• Monologues (see, there were plenty of dialogues, but for the parts that had to be made to witness missed out the dialogue.)
The factors that lead to 4 stars (IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER):
• The marriage of convenience
• Character and relationship development
• ELLIE!!
• the whole countryside romance vibe
• THE LANGUAGE. (I am officially a sucker for countryside romances.)
• JAKE!!
• THE FACT THAT JAKE AND ELLIE DIDN'T FALL IN LOVE BY THE END OF THE FIRST BOOK. YEA... THAT'S RIGHT. THEY DON'T FALL IN LOVE JUST YET AND THAT'S WHAT SEALED THIS SERIES FOR ME. ”
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