Read For Free The Unlikely Wife (Bowen, #2) Engineered By Debra Ullrick Shared As Visual Format

idea intrigued me enough I was willing to read it even though I knew it would have some "preachy" bits in it because it's Love Inspired.

However it didn't take long to see that though both Michael and Selina have preconceived notions about others, Selina quickly learns not all rich people are snobs and soon makes friends in her new community while Michael can't see beyond her outer appearance, the way she talks, and her culture.


He wants it his way, He's the husband so what he says goes insert eye roll, This is frustrating for Selina who has essentially been the parent/caretaker/adult in her family for over a decade, She is suddenly being treated like a child and being told she must change who she is, She already feels inferior when she discovers her friend Aimee who helped write the letters to Michael did more than stretch the truth about her.


I like Selina and she is strong and smart in so many ways, she knows how to "doctor" people and deliver babies, She however is in love with Michael, having fallen in love with him through his letters so she wants to please and works hard to do so even as she stands her ground in some ways reminding him she's perfect just the way God made her, same as she tells their nieces, she begins to wear dresses and only wears pants when doing chores.
Multiples times she stays up all night to take care of the sick, do chores, fix Michael his breakfast then start on the next days' chores but Michael still has little accommodation for her.
He's constantly insulting her in small snide remarks, even if he says them with a laugh, or the food she cooks that to her is perfectly normal he is disgusted by instead of being thankful she cooked him dinner.
She even says to him at one point "did you think that maybe I like it That I miss it" and he admits to himself that no he didn't.

That's the constant through the book, He is always focused on himself, his past, what he wanted in a wife and not what her expectations were,

Too shallow and judgmental for my taste not to mention no growth for our hero,

The dialogue most of the time sounded like it was written by a twelve year old and not a professional author as well.


It was severely lacking, I wouldn't recommend it.

P. S. the constantly referring to the matriarch as Mother is straight out of a horror movie, Can we say Flowers in The Attic Selina the hillbilly Cinderelly from Kentucky and Michael the Prince Charming with his head up his arse,
Selina cannot read or write as she was too busy helping her pa and siblings after her mother died, So she gets her friend Aimee to correspond with the farmer who is looking for a mail order bride from the South, Only Aimee embellishes quite a bit and leaves other stuff out, Like how Selina in no way resembles outwardly the kind of bride Michael has in mind, Someone exactly like his sisterinlaw, Rainee,
Once Selina shows up in trousers slinging a rifle, things get off to a rocky start, Selina is a straight shooter and Michael is a basically nice guy so they decide to make the best of it, But Michael is a little slow on the uptake and gosh darned if Selina don't jabber on like a Hillbilly, Ain't I wonderin iffin the whole darn state of Kentuckee be writin this here fool author bout hows they think shes dun full of possum Sht.

So I have to say although it's a decent play at the lower class gal teaching the upper class guy a thing or two about moral values and truth in love, it got tiresome.
Between her talking like a reject from the "Beverley Hillbillies" and all the preachy faith in God rather than using logic to come to your own decision in ANYthing.
Well. I guess I skimmed quite a bit, The Unlikely Wife is the second book in the Bowen series, I've previously read the third book and loved it, so I was looking forward to this one, I didn't like the MC, She seemed too stubborn and really irritated me at times, I did like how the book started out in an interesting way,

All in all, The Unlikely Wife was okay,

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Michael Bowen expected a refined lady when he agreed to marry Selina by proxy, Everything in her letters suggested she would be, but when Selina steps off the train, he realizes the woman he thought he loved was a fantasy.
Dressed in trousers, poor grammar, and unable to read or write, Selina is far from the woman he pictured as his wife,  

Michael is everything she dreamed of, but when she discovers her best friend Aimee lied in the letters she wrote for Selina, her hopes for a lovefilled marriage dies.
She isn't willing to change who she is but neither is she willing to break her vows,

Together they must learn to accept one another for who they are and to find love runs deeper than fantasies,

Favorite Character and Why:

I loved Selina, She is a Kentucky girl like me and had some ways about her that just

didn't make sense to her new family out west, I have family in Idaho, too, so I could relate, The challenges she faces and the hopes she have resonate with every woman I know, Not to mention she was just plain funny,  

What I liked:

I loved how this wasn't your typical mailorder bride story, yet it was, Michael had to overcome prejudices and learn to love his wife instead of the fantasy woman he built up in his mind and Selina had to learn to be happy with who she was as a wife.
 

Who would like this:

Anyone who loves mailorder bride stories that are are fun, set in the West, or stories of husbands and wives learning to love each other.
Wasnt my cuppa granted this is my first time reading a Christian fiction so I guess thats on me, However, if you like the heroine bending over backwards for some guy struggling to love you as his main dilemma throughout the book, then maybe you should check this out.

It started out decent and I liked the heroine, Selina, for a while until she started to change herself to fit the hero, Michaels, “ideal.
” In the beginning she was adamant that she wasnt going to change for anyone and I wouldve been okay with her changing if she was doing it for herself and not for the hero to get him to love her.
Also Michael got on my nerves, and I felt like there was no real character development for him other then accepting that he loved some “compromised” version of her.
In my opinion it was a one sided compromise with Selina doing all the work and no give on the heros side which was off putting to me.
Side note: Micheal realized he loved her after seeing Aimee I just wasnt buying it, One of the best LI books I've read in a while, Spoke to my heart about being proud of who I am, just as I am, And maybe it's given me a little hope that someday someone can love me just as I am or even because of who I am.
We often have ideas of what we want in life, but they arent necessarily what we need, Such was the case with Michael Bowen, He asked the Lord to send him a bride, a genteel, elegant Southern lady, The Lord sent him Selina instead, Of course, he took one look at the rough and tumble, trouserwearing , but very beautiful young woman, and thought hed been cheated, It turns out that Selina had her friend write those letters, unaware of the embellishments her friends had made, Nevertheless, Michael was a man who took his vows seriously, and hed married her, even if she wasnt the woman hed fallen in love with via the letters they had exchanged.
He would make the best of this marriage, but he didnt believe hed ever love her, He was afraid to love the wrong kind of woman after what his eldest brother went through with his first wife,

Selina fell in love with Michael via the letters hed sent her, She came to Idaho from Kentucky in good faith, determined to be a good wife to her new husband, She was perfectly happy with him, with his good looks, and his honorable personality, and she was happy to have a safe home and plenty of food, and an accepting family of inlaws.
However, it was heart breaking knowing that she wasnt enough for her husband, what he wanted, That he didnt love her for who she was, Regardless, she too had made vows and shed keep them, They both prayed that God would make the best of their marriage, and give them the hearts for being a good husband and wife to each other.


Debra Ullrick charmed me with this novel, Her writing is crisp and lively, Her prose nicely descriptive and full of imagery, I found Selina utterly delightful, She is comfortable in her own skin, Shes a giving, generous person who is highly capable of many things, even if that list doesnt include reading and writing, speaking genteelly, and wearing dresses.
She wants to improve things about her that need improving, but she doesnt want to fit into anyones box for her, She believes that God made everyone and everything unique, and thats the way she wants to stay, I like that she stands up for herself with Michael when he tries to do the bossy husband bit, Like her, I dont believe being a good wife means being a doormat to ones husband, Shes perfectly willing to honor and cherish her husband, but shes not going to let him control her, I loved how she inspired Michael to look at the small things one typically takes for granted, the everpresent beauty of the world around him.
To stop and smell the roses, She continually surprised him, and showed him that God knew exactly what he needed in a wife, I loved Selina because she was easy to love, I wanted Michael to feel the same, It took him a while, but ultimately he realized just what a good woman God had brought him,
Michael was a good man, I didnt like some of his tendencies to be narrowminded about what he thought his life and his wife should be, I liked that he was a man of faith who truly wanted to do what was right, He was afraid that he couldnt love his wife, but his actions showed love in that he treated her with respect, took care of her, stood up for her, and opened his life to Selina.
He honored his vows, and he showed what he didnt believe he could feel, Love is about what you do, not what you say, And I could see love in Michaels actions towards Selina, long before he owned up or acknowledged it,

I am so glad that I read this book, because I enjoyed the story and the messages about the Christian walk in it.
Along with a beautiful romance, it made for a very fulfilling read, I liked that even though this is a clean romance, Ms, Ullrick did a good job of conveying the chemistry between Selina and Michael, through their thoughts, their interactions, and their kisses, both gentle and passionate.
Theres no question that they have a true love match,

The only reason I didnt give this five is because Michaels fixation on not being able to love Selina, and her efforts to change herself to make herself worthy of his life, along with the aspects about God giving him the power to love her seemed a bit unromantic.
I do believe God shows us what love is, and I think that a Christian marriage should definitely involve God in the process of relating to ones spouse, but I wanted Michael to realize that he loves Selina out of his own heart.
He did come to this conclusion eventually, and realized how he wasnt doing right by Selina trying to make her something she wasnt, So that was good.

That issue aside, this was an infectiously readable, wonderful book, I would recommend The Unlikely Wife to any historical romance readers open to a book with an obvious Christian message, I will be reading more by this author,

Overall ,/.stars.
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