Junebug McBride is tired of being the only girl in a house with four brothers, destined to do all the cooking and cleaning and none of the fun stuff.  The clear solution?  Order a mail-order bride for a brother or two, and Kit seems like the most palatable choice.  Ireland-born Maddy Mooney has just arrived in the States before being whisked off by her employer, Willabelle Lascalles, who has agreed to move to far-off Montana and become Kit’s bride.  But when Willabelle up and disappears, Maddy is left to assume her identity – and her affianced status.  Can Maddy prove she’s the right wife for Kit?

The premise of this series is absolutely delightful, a meddling younger sister writing off for wives for her brothers.  The McBride family is loud and brash, but they love each other.  Maddy, too, is enterprising and willing to work hard.  I really enjoyed this book, and I cannot wait for the rest of the series.

But this book really struggles with pacing.  The first 20% of the book is setup, with some meandering plotlines that could have been excised, I think, in order to devote more of the book to the burgeoning relationship between Maddy and Kit: we don’t get any real acknowledgement of their shared interest until about 70% in the book.  By that point, there’s a lot to wrap up and not a lot of room for it.  When there’s a slight pause before their first kiss, Kit thinks to himself that that wait was “painfully long,” and boy howdy did I agree with him – we’re 85% of the way into the book.  

Overall, though, this book is really fun.  There’s tons of great characters, and it’s so funny to watch Morgan and Kit realize their plan to lady up their sister under Maddy’s influence will come back to bite them.  I’m really looking forward to the rest of the books!

Thank you Berkley and NetGalley for the ARC!

CW:

deaths of parents, stillborn siblings, separated from siblings, minor injury