A Sensible Arrangement (Lone Star Brides)

A Sensible Arrangement by Tracie Peterson is an enjoyable historical romance novel. I enjoyed Ms. Peterson’s character driven plot. Not to be a spoiler, I will refrain from revealing too much of the story between Marty Dandridge Olson and Jake Wylie and the saga of their marriage of convenience. As this is the first book of a series, Ms. Peterson takes her time introducing us to each of her characters and laying the groundwork for the series. I felt the plot line was credible. Thus, the characters are, in their own way, adorable; but, flawed. Their theme is one of a quest for forgiveness and new beginnings. I also appreciated the secondary characters. She uses them to add intrigue and mystery into her plot line. We get to know them in this story and want to know what happens to them in their own stories. As this book falls in the historical romance genre, I appreciated the fact that Ms. Peterson did her research. The setting is in Denver, Colorado in the 1890s. Ms. Peterson used the banking industry and the Panic of 1893 as part of her background. My curiosity was peaked so I did a google search and she captured the essences of that time. She accomplishes this through her use of dialog. I also appreciated her descriptive language with regard to the opulent lifestyle of Denver’s aristocracy. This was a good read and I would recommend it to fans of historical romances.

I grew very weary of Marty’s defeatist attitude and lies. God is forgiving. It just felt sooo much heavier because of this personality.

My writer declare a book “Christian” is it mentions God once or if the say someone prayed! Without dogmatically pushing values this book address many areas but lying was really addressed very effectually in the midst of a great story! I’m looking forward to the next book!

Tracie Peterson's 100th book is an absolute most read. She brings character names into the story and characters from past books to bring this new story to life. She did an absolute wonderful job at bringing Marty and Jake's relationship together after marrying for society reasons instead of love! One thing I did not like is they left us hanging about the gold certificate Marty's maid has been questioned about. I know this is a series and I am expecting the continuation of this mystery to come together in the next book!

This is the first book in the Lone Star Brides series. The second book is called A Moment in Time and the third is A Matter of Heart. Marty wants nothing more than to escape Texas. She sees an opportunity to leave when she answers an ad for a mail-order bride. Once she's in Denver, she becomes the wife of a prominent banker and finds herself thrust into Denver's high society. Jake wants nothing more than to escape the bank and get back to Texas. He's taking a wife mainly to appease his boss. Mr. Morgan has definite plans for Jake's path and makes sure he stays on it. Since Jake is only working at the bank until he earns enough to return to Texas, he lets his boss lead him around without much resistance. Marty's character isn't very likable for most of this book. She's a liar and basically whines about everything. When she discovers that Jake wants to return to Texas, she's determined to stay where she is, though she hates Denver's society and its rules. She shows kindness now and then to those around her, just not her husband. She lies and manipulates him even when she knows how unhappy he is. This particular book can be read by itself if you only want to see something of a resolution for Marty and Jake. But be warned, there's some trouble ahead for them in the next book. Alice's character is introduced and she basically saved the book for me, since I wasn't fond of Marty. Alice is one of the main characters in the next book, A Moment in Time. Overall, it's a decent start to the series, just with a really unlikable main character.

Tracie Peterson is one of my favorite authors. She writes stories that are detailed and accurate for historical and geographical facts. She also takes her characters on a spiritual journey that leads to genuine Faith in Christ and living with integrity. There is usually some mystery and romance to keep things interesting!

I really enjoyed this but it did seem to abruptly end. While the characters are in a good place the crisis of 1893 is just starting to affect people and there is no resolution to how our characters fair or what happens to them other than they are trusting God. Well great, this is wonderful but what happens???!?!??! I have so many questions please let this have a sequel!

This book was a page Turner from the start, I have taken a break from book and decided to get back into reading, just bought the second book and can't wait to read it. Love the kindle fire listened while I got my cleaning done. My daughter that is 14 got interested in the book as well. We both enjoyed it.

Loved this story. It's been awhile since I read a Christian fiction that is a page turner These are characters you can care about..

This is the first book by Tracie Peterson I have read. She writes Christian books, but there are few quotes from the Bible. It us about Marty, who is widowed after her husband is killed in an accident on their ranch. Marty answers an advertisement for a wife from a man in Colorado and sets ofg in the hope of a new life away from all the memories that Texas holds for her. This is a gentle romance, but i did not really like Marty. I carried on reading in the hope that she would improve, or grow on me, but she did not. So I cannot give it more than 4 stars, because of this.

A good historical marriage-of-convenience story is usually enjoyable and oozes warm fuzzies. A great one would have a bold message and good laughs as accompaniments to said warm fuzzies. With little fuzz and a plot that never seems to quite get it together, A Sensible Arrangement misses the mark for me. This book falls into the 'did not like it' category that should get a 1, but an intriguing sub-plot and writing that can't be faulted redeem it a little. The premise of the story, unfortunately, reads as somewhat illogical (*spoiler alert*). A woman who is supposedly really close to her family tells a colossal lie - she hasn't travelled to 'just visit friends' but has actually gone to be a mail-order bride. And somehow, she is able to maintain this lie for months (in addition to another major lie to her new husband that is a bit more plausible considering they've only just met). There also seems to be very little romance between the new couple (which, to be fair, is very possibly the more realistic route for marriages-of convenience; but I have no stats to back this up :-D). The husband is often not in good spirits, and the woman is constantly bored. I have a few more chapters left, but I'm not sure I'll finish this. The bank mystery side-story was the main thing that kept me reading, and sadly, it was not enough. The story and characters were just not very engaging.

A phenomenal book. Really different from Tracie Peterson's other books