Book Review: Too Rich for a Bride by Mona Hodgson/4 Stars

About the book:

With a head more suited to bookkeeping than a bridal veil, Ida’s dreams include big business- not beaus.

Ida Sinclair has joined her sisters, Kat and Nell, in the untamed mining town of Cripple Creek, Colorado for one reason: to work for the infamous but undeniably successful businesswoman, Mollie O’Bryan. Ida’s sisters may be interested in making a match for their determined older sister, but Ida only wants to build her career.

Under Mollie's tutelage, Ida learns how to play the stock market and revels in her promising accomplishments. Fighting for respect in a man's world, her ambition leaves little room for distractions. She ignores her family's reservations about Mollie O'Bryan's business practices, but no matter how she tries, she can't ignore the two men pursuing her affections—Colin Wagner, the dashing lawyer, and Tucker Raines, the traveling preacher.

Ida wants a career more than anything else, so she shrugs off the suitors and pointed “suggestions” that young ladies don’t belong in business. Will it take unexpected love—or unexpected danger—for Ida to realize where her priorities truly lie?

My thoughts:

After reading Two Brides Too Many recently, and the fact that it wasn't really my cup of tea, it was with a hint of trepidation that I cracked open Too Rich for a Bride.  I was already intrigued that I was about to read about a businesswoman in the late 1800's, since most women at that time were either already married, taught school, or they were employed as prostitutes.  So, Ida's choice of profession made Too Rich for a Bride a refreshing story from the start.

I enjoyed Ida's strong personality, and her desire to make her own way in a man's world.  Plain and simple, this girl had gumption.  I felt awful for her at the very beginning as a no-account professor of hers tried to "convince" her how she could get ahead.  Then, she got accosted shortly thereafter when she moved to Cripple Creek.  But hey...it only spurred her on more and more to show them (and herself, too) that she would not succumb to their taunts and ridicule.  She was going to make it on her own...period.

So, out of the two books currently available in this series, this one was by far my favorite.  The story was much more focused, and all of the characters introduced were vital to the story (not the case in the previous book, in my opinion).  I imagine Vivian will be the next sister featured, and I admit I'm a little curious which woman will be featured in the fourth book (two brides were featured in book one, one bride in books two and three, and we'll be out of Sinclair sisters by book 4).  Oh, well...it's just like these authors to keep us on our toes.  :o)

4 Stars

Southern?  No
Sass?  Yes

**Many thanks to Waterbrook for providing a copy for review through the Blogging For Books program.

**Would you kindly take a moment to rate my review?  It would make my day, and I'll send a hundred thanks your way!