cover image THE IMPOSSIBLE BRIDE

THE IMPOSSIBLE BRIDE

Allie Shaw, . . Ivy, $6.99 (352pp) ISBN 978-0-8041-1965-8

A follow-up to Shaw's first book, The Impossible Texan, this 19th-century romance strives to be funny and airy, but it's weighed down by a far-fetched premise and flat characterizations. In an attempt to escape her scandalous past in Austin, Tex., prim and pretty Deborah Edgerton takes a job as a secretary and companion to Pat O'Connor, whom she believes is a female. As she soon learns, however, Pat is really Patrick "Trick" O'Conn0r, and he's fooled her into traveling to Galveston in order to fulfill a promise he made to his son, Duncan, when his wife died two years earlier. He promised Duncan another mother by his sixth birthday. After tying Deborah up and forcing her to marry him, he takes her to his home and foolishly expects that she'll agree to play house. Despite her attraction to Trick, she wants no part in his charade, but she can think of no way out of the marriage. Not long after their hasty nuptials, Trick, an exporter who has been searching for "La Roja," the red pearl, hears of its location and decides to take Deborah and Duncan with him on his quest to retrieve it. Shaw uses the journey to build the romantic tension between the two and sprinkle in a little suspense. While the couple's colorless chatter fails to move the story forward, Shaw's skillfully written love scenes help flesh out the book's thin plot. (July)