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    The Bride's House
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    The Bride's House
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    The Bride's House
    Ebook433 pages5 hours

    The Bride's House

    By Sandra Dallas

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    From the New York Times bestselling author of Whiter Than Snow and Prayers for Sale comes a novel about the secrets and passions of three generations of women who have all lived in the same Victorian home called the Bride's House.

    It's 1880, and for unassuming seventeen-year-old Nealie Bent, the Bride's House is a fairy tale come to life. It seems as if it is being built precisely for her and Will Spaulding, the man she is convinced she will marry. But life doesn't go according to plan, and Nealie finds herself in the Bride's House pregnant---and married to another.

    For Pearl, growing up in the Bride's House is akin to being raised in a mausoleum. Her father has fashioned the house into a shrine to the woman he loved, resisting all forms of change. When the enterprising young Frank Curry comes along and asks for Pearl's hand in marriage, her father sabotages the union. But he underestimates the lengths to which the women in the Bride's House will go for love.

    Susan is the latest in the line of strong and willful women in the Bride's House. She's proud of the women who came before her, but the Bride's House hides secrets that will force her to question what she wants and who she loves.

    Sandra Dallas has once again written a novel rich in storytelling and history, peopled by living, breathing characters that will grab hold of you and not let you go.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateApr 26, 2011
    ISBN9781429977517
    Author

    Sandra Dallas

    SANDRA DALLAS, dubbed “a quintessential American voice” by Jane Smiley in Vogue Magazine, is the author of over a dozen novels, including Little Souls and Where Coyotes Howl, many translated into a dozen languages and optioned for films. Six-time winner of the Willa Award and four-time winner of the Spur Award, Dallas was a Business Week reporter for 35 years, and began writing fiction in 1990. She has two daughters and lives with her husband in Denver and Georgetown, Colorado.

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    Reviews for The Bride's House

    4/5

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    • 3/5
      I loved the premise of an old house where three generations have lived, but ultimately this book fell flat for me. Nealie was by far my favorite character - she had a lot of spunk for a woman in the late 1880s. Unfortunately I don't think that trait passed down to her daughter and granddaughter. They all find misfortune but never seem to rise above. Ultimately, I was hoping for more from the characters in this book, but I did enjoy the writing style. look forward to reading more by this author.
    • 4/5
      I won an advance copy of this book and didn’t know much about it before I started reading but found it very interesting. I love historical fiction and enjoyed the stories of the three generations of women and the legacy of the house and small mining town that binds them together. Living in the Colorado mining town, it tells how the three women were touched by love, heartache, secrets, and hope. The women who inhabit the Bride's House are grandmother, daughter, and granddaughter. They each have distinct personalities, allowing each to continue the story of the woman before her, but also to have her own unique story. Nealie was my favorite character. There was even a surprise twist at the end I didn’t see coming. Overall, not a deep historical novel but a thoroughly enjoyable one.
    • 4/5
      It was a decent book. I liked the fact that it had different generations of the family that lived in the house and the different circumstances of love that each woman went through and how different they all were. Fairly good read, good enough to keep me going until the end.
    • 4/5
      Ms. Dallas never disappoints. I loved this newest novel that spans three generations of mothers and daughters, all sharing similar challenges and thwarted love. I liked the more realistic view of love and marriage that was explored - the reasons why we do things, the mistakes we make out of inexperience or uncertainty, and the redemption of love and grace.
    • 4/5
      Our book group won copies of this book and a chance to chat with the author. While not something I ever would have picked up to read on my own it was well written enough to keep me fcused and the page turning despite my lack of interest in the particular times in which the book was set. It led to interesting discussions so I'd definitely recommend it, particularly as a group read.
    • 4/5
      This is another lovely western novel by Sandra Dallas. Three generations of women who live in one house in Colorado are chronicled. The house is based upon a house that Dallas herself purchased and remodeled. She has a blog that details the remodeling. While not a great literary masterpiece by any means, this is a really good book that is a pleasure to read. I definitely recommend it. I have really come to appreciate the writings of Sandra Dallas. She is one of contemporary America's literary treasures.
    • 3/5
      A gentle tale of three generations connected to the Bride's House, a Victorian mansion in a Colorado mining town. Hired girl Nealie falls in love with smooth Will. When she reveals her pregnancy, he tells her he's already married, so she marries miner Charlie Dumas instead. Her daughter Pearl grows up in the Bride's House with "father" Charlie. Well on the way to becoming an old maid, she falls hard for Frank Curry, but Charlie thinks he's after her money. Susan, Pearl's daughter, who spends her summers at the Bride's House growing up, completes the cycle by falling for a local boy who may or may not return her affections. While there's a little too much "telling" rather than "showing" by the author, this is a gentle but compelling read.
    • 4/5
      The Bride's House begins in 1880 with Nealie, a young woman who has escaped her abusive father by fleeing to the mountains, to a small mining town called Georgetown. There she finds herself falling in love and dreams of living with her husband in a beautiful, grand house called the Bride's House. But willful and naive, Nealie ends up living in the Bride's House under very different circumstances than she expected. The story continues through three generations of women who live in the house, concealing their secrets within its walls, and fighting for the love none of them are sure they deserve.One of the best books Sandra Dallas has written yet! She strikes the perfect balance between history and romantic novel, adding rich detail about the development of copper, silver and molybdenum mining in Colorado with plenty of betrayals, secrets and plot twists to keep the pages turning. While the women who inhabit the Bride's House are grandmother, daughter, and granddaughter, Dallas gives them all distinct personalities, allowing each to continue the story of the woman before her, but also to have her own unique story.The particular challenges of living in a mining town flavor the book and in this one Dallas explores the vast gap between the rich owners and the poor miners. Its always a pleasure to revisit Colorado's mining towns with Sandra Dallas!
    • 5/5
      The Bride's House is a wonderful story spanning three generations of women and the house in Colorado which had special meaning to all of them. The story is a good combination of historical fiction, romance and women's fiction. The three lead female characters are strong each with their own personality and likeable traits. I felt Ms. Dallas did a wonderful job developing the characters and told the story in such a way that it was hard to stop reading it.I have read other books by Sandra Dallas and The Bride's House is now my personal favorite from her collection.
    • 3/5
      The Bride’s House by Sandra Dallas is a novel about three generations of women whose lives are impacted by secrets and by their lack of power to control and direct their own lives, in many ways, because they were women. The setting of the story is fictional Georgetown, Colorado, a mining town, beginning in the 1880’s and stretching for three generations.I struggled to pin down the specific genre of this book. Although it is historical fiction, I don’t believe I would recommend it to readers of this genre. It is primarily a work of women’s historical fiction in which the focus is on the love relationships of the main characters with particular focus on these characters finding a husband. However, it is not a romance. I had never read any of this author's work, and received this book through the Early Reviewers program, therefore had no idea what to expect. Dallas’ writing reminds me greatly of Nora Roberts, Sandra Brown, and Andrew Greeley, especially their period pieces. Initially I was not encouraged. I rarely read the authors previously mentioned, but often did twenty years ago. I have not recorded these titles in my LT library because I don’t remember them. They are enjoyable, light material to read, but nothing that lasts in my memory. However, I must say, that I did find it difficult to put the book down. The reading went easily and before I knew it, I was done. The author formed the three women as wholly distinct characters with unique situations and personalities, although they do face similar situations. The setting is well described and I did learn some small amount about the mining business. The plot is well constructed with some surprises and I found myself wanting to know how these women’s lives progressed, even cheering for them to find happiness and love.In the end, I did enjoy the book, but would likely not read another book by this author. I would recommend this book to readers who are fans of authors such as Nora Roberts and Sandra Brown, and they do have a large readership. I have rated the book 3 stars, which in my rating system is enjoyable.
    • 4/5
      I wanted to get my hot little hands on a copy of this book when I first saw that it was up for early review. Alas I was not picked and disappointed I waited patiently for it to come in to my library. I loved the Diary of Mattie Spencer and this looked like a similar historical fiction work. The premise of this book is that there are three generations of women from the same family that inhabit a house called the Bride's House in Colorado. It is so named because the first woman Nealie was a bride when she moved in and became the first resident. I loved the first story of the love triangle between Nealie, Will, and Charlie. I couldn't put this part of the book down even though it followed a very predictable story. Naive girl falls for good looking cad who loves and leaves her in a lurch pregnant so that dull and dependable guy can bail her out. The secrets that these people keep set in motion events that affect the next two generations. The second part of the story focused on Nealie's daughter Pearl and her love Frank. The final and least interesting storyline to me focused on Pearl's daughter Susan and her beau's Peter and Joe. I don't think this novel was enjoyable as my favorite Sandra Dallas novel but it was still a good read.
    • 4/5
      Sandra Dallas is a bestselling novelist whose works, puzzlingly, always seemed to have greater appeal to mainstream fiction readers than to fans of her chosen genre of historical fiction. When I saw her latest novel come up for review on LibraryThing, I figured it was time I picked up one of her books and learned what I’d been missing.A sweeping novel of family ties, long-held secrets, and the continuing search for love, The Bride’s House tells of three women linked by blood, circumstance, and the large white Victorian house in Georgetown, Colorado, that becomes home for each in turn. Though very different personality-wise, all are plain-spoken and eager to please, and all struggle to find happiness.For Nealie Bent, a 17-year-old runaway whose striking looks and vibrant personality attract the eye of local miners, the newly built residence symbolizes her desire to rise above her status as a hired girl at a Georgetown boardinghouse in 1880. She has her choice of men, preferring sophisticated engineer Will Spaulding over uncouth yet reliable Charlie Dumas (and who wouldn’t, at seventeen?). Her choice, combined with Will’s subsequent betrayal of her, is the novel’s most predictable aspect.Pearl, a shy and plain spinster of 30 in the year 1912, is adored by her wealthy father, who relies on her so heavily that he chases away potential suitors. Her decision to pursue a romance with a handsome businessman sets father and daughter against one another and transforms her life – not necessarily for the better.And for 18-year-old Susan, an heiress growing up in 1950s-era Chicago, the Bride’s House brings back memories of childhood summers in the mountains, a time of intense peer pressure and her growing love for a neighborhood boy with big dreams. Outside politics don't play a strong role except in this section, which is set against the backdrop of the Korean War.While the characters are recognizable types, and sometimes behave in frustrating ways – the devoted family housekeeper despairs of Pearl’s excessive timidity, too – they still have many surprises in store. The flowing style drew me in, and the emotional shifts in the plot had a way of raising my spirits then filling them with sorrow moments later.The women’s choices are driven not just by their temperament but also by their social and financial situations and the prevailing mores of the time. “Georgetown doesn’t seem like a place where conventions matter much,” Will tells Nealie early on, but that’s never exactly true. Over the next 70 years, as rough-and-tumble shacks give way to elegant homes, the demand for silver rises and falls, and mining towns become ghost towns and then tourist attractions, attitudes loosen in some ways but not others. As she reveals in the acknowledgments, the novel’s centerpiece is based on a house that she and her husband bought as a derelict and restored to its former glory. Her affection for it and for the region as a whole is ever-present; Georgetown, with its distinctive mountain charm, is not just a haven for fortune-seekers but also for dreamers and anyone yearning to start anew. With all three strands woven together, The Bride’s House became a more complex story than I expected from such a straightforward telling. A comfortable novel about women’s lives, it will resonate strongly with female readers, who will take away from it the pervading theme of how we’re all shaped by our circumstances but shouldn’t be defined by them.
    • 3/5
      When I pick up a Sandra Dallas book, I look forward to being soaked in a sense of place--that feeling of belonging and love of surroundings. What first sold me on her books: Buster Midnight's Cafe and The Persian Pickle Club, were the distinct characters and the perfect pace of the plot. The Bride's House sounded interesting. I love seeing old fancy houses in the west, they immediately set my mind to imagining what history the house has seen, wondering the circumstances behind its origination. I can understand wanting to write a story based on finding such a house, and was excited to see what Sandra Dallas came up with.The Bride's House almost didn't even feel like I was reading Sandra Dallas. The characters never came alive, the story meandered through three generations without much of a goal in sight. The ending was a bit contrived, which would have been fine if I'd been engaged in the story, but there wasn't much of a story or much depth in the characters to get absorbed in. The story/characters were "told" rather than "shown" if that makes sense.It was a pleasant read, but without much depth or substance--simply an average reading experience for me. I'm hoping this is an off-book and not a writing trend! I miss the magic I found in her first books.
    • 3/5
      I was lucky enough to snag one of my go-to authors as an early reviewer. I have read two other books by Sandra Dallas and enjoyed them. "The Bride's House" was a comfortable read; no violence, no sex, no real drama, no history to make it compelling. "The Bride's House" is just a nice story. In the way a grilled cheese and tomato soup lunch satisfies, so does this book. No surprises.I came to Sandra Dallas by way of "Tallgrass" which I really enjoyed. There she opened my eyes to a piece of history that I had not considered in much depth- Japanese internment camps, which I found fascinating! I then read Prayers For Sale, which was also a solid story, nicely told. I don't think The Bride's House measures up, but it does not dissuade me from reading Dallas in the future.
    • 5/5
      As I began to read "The Bride's House", I was concerned that it would be a book that wasn't very good. I am so glad that I stuck with it. I knew Sandra Dallas from Prayers For Sale and was excited that I would have the opportunity to read her new book. Part I didn't seem like I was reading something from Sandra Dallas. As I got through to Part II, I was completely on board and anxious to read the rest.The book opens with Nealie Bent who has just moved to Georgetown, CO fleeing from a terrible home environment. She is naive and simple but lovable. She meets Lydie Travers at the train station and is taken under her wing and given a place to live and a job. It is there that she meets both Charlie Dumas and Will Spaulding both men who will change her life.Now, the legacy of The Bride's House begins with it's joys and sorrows and plenty of secrets. Each character is more captivating then the next and the reader can't help but become invested in each of them. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and would recommend it to everyone who likes a bit of history, a bit of drama and well kept secrets. In the end, Sandra Dallas does not disappoint. I am happy to have read this delightful book.
    • 4/5
      I was really quite riveted by this story. I can't say I turned the final page having learned anything or had food for thought or cried, but I was entertained.It's about three different women during three different times in the same house, the Bride's House.Nealie's tale begins in 1880.. She falls in love with one man, marries another, but still ends up in the Bride's House. There's a bit of a moral in this part. "The grass is not always greener on the other side" kept popping into my head. The second tale is Pearl, Nealie's daughter. Whereas Nealie had some spunk and was a bit fearless (I mean it was 1880 and she ran away from home and just off and got herself knocked up right there in a field.. In 1880 that kind of behavior recquired a spark of rebelliousness), Pearl is spineless. She irritated me a bit, always cowtowing to her Papa, allowing him to "toss out" every one of her suitors. She also didn't seem to age.. I mean she doesn't marry till she's fifty, but her mentality didn't really seem that much older. She gave me a chuckle, however, in the one instance she did stick up to Papa.. "Papa, you would investigate Jesus Christ and find him a charlatan if He wanted to marry me!" LMAO!!!The last part is her daughter Susan and I was grateful this part was the shortest cause Susan is a user. She has a perfectly good man in an Air Force guy named Peter and leads him along with no intention of marrying him. He sticks up for her, he's there for her, he has courage. But what does she pine for? This gawd awful, spineless, draft dodging Joe. UGH. That last part prevents this from being a five star read. I hated Susan and I also found it utterly preposterous that TWICE in three generations, a man is willing to marry a woman preggers with another's brat. No way. However, it did make for enteraining reading. One tiny little quirk: Sometimes the book goes off on a "telling" spree instead of "showing." It worked well though because the book would have been immensely long if the author had not done this.
    • 4/5
      This is what Sandra Dallas does so well, write about strong women of the West. [The Bride's House] is the story of three generations of women who all love and live in "the bride's house" a beautiful Victorian house in the silver-mining town of Georgetown Colorado. Nealie, a hired girl, has longingly watched the construction of the house and is shocked on the night of her wedding to miner Charlied Dumas when he carries her across the threshold of "the bride's house." It is "the bride's house" where Nealie gives birth to her only child, Pearl. And it is the bride's housewhere Susan, Pearl's daughter, feels at home, even though she was raised in Chicago. In addition there is the big-hearted, boardinghouse owner, Lydia, who is the surrogate mother, employer, nurse, housekeeper and confidante.And there are a lot of confidences in the bride's house; most of them hidden for too long. Primarily, this is a book of loves and loves lost and how each woman perservers. But it is also about the life of a mining town once the ore has lost its value and becomes a tourist town.The prose was smooth and read quickly. My only disappointment is that the last third of the book seemed less developed. Both the development of Susan's character and the description of Georgetown as a tourist town suffered.Sandra Dallas fans shouldn't be disappointed.By the way, this book is based on a real Victorian house in Georgetown Colorado.
    • 4/5
      A pretty good read. Family saga (of the women in the family- the menfolk are mostly in background coming & going). Long-time secrets and skeletons in the closet. It wasn't my favorite Sandra Dallas (those were Diary of Mattie Spenser & Prayers for Sale) but I don't feel I wasted my time reading it either. If you love Sandra Dallas books or books about Women's Lives and Relationships you will probably enjoy this too.
    • 4/5
      So, what happens when you get an advance copy of a book in the mail from a publisher and it just happens to be the The Bride’s House by Sandra Dallas? Well, of course you sit down to read the back cover and then you are so intrigued you sit down to read a few pages. The next thing you know you have finished the book – in one night. That is what I did. Although I was already a big fan of her books I found the style of writing to be different than her other books – wonderful in a slightly more lush style - and the story will resonant with women of all ages about the choices we make from the options that life brings to us. The three generations of women in this novel are “Nealie,” a battered but strong girl who strikes out on her own to build a new life in Colorado during the late 1800’s and finds love with two very different men. Later comes another woman, quiet and dutiful who must find her own happiness as she lives a life shaped by her father’s memories. Finally, there is Susan, a child of privilege who may have the chance to find her dreams in Georgetown, Colorado. The legacy of the house all three women have shared and loved is the tie that binds and the place of secrets – “The Bride’s House.” Will the house bring them happiness or heartache? With the Colorado mining industry as the historical background, Sandra Dallas weaves another tale of lives touched by love, misery, heartache, misunderstandings, loss and hope. A saga for those who enjoy her books and for anyone with a yearning for a touch of romance or a passion for historical novels. Beautifully written, the characters are voiced with understanding and love. Truly an effort worthy of the author’s reputation for excellence!