This excellent series launch will leave fans eager for the next entry.īooklist: Hedlund is an expert in grounding her wildly engrossing stories in historical facts, and capturing the plight of the poor with compassion. Weaving in faith elements organically, Hedlund explores the prejudices, restrictions, and moral codes of the Victorian era, as well as what it means to know oneself and to love someone. Publishers Weekly (Starred Review): Hedlund ( With You Always) opens the Bride Ships series with a lively story about the Victorian class system the workings of bride ships, which traveled to the English settlement of Vancouver Island and the place of women in that society.

With hundreds of single men congregating on the shore eager to claim a bride from the Tynemouth, will Mercy and Joseph lose their chance at true love, or will they be able to overcome the obstacles that threaten to keep them apart? He has no immediate intention of settling down, but when Mercy becomes his assistant, the two must fight against a forbidden love. As ship’s surgeon, he’s in charge of the passengers’ welfare aboard the Tynemouth, including sixty brides-to-be. Wealthy and titled Joseph Colville leaves home and takes to the sea in order to escape the pain of losing his family. After witnessing so much painful heartache and loss in the slums, the bride ship is her only prospect to escape a bleak future, not only for herself but, she hopes, someday for her sister. When she’s offered an opportunity to join a bride ship sailing to British Columbia, she agrees. Living in London’s poorest slum, Mercy Wilkins has little hope of a better life.

A Reluctant Bride by Jody Hedlund