A Tailor-Made Bride

Jericho Tucker’s mother left the family for a man who could provide her with fancier things, and it left him scarred. When the new dressmaker, moves into town, he’s sure she’ll be a temptation to the women with her bright colors and fancy clothes. He hope his sister has more sense than to be led astray by pretty trappings.Hannah Richards is excited for the opportunity to have her own dress shop. However, she can’t understand why the livery owner doesn’t like her. When she agrees to help his sister get the man she's interested in to notice her, Jericho’s real animosity comes out. How can she show him pretty things aren’t evil in and of themselves?I’ve loved all of Karen Witemeyer’s novels, but this just might be the best one yet. If not, it’s very close. These characters are delightful and so well-developed they’ll stay with me for a while. I really hated to see this one end.

This story was a little slow. It was extremely predictable. I wasn’t crazy about the characters but that is just preference I suppose. I couldn’t figure out why Hannah would develop feelings for JT so early on save for sexual attraction but isn’t the point of fictional Christian romance to teach you that that is no foundation for marriage? I was particularly disappointed to find so many descriptions of their fleshly desires for one another in a Christian novel. Phrases like “longing to taste the nap of her neck” do not belong in a Christian fiction book in my opinion. I would recommend the short straw bride- It is packed with intrigue and adventure. This one is not. It is very dull.

ge Appropriate For: 13 and up for romanceBest for Ages: 13 and upWitemeyer has become one of my favorite authors ever since I read Short-Straw Bride. I have had this, her first book, on my kindle for a while but have finally gotten around to reading it. I was not disappointed, even though I think Witemeyer has gotten better.The characters sparkled in this book. Hannah was sweet and spunky, and a perfect match for kind yet gruff J.T.. Hannah worries her career as a dressmaker will fail in the tiny town of Coventry, while J.T. hope it does fail, as he thinks the fashion world is responsible for many evils in the world. As you can see, the characters have their work cut out from them.The Christian message in this story was wonderful. Being reminded to see the beauty around us and that God delights in beauty is great. I do think that Witemeyer carried it a bit too far in one part. As Hannah is helping J.T.’s sister attract the attention of the man she loves, she gives a speech about how women need to make themselves attractive to get the attention of a guy, which in Hannah’s mind means helping J.T.’s sister lose some weight. I don’t think it was the author’s intention, but that part came across as saying women can’t be expected to be loved by men unless they are thin.As always, I loved the setting of this story. 1800’s in a real town in Texas is just so much fun. Getting to read about real towns of my state many years ago is so much fun.I highly recommend this book to Witemeyer fans, historical fiction lovers, and those who like faith-building stories.

I had so enjoyed Karen Witemeyer's book The Short Straw Bride that when her earlier novel, Tailor Made Bride came up for free kindle download, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to read more from this delightful author.Hannah Richards had dreamed of having her own dress shop. Designing and creating beauty for women is part of the way she has been wired by God. It's more than vanity but about showing forth God's beauty and ministering to the women she interacts with. When she inherits a little building and moves to a Coventry, Texas to start her shop, her dreams are not so easily won. She finds herself rebuffed by the gruff livery owner across the street and at the same time perplexed by his surprising acts of kindness.Jericho "J.T." Tucker has lived in this town all his life and has tried to help out his friends and neighbors. Not only is he sore over losing the opportunity to buy this retail space he is even more annoyed that it is to be a shop that tempts women to vanity. He clashes instantly with Hannah as she tries hard to establish herself in this town. His concept of vanity and dressmakers is challenged time and again when he sees Hannah reaching out to others in unusual ways. Even more so when she helps his sister bloom before his eyes. Can he give up his prejudice against her career and see to the heart of the woman who seems to have stolen his heart?The idea of vanity and what makes a woman beautiful is a core theme of this novel, and in many ways, an unusual one. Karen Witemeyer handles this with grace, dignity and a sense of humor. It's a delightful read and challenged me as well as to what really makes a woman beautiful. It's not the clothes she wears but the love, kindness beauty of Christ that shines through her that makes her most attractive. While I knew that - this novel illustrates it to tailor made perfection.

This was very pleasantly surprising. I wasn't expecting much, I'll admit it, but I actually really enjoyed this novel. A very light read, to be sure, but there was something charming about the author's writing and she evoked the time period and scenery in an endearing way. The tried and tested feisty, self sufficient heroine teamed with the gruff, traditional male might be a cliché, but it works here, with the side characters just interesting enough to keep the story vibrant. While there were a few too many contrived instances of contention for my taste (an attempt to create tension to elongate the plot, I think) and it felt as though it ran a little long, I can't really pick any fault other than that (at times clunky dialogue, but easily overlooked). It's, at least in my mind, classed as Christian Fiction but this didn't deter me, and although there are religious elements to the plot it isn't thrust down your throat (my ultimate turn off in any novel). A really gentle, heart warming read - perfect to take with you on your summer holiday.

This is "christian" romance but for those who don't like that sort of thing, it is easy to skip those passages without spoiling the story. This is a nice, enjoyable and light-hearted romance which I very much enjoyed; just switching off and escaping into a simpler world for a while! It is certainly a refreshing change to enjoy the romance of a couple's developing relationship rather than constant "bedroom scenes".The kindle edition could very much do with another proof read as the formatting is quite bad. There are lots of spaces in the middle of words. If it wasn't for the bad formatting I would have given this four stars.

I can only say that I only read this book as I was in desperate need of some light reading after a "brick" and had this on my kindle, having downloaded it for free. I guess you get what you pay for and though I hate giving up on books, I should have! The kindle edition is full of spacing and spelling mistakes, so rather irritating for starters. The story literally has no plot, the characters are irritating and flat and the writing- publishing errors apart- is amateurish at best. A serious waste of time- for a romantic comfort read buy Georgette Hayer instead!

I am never one for Christian romance - or religious themed books in general, but this book doesn't seem like it at all despite the many references to scriptures and such. It's written so well that even if you don't like Christian romance as I didn't you can't help but be drawn into Hannah and JT's love story.It's been a long whilst since I read about such a pure, wholesome love and I enjoyed it immensely.My only critic is that I really wished the ending hadn't been so abrupt. I'd have liked a "three years later" sort of epilogue and would have liked to hear about the future of the other characters, as I found myself so invested in them, too.

I usually opt for modern day chick lit, so this is well out of my normal comfort zone. The poor conversion nearly made me not read it in the first place, the sheer amount of excess spaces was highly irritating. The book itself was cheesy but very very nice, couldn't put it down once I'd started it. Adorable.