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famousandfictional's review
5.0
This is legitimately my favourite book I have ever read! It is so wonderfully balanced. A romance that is sweet and real yet passionate and devout in that compellingly bookish way. So much drama while still giving room to breathe and really love the characters. I picked it up at a thrift store years ago and I have lent it to every one of my friends. A must read for all romance lovers!!
aishareadsnrambles's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Semi-Closed Door Romance. Single Father. Marriage of Convenience. Amazing little girls.
👩🏼❤️💋👨🏼👩🏼❤️💋👨🏼
1. I liked this book, it had amazing characters and storyline.
2. I loved the single parent trope, it's my favorite and I liked its execution here
3. I liked Jenny, she was resilient and I admired that about her
4. I also liked the family secret that unfolded
5. I liked Trace too, he was okay, but I was annoyed at his attitude towards Jenny sometimes
5. I didn't like the villain angle because I just don't believe someone can be as superstitious as that.
👩🏼❤️💋👨🏼👩🏼❤️💋👨🏼
Nevertheless, this book was very good and I had no problem reading it
👩🏼❤️💋👨🏼👩🏼❤️💋👨🏼
1. I liked this book, it had amazing characters and storyline.
2. I loved the single parent trope, it's my favorite and I liked its execution here
3. I liked Jenny, she was resilient and I admired that about her
4. I also liked the family secret that unfolded
5. I liked Trace too, he was okay, but I was annoyed at his attitude towards Jenny sometimes
5. I didn't like the villain angle because I just don't believe someone can be as superstitious as that.
👩🏼❤️💋👨🏼👩🏼❤️💋👨🏼
Nevertheless, this book was very good and I had no problem reading it
carolpk's review
The Hook - The path to a book can be a winding, bramble filled journey to its pages. Last winter’s refuge from cold and snow found me in Texas, a state I had passed through but had never sampled its fine offerings in its many historic cities and towns. Take Fort Worth for instance. Home to over 800,000 people today, Fort Worth’s beginnings were minimal, just 500 in 1873 with a large quantity of Longhorns driven in from Kansas on the Chisholm Trail. Visiting the area known as ”Hell’s Half Acre” you stand in a significant piece of Texas history, one where your body imagines the rumble of thunderous hoofs of cattle driven by cowboys through the unpaved streets bordered by saloons and its red-light district. Taking a trip back in time I stepped into The North Fort Worth Historical Society-Stockyards Museum and its impressive exhibits and collections. Little did I know that this visit in which I planned perhaps 30 minutes would occupy a good part of a morning. There were many things that fascinated me, the history of the livestock industry, cowboys, Texas Rangers, photographs and lore. These I expected but there was more. One display, that of a wedding dress with a placard that boldly described it as The Bad Luck Wedding Dress caught my attention and curiosity. Finding no explanation other than what was in the display itself, I took pictures of the dress and the accompanying news article. I hoped to research the story further on arriving home. Somehow I lost those photos but the curiosity remained. I wanted to read something more about that unlucky dress and those that wore it but all I could find was a bit of genealogy and a book entitled The Bad Luck Wedding Dress, a historic romance by Geralyn Dawson. Availability of this book first published in 1996 was sparse but I finally was able to arrange a swap through paperbackbookswap.
Visit this page to see a photograph
The Bad Luck Wedding Dress and other exhibits found at the museum.
My sincere thanks to Teresa Burleson, Stockyards Museum Director who provided The Story of The Badluck Wedding Dress reprinted below.
THE BAD LUCK WEDDING DRESS
This dress has brought personal misery or disaster
to everyone to has worn it or planned to wear it
This dress of ottoman silk and rare lace was designed and made for the wedding of Marie V. N. Greene and David P. VanHorne, who were married in Bainbridge, New York on January 14, 1886.
David left Marie in 1889 to seek gold in Oregon. They were never reunited, although he declared his love for her until his death many years later, The dress was passed on to their daughter, Evelyn Henrietta VanHorne to wear for her wedding. Her fiancé, who was in France during World War I, was killed in a mine field just a few days before the wedding. The war was already over and he was on his way home to her. She never married and died at the age of 79, an “old maid.”
David and Marie’s granddaughter, Alta Marguerite VanHorne, wore the dress at her wedding, but six months after the wedding her husband, Daniel Patrick, took multiple sclerosis and died within the year.
The dress was put away and not worn for many years.
In 1949, Alta VanHorne Patrick Buker wore the dress for an historical tour she was giving through her home. The next day she became ill and was bedridden for more than a month. She recovered, but her illness remained a mystery to the doctors. The dress has never been worn again.
The dress was the inspiration for a series of novels
by Geralyn Dawson.
The Line(s) - ”Once you learn the scales, it’s not difficult to play a fish, Maribeth. Just don’t ask me to tune a fish.”
The Sinker - It’s 1879 in Fort Worth and Jenny Fortune’s dressmaking business is thriving until a series of bad luck involving a wedding dress turns clients away in droves. Trace McBride, a widower and father of three daughters nicknamed “the menaces” is in need of a woman’s touch, though he’s seeking more of a housekeeper/babysitter than wife or mother. Jenny Fortune just might fit the bill. This charming romance with its satisfying ending would not normally be my genre choice but due to its inspiration by the original story found in North Fort Worth Historical Society-Stockyards Museum, I couldn’t resist. If Trace McBride annoyed the heck out of me, Jenny Fortune and the menaces kept me reading. Early Fort Worth life is depicted well with its shops and early western growth along side the rowdiness of the cowboys and the constant odor of huge cattle herds. Not exactly what I was looking for but the book delivered what it promised.
Visit this page to see a photograph
The Bad Luck Wedding Dress and other exhibits found at the museum.
My sincere thanks to Teresa Burleson, Stockyards Museum Director who provided The Story of The Badluck Wedding Dress reprinted below.
THE BAD LUCK WEDDING DRESS
This dress has brought personal misery or disaster
to everyone to has worn it or planned to wear it
This dress of ottoman silk and rare lace was designed and made for the wedding of Marie V. N. Greene and David P. VanHorne, who were married in Bainbridge, New York on January 14, 1886.
David left Marie in 1889 to seek gold in Oregon. They were never reunited, although he declared his love for her until his death many years later, The dress was passed on to their daughter, Evelyn Henrietta VanHorne to wear for her wedding. Her fiancé, who was in France during World War I, was killed in a mine field just a few days before the wedding. The war was already over and he was on his way home to her. She never married and died at the age of 79, an “old maid.”
David and Marie’s granddaughter, Alta Marguerite VanHorne, wore the dress at her wedding, but six months after the wedding her husband, Daniel Patrick, took multiple sclerosis and died within the year.
The dress was put away and not worn for many years.
In 1949, Alta VanHorne Patrick Buker wore the dress for an historical tour she was giving through her home. The next day she became ill and was bedridden for more than a month. She recovered, but her illness remained a mystery to the doctors. The dress has never been worn again.
The dress was the inspiration for a series of novels
by Geralyn Dawson.
The Line(s) - ”Once you learn the scales, it’s not difficult to play a fish, Maribeth. Just don’t ask me to tune a fish.”
The Sinker - It’s 1879 in Fort Worth and Jenny Fortune’s dressmaking business is thriving until a series of bad luck involving a wedding dress turns clients away in droves. Trace McBride, a widower and father of three daughters nicknamed “the menaces” is in need of a woman’s touch, though he’s seeking more of a housekeeper/babysitter than wife or mother. Jenny Fortune just might fit the bill. This charming romance with its satisfying ending would not normally be my genre choice but due to its inspiration by the original story found in North Fort Worth Historical Society-Stockyards Museum, I couldn’t resist. If Trace McBride annoyed the heck out of me, Jenny Fortune and the menaces kept me reading. Early Fort Worth life is depicted well with its shops and early western growth along side the rowdiness of the cowboys and the constant odor of huge cattle herds. Not exactly what I was looking for but the book delivered what it promised.
bibliophile90's review
4.0
The Bad Luck Wedding Dress is a sweet historical (western) romance about Trace McBride, a single father of three rebellious young daughters who love to act out, and the young and independent dressmaker Jenny Fortune. The three daughters have set their mind on having Jenny as their mother, and will do anything to make it happen. Trace's previous marriage was a disaster, and he doesn't want to marry again. Jenny doesn't want to marry either, but she is attracted to Trace.
It was fun seeing Trace struggle with his attraction to Jenny, and I loved seeing how Jenny tempted him. Trace had a hard time containing his jealousy. I was invested in the characters and was looking forward to seeing what would happen next. This book was a fun read, but there were also a couple of suspenseful scenes that fit the story perfectly. I loved seeing the relationship between Trace and Jenny develop. I can't wait to read the three daughters' books.
ancequay's review
3.0
Way more of a bodice ripper than my usual fare which made me kind of uncomfortable. There was also a huuuge amount of suspension of disbelief involved where the characters' actions were concerned. Some of them were just nuts. That being said, I made it through the book with no problem.
ginaardito's review
5.0
I think I just found another auto-buy author. I admit, the first chapter or so had me dragging my feet to turn the pages, but once the story picked up, it didn't let me go. While the rest of my family played beer pong during the hurricane, I walked around, reading this book. I forced myself to put it down last night so I could sleep, but it was the first thing I reached for this morning. Jenny Fortune is the designer of the so-called Bad Luck Wedding Dress, worn by three sisters who've all had unfortunate accidents after wearing it. Now, with her shop close to financial ruin, she turns to Trace, owner of the local saloon and her landlord, for a little extra time to pay her rent. Trace, a widower, has his hands full with his three daughters, known as the town's menaces. And they'll stop at nothing to get a new mother: preferably, the lovely Jenny. Filled with charm and drama, this is the first of a series and I can't wait to get my hands on the rest!
lauriereadslohf's review
5.0
Jenny Fortune is struggling to keep her seamstress business afloat. It seems that all three of Big Jack Bailey's daughters have met up with a streak of bad luck after wearing her masterpiece wedding dress. Being a suspicious fool, Big Jack Bailey determines MissFortune (as he dubs her) has placed a curse on the dress and sets out to destroy Jenny and her business.
Trace McBride, local saloon owner, widower and father of three wild girls also known as the "McBride Menaces", rents out the space Jenny uses for her business. Because Trace is extremely busy trying to earn money so he can build his girls' a dream house and gain back his respectability as an Architect the girls begin to spend a lot of time with Jenny and decide she is going to be their new Momma. Continually placing their women weary Father and Jenny in constant contact by their antics the Menaces are determined to force this stubborn pair to fall in love.
Jenny figures the only way to turn her luck around is by getting married in her own "Bad Luck Wedding Dress" and proving to her clientele that the dress and her creations aren't cursed. Trace seems like the most likely candidate, unfortunately, he has been seriously burned by his former wife and is dead set against remarrying. But his daughters, who are even more stubborn than he is, have other plans . . .
This story is filled with endearing characters. There's a wounded hero crying out for love to heal his tortured heart, a charming, understanding and unpredictable heroine and three adorable little girls who add touches of humor and warmth to this terrific love story. If you're like me and like your books brimming over with emotion, sensuality, tenderness and laughter you will cherish this book.
Trace McBride, local saloon owner, widower and father of three wild girls also known as the "McBride Menaces", rents out the space Jenny uses for her business. Because Trace is extremely busy trying to earn money so he can build his girls' a dream house and gain back his respectability as an Architect the girls begin to spend a lot of time with Jenny and decide she is going to be their new Momma. Continually placing their women weary Father and Jenny in constant contact by their antics the Menaces are determined to force this stubborn pair to fall in love.
Jenny figures the only way to turn her luck around is by getting married in her own "Bad Luck Wedding Dress" and proving to her clientele that the dress and her creations aren't cursed. Trace seems like the most likely candidate, unfortunately, he has been seriously burned by his former wife and is dead set against remarrying. But his daughters, who are even more stubborn than he is, have other plans . . .
This story is filled with endearing characters. There's a wounded hero crying out for love to heal his tortured heart, a charming, understanding and unpredictable heroine and three adorable little girls who add touches of humor and warmth to this terrific love story. If you're like me and like your books brimming over with emotion, sensuality, tenderness and laughter you will cherish this book.
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