Deeanne Gist

I've been reading a few more romance novels by Deeanne Gist. The nice thing about these books is that Gist bases all her novels off of real historical events and experiences. I read A Bride in the Bargain, Deep in the Heart of Trouble and The Measure of a Lady. I definately liked A Bride in the Bargain better.

The young lady in The Measure of a Lady drove me crazy as she worked out he hypocritical issues and prejudice against those that do not follow lady-like, christain lifestyles. She gets stranded in San Francisco with her younger brother and sister during the gold rush and find themselves the only 'respectable' people around. Her sister ends up being a paid girl for a guy and her brother becomes a dealer. Rachel ends up havig to pretty much ignore her siblings acquantances and kick them out of her cafe since they do not follow what a good christain example should be doing. Kinda annoying.

A Bride in the Bargain is set right after the civil war when Asa Mercer came up with his scheme to bring war widows/orphans from the east to Washington under the pretense that they are being hired as cooks, nannies, and schoolteachers. Instead, they were purchased as brides by the men in Washington. Joe finds himself losing his land that was granted by the state because he no longers has a wife and so only qualifies for the bachelor portion of land and so desperate to keep his land he purchases a wife. Of course Anna thinks she is being hired as a cook. Of course they fall in love, but the book does have quite a few twists so that you arent' anticipating the entire story.

Deep in the Heart of Trouble has been my least favorite of Deeanne Gists books. You have a young man whose father dies and is disinherited and forced to leave pennyless. He gets hired as an oil worker for another wealthy oil company run by Essie Sprecklemeyer and her father. Essie is very feminist which drives me crazy. I don't mind people wanting female power, but they go to extremes and try to hard to force all their ideas/morals on others and take offense so easy. Yeah, I'm not too much for such opinionated people. I'm a little curious about another one of her books called Courting Trouble that I just read an excert from since it seems she has the same name again, Essie Sprecklemeyer for her character. She must really like this extreme name.