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MY REVIEW:<\/strong><\/p>\n “The Fruitcake Bride” is the last but certainly not the least of The 12 Brides of Christmas<\/strong><\/em> collection of novellas. I have spent several enjoyable hours reading this series and hate to see it reach its end.<\/p>\n Karen Briggs has moved to Bakerstown, Missouri in order to marry her longtime friend Pastor Clayton Parsons. After the death of her aunt, Karen has no family and nowhere to live. Clayton’s offer of marriage was an answer to her problems but she has very mixed feelings about the offer. Does Clayton really love her or does he just feel sorry for her? Will she be a good pastor’s wife or could she even hurt his ministry?<\/p>\n “The Fruitcake Bride” is a sweet story with several humorous scenes. Karen learns that despite her inadequacies, God has a plan for her life and that she is loved by Him and others just for being herself.<\/p>\n This book was provided for review by Shiloh Run Studios.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n More About The Fruitcake Bride<\/em> with Vickie McDonough<\/strong><\/p>\n The author of many novels set in the old west, particularly in Texas, Vickie McDonough had no problem choosing a time period for her 14th\u00a0novella.<\/p>\n \u201cI love reading novels set in the late 1800?s, and it\u2019s the time period that most of the books I\u2019ve written are set in, so when I started brainstorming ideas for\u00a0The Fruitcake Bride<\/em>, it was natural for me to set my novella in 1890.\u201d<\/p>\n She chose her subject matter from a list of titles provided by Barbour Publishing. \u201cI figured not too many people would want to write\u00a0The Fruitcake Bride<\/em>\u00a0story. Being how I\u2019m a little fruity, I thought I\u2019d take a stab at it. I was thrilled when my editor loved my story idea.\u201d<\/p>\n Vickie started with the idea of a young pastor\u00a0headed west to prepare a home for his prospective bride before she joined him. Along the way, he encountered a problem: a troublesome woman named Prudy with designs on him!<\/p>\n Vickie\u00a0was surprised by Prudy\u2019s strong personality. \u201cShe\u2019s a bit of a Nellie Olson from\u00a0Little House on the Prairie<\/em>\u00a0type of character.\u201d She wasn\u2019t originally in the story, \u201cbut I needed more conflict. Prudy more than a little graciously added that as she popped in, bent on marrying the preacher\u2014the same man my heroine is engaged to,\u201d Vickie said.<\/p>\n Spiritual themes run strong in this novella collection.<\/p>\n \u201cKaren, my heroine has lots of doubts that she is the right woman for Pastor Clay. They\u2019ve been friends for many years, but their engagement is rushed when her aunt dies. Karen isn\u2019t sure she is cut out to be a pastor\u2019s wife. She prays a lot and seeks God\u2019s will to be sure she\u2019s not making a mistake.\u00a0Clay never doubts his love for Karen, and he ends up being a good example of how God\u2019s love for us is so strong and everlasting.\u201d<\/p>\n Given her past books, research for this novella wasn\u2019t too difficult for Vickie. She merely had to ensure Advent, Texas was a fictional town\u00a0and examine fruitcake recipes. In terms of her characters, she feels they reflect her stubbornness, faith in God and concern to do the right thing.<\/p>\n Vickie is the\u00a0descendant of early 1700?s pioneer from Germany who emigrated to the Lancaster area of Pennsylvania and later traveled west to Kansas and Oklahoma. \u201cI am\u00a0quite enamored with books about settling in the Old West, but if I had a chance to live in the 1800?s, I\u2019d have to decline. I\u2019m too much a creature of comfort\u2014and I\u2019d have to wear dresses.\u201d<\/p>\n Vickie is thrilled to be working with \u201csuch a great cast of authors and is excited to hear what the readers think of the\u00a012 Brides of Christmas Collection.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n She\u2019d like to invite you to sign up for her\u00a0newsletter to keep up with her\u00a0book news.\u00a0Click on this link to sign-up:\u00a0http:\/\/www.vickiemcdonough.com\/www.vickiemcdonough.com\/Newsletter_Sign-up.html<\/a><\/p>\n Who is\u00a0Vickie McDonough?<\/strong><\/p>\n She\u2019s the blogger on the tenth of each month at\u00a0Heroes, Heroines and History<\/a>.<\/p>\n For more information about Vickie and her books, visit her website:\u00a0www.vickiemcdonough.com<\/a><\/p>\n You can also find her on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MY REVIEW: “The Fruitcake Bride” is the last but certainly not the least of The 12 Brides of Christmas collection of novellas. I have spent several enjoyable hours reading this series and hate to see it reach its end. Karen Briggs has moved to Bakerstown, Missouri in order to marry her longtime friend Pastor Clayton […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,57,34,116,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-christmas","category-historical","category-novella","category-romance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18175"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18181,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18175\/revisions\/18181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/divider2.png\" "\\"divider2\\"")
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\nPastor Clayton Parsons waited a year to bring his fianc\u00e9e, Karen Briggs, to his new church post. They plan a Christmas wedding, but in the meantime Karen helps the church ladies with various projects, including a bake sale. But revealing her fruitcake recipe could spell disaster for her future in Bakerstown, Missouri.<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\nVickie McDonough\u00a0is the author of 33 novels and novellas, including two books in the\u00a0Texas Trails: Morgan Family\u00a0<\/em>series,\u00a0The Texas Boardinghouse Brides, The Pioneer Promises\u00a0<\/em>series\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>and\u00a0A Pioneer Christmas Collection<\/em>.\u00a0Vickie has been married 39 years and she and her husband live in Oklahoma and have four grown sons.<\/p>\n