The Runaway Brides Collection is a delightful read. From the determined heroines who find themselves in binds of all sorts, to the heroes who help the runaway brides in their predicaments, to the endearing secondary characters, this collection is well worth reading. Every novella earned a four star or higher, which, for me, is rare when reading collections. I was also introduced to authors I’d not heard of before, which hooked me on their writing. This is a fun collection, and one I definitely recommend reading!

This is a collection of stories from Christian publisher Barbour Press all themed around runaway brides and set in America in the latter half of the 19th century. From a wealthy socialite getting cold feet about her arranged dynastic marriage to a mail-order bride choosing to marry a stranger rather than a man she knows for certain to be unpleasant, this is a pleasantly varied collection, and when I say pleasantly varied, I was surprised and delighted to find one of the stories featured a black couple. (Also, I learned something - I didn’t know about all-black towns in Kansas in the late 1800s).

As usual when I review collections, I’ll give each story a brief review and individual rating before assigning an overall rating for the collection.

From This Day Forward by Rita Gerlach
In the aftermath of the Civil War, a young woman wishes to follow her heart - even if that leads to a former soldier for the other side.
Beautifully descriptive prose in this story, and I really liked Amy as a young woman trying to honour her father’s wishes but unable to go so far as to sacrifice her happiness for him. I would have liked a little more sense of her love interest Rory Maguire, though, especially as he seemed to go inexplicably from being her wealthy neighbour’s stable master to a man who owned a large estate of his own with no time in between. Four stars.

Legacy Of Love by Terri J. Haynes
This was the one with the black couple, and I really enjoyed it. Delia’s one of the ‘elite’ in her small Kentucky town, daughter of a store owner and a young lady with a talent for invention. Her love interest Josiah isn’t from her social class, but he has a generous soul to match Delia’s and when the chance comes up to move to Kansas and claim a place for themselves there, Delia must choose between going with Josiah and having to struggle, or living a life of ease as a wealthy man’s wife.
I liked this couple so much, and it’s honestly just so refreshing to read a historical romance featuring characters of colour. Reading about the daily prejudice Delia and Josiah would have had to deal with, and how large events had monumental impacts on their lives, was genuinely fascinating. Five stars.

The Elusive Heiress by Noelle Marchand
A wealthy heiress makes a run for it when she discovers what the English earl her father has arranged for her to marry really thinks of his upstart American bride.
This might have been my favourite story of the bunch; Georgiana started off spirited but spoiled, and learned the hard way about the realities of life while never losing her spirit. She finds her faith along the way, which brings her and Henry finally into a perfect alignment of hearts and minds. Five stars.

A Day Late And A Dollar Short by Vickie McDonough
Callie chooses to become a mail-order bride when her uncle basically attempts to sell her off to a crony. Unfortunately, she arrives in Texas only to find her groom just married someone else. Offered a temporary position as governess to rancher Erik Kessler’s daughter, she has little choice but to accept.
There’s quite a bit of romantic suspense to this story as well as some very realistic details of life in the period - washing day sounds like pure hell - and I loved Erik and his little daughter Annika. A delightful mail-order bride story with a twist! Five stars.

The Groom She Thought She’d Left Behind by Darlene Panzera
Emily Pembrooke gets cold feet on the very day of her wedding to magnate Christian Gould - a man she’s never even seen. I certainly didn’t blame her for making a run for it. Where this gets hilarious is when you realize the coachman she convinces to be her accomplice is none other than her groom himself, who wanted to check his bride was really all right with marrying a complete stranger. He certainly got his answer!
I laughed more than once reading this story; poor Emily has a talent for getting herself into scrapes despite her very best intentions, all of which only managed to thoroughly endear her to Christian. He should probably have come clean sooner, but his decisions were perfectly understandable even if they did cost Emily some unnecessary angst. Five stars.

The Flyaway Bride by Jenness Walker
Taking her sister Jenny’s place as she goes to marry the man she’s been writing to under Jenny’s name for months is pretty nerve-wracking for Josey Middleton.
Unfortunately, her groom isn’t where he’s supposed to be, and a series of unfortunate events transpire to leave her in a perfectly dreadful situation, her only aid the mysterious traveller known only as Rhett.
I felt so sorry for poor Josey, and while in the previous story Christian’s silence was understandable, I didn’t really get Everett’s reasoning in this one. Considering Josey’s obvious distress, he should have revealed himself much sooner and put her out of her misery. Four stars.

The Irish Bride by Renee Yancy
The appearance of P.T. Barnum and Tiny Tim in this one enlivened a story of a class divide; Bernadine is an Irishwoman from the upper classes sent to America with her father’s wealth, ill-gotten from tenants he’d driven off his land during Ireland’s potato famine, and her love interest Michael Quinn is basically a nobody. Since Bernadine pays for his passage on a transatlantic liner, there are distinct echoes of Rose and Jack in Titanic as well, though it isn’t until they are in Boston that romance is able to blossom. Of course it’s not that simple, with a wicked uncle determined to steal Bernadine’s inheritance.
This was a story with a weak ending, unfortunately. I didn’t buy the final confrontation scene or the supposed legal argument which featured. The rest of the story was strong enough for it still to earn four stars, though.

Overall, I think there’s something in this collection for anyone who enjoys a clean period romance, and even if you don’t particularly care for strong Christian themes, I don’t think any of the characters featured were portrayed as more than typically devout for the period. A couple of the stories were genuinely excellent, and while a few were weaker they were still all pretty well-written. I don’t give many collections five stars, but I’d say this one really deserves it.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book for review through NetGalley.

A great collection about runaway brides and each story has its own fun twist to this. Seven amazing stories by seven great authors, though a few of them were new to me.


I loved each of the short novella's and found myself having trouble putting the book down.

The Runaway Brides Collection by various authors is a fun read about brides who are hesitant to commit. The seven stories are set in the 1800’s. Each story is unique and some are laugh out loud funny at times. Some of the brides must decide if an arranged marriage is for them or choose to find love instead; for others the decision is much more serious as to saving their family from financial ruin or marrying someone they barely know.
I enjoyed this book and really felt the pain of some of the brides as they made really difficult decisions. In some cases, it was choosing between two men and in others it was simply not wanting to marry at the present time. All of the stories had characters who were very realistic and reacted as one might expect considering the circumstances. I give this book a solid 5 of 5 stars. It is very engaging and will appeal to a wide audience. There is romance along with a bit of mystery and adventure in the various stories.
I received an advance copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

A wonderful collection of seven Christian, historical romance stories that are sure to give you hours of enjoyment. Each story has its own version of runaway brides, or couples that elope. I enjoyed them all and I'm sure that you will too!

The Runaway Brides Collection by Rita Gerlach will be available January 1, 2019 from Barbour Books, an imprint of Barbour Publishing, Inc. An egalley of this book was made available by the publisher in exchange for a honest review

The Runaway Brides Collection is a collection of seven historical stories about brides who get cold feet at the altar. These stories includes:
From This Day Forward by Rita Gerlach
Legacy of Love by Terri J. Haynes
The Elusive Heiress by Noelle Marchand
A Day Late and a Dollar Short by Vickie McDonough
The Groom She Thought She’d Left Behind by Darlene Panzera
The Flyaway Bride by Jenness Walker
The Irish Bride by Renee Yancy
I enjoyed this fun collection. I was introduced to several new authors. My favorite story would have to be Vickie McDonough's A Day Late and a Dollar Short.
I am giving The Runaway Brides Collection five plus stars.

I seriously cannot get enough of these books! Georgiana's story was admittedly my favourite! I always look forward to seeing a new collection - this one just made me laugh a lot more than normal! Props to the writers.

A unique collection of stories by different authors. I enjoy these collections because they provide not only great short reads, but also the opportunity to discover new-to-me authors. This one did not disappoint as I didn't recognize a single author, however I will now be looking them up as I enjoyed reading their works. Historical romances that take new approaches to love in the past. While you are enjoying the romances you also pick up historical tidbits that you might not know. Such as, "Did you know that there were all black towns built after the end of the Civil War?"

I absolutely love these collections. They are several of them and each is worth every penny. For those who are looking for short works to read in one setting, nothing beats The Runaway Bride Collection or any of others by this publisher. Clean and full of love and promise...

The Runaway Brides Collection will keep you on the edge of your seat from the very beginning of each story and until your Turing the last page of the last story! Each hero and each heroine ask themselves the question "is this what I really want? Come with them on the ride of your life to discover just what will make these couples find their way back to each other!

Barbour Books always collects the best authors for their anthologies and The Runaway Brides is no different.

There are nine stories in this book and each of the stories include a bride being forced into an unwanted marriage by family members (most usually the fathers). The grooms are either totally unknown to the bride or are in some way detestable to the brides. The circumstances are so bad that the brides take matters into their own hands and sneak away the best way they can, some as mail order brides, some as women looking for jobs, some as nannies and caretakers. BUT while they are running away from someone, they are running to what they know will be a different life, they are just not sure how it will play out.

This is a five star book, two thumbs up, and the fastest train out of town.

My thanks to Barbour Books for allowing me to read this book. Galley provided by NetGalley.com

The Runaway Brides Collection
By Rita Gerlach, Terri J. Haynes, Noelle Marchand, Vickie McDonough, Darlene Panzera, Jenness Walker, Renee Yancy
This well-written collection of historical romance novellas features tales of runaway brides who find love on the run. I have read many novella collections and this is by far the best collection. There was no hit or miss with the stories. Each story held depth despite the length. I enjoyed reading each tale and found myself reluctant to put the book down to go to bed.
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

The Irish story was dark and depressing. Didn't even finish it as it's NOT what I expect...or want..to read from the Barbour collections! Disappointing.

This is an absolutely charming collection! The authors have done a splendid job of packing wonderful stories into small packages with these novellas. Each story is short enough to read in a sitting yet still contains a complete and satisfying story. And with 7 stories, this book is a great value. I highly recommend this collection.

This is another wonderful Brides Collection from Barbour Books. I really enjoyed reading the seven stories of seven strong willed woman that didn't give in but stood for what they believed was the right choice for them. I enjoyed every story in this book. Thank you Barbour Publishing via NetGalley for the ARC copy of this book. This is my honest opinion.

The women in this latest Barbour Bride Collection did not fail to disappoint with their strong will and refusal to settle despite 19th-century societal norms. It is difficult to pick out a favourite story because each story has its unique elements and helps the reader understand the times that they lived in. For instance, Delia McClure's story Legacy of Love highlights the plight of the Exodusters and The Irish Bride, the lesser talked about discrimination about Irish immigrants. Overall, the Runaway Bride Collection is a comforting pick for a cosy reading day or night.

The Runaway Brides is an enjoyable collection with tales of seven brides who, rather than be forced into arranged marriages, seek to make their own choice of grooms. The antics of Josey Middleton made me laugh out loud. Her story was fun and lighthearted. Bernadine faced very difficult circumstances fleeing Ireland. Amy must marry to save her family home but at what cost? Delia wants to use her freedom to help others. Georgiana changes her name to escape her father's scheme. Callie goes from the shores of Lake Erie to Dallas, Texas in search of her future. Emily Pembrooke ran away with a stranger but could she trust him?
Each story was different, but all were good. I really enjoyed each one.

I received an ARC copy of this book from Barbour through NetGalley. This is my own opinion.