The third installment of a Year of Weddings by Zondervan/Harper Collins is, "A February Bride," by Betsy St. Amant. It has been a few years since I've read any of her work, but I have previously read her novel, "Rodeo Sweetheart."
In "A February Bride," Allie Andrews is a runaway bride. Just moments before she makes her vows, a tear appears in her wedding gown and sets off a cascade of doubts that results in her running away from Marcus Hall, her groom. The gown represents generational sins existing in her family that have resulted in broken relationships. No female in her family, including her mother, aunt, and grandmother has been able to make a marriage last longer than three years, and Allie loved Marcus too much to subject him to that sort of marital doom.
Four months after the big disaster at the church, Hannah, Allie's best friend, asks her to become her maid of honour. Allie agrees to do this, because she owes this favour to Hannah; however, the complication is that Hannah is also Marcus' sister! How is she going to be able to face him after everything that had happened?
Marcus has no idea why Allie walked out on him and abandoned him at the altar, and even after four months, he is still in love with her. Every event related to Hannah's wedding brings Allie back into his orbit and he can't seem to walk away from her. He needs to decide if he can stay in the same town at Allie with his unresolved feelings, or move away and make a fresh start in Texas.
This story improved for me upon a second reading. This novella was quite similar to, "A December Bride," in which that bride also had a poor self concept and tried to cope with her flawed self perception. Of course, Allie's coping strategy did spur a lot of running away from a man who loved her deeply but who is also clueless as to why she did what she did. The verse, 2 Corinthians 5:17, which says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone; the new has come!" holds a key idea in this story, and it is a concept that Allie needs to grapple with in the novella.
The story unfolded at a good pace, and I really liked Marcus and Allie. If they were real people, I would have loved to have known them personally.
Disclaimer: I received an e-book copy of, "A February Bride," from NetGalley in exchange for a review. Any opinions stated in this review are mine.
