During a lovely day out in York with my daughter last Friday, we somehow found ourselves in a discount bookshop which was holding a closing down sale, offering some books at 5 for £5 and others at 3 for £5. This is one of the 8 we acquired to share between us!

I picked this based on the attractive snowy cover art and the back cover blurb: "Country businessman seeks reliable wife. Compelled by practical reasons. Reply by letter.
"Rural Wisconsin, 1907. In the bitter cold Ralph Truitt stands alone on a train platform wating for the woman who answered his newspaper advertisement. But when Catherine steps off the train she's not the 'simple honest' woman Ralph is expecting. For she is motivated by greed. But what Catherine has not counted on is that Ralph might have plans of his own for his new wife ...."

I don't know why I got as lost in this story as I did, wasn't expecting to find it so absorbing! It's a sort of love story, a tale of passion and revenge, of hatred and obsession, of cruelty and kindness! There's the man who advertises for a second wife and his first wife and her son and his lover and .... and the truth will out in the end - or will it?
Now reserved to become an unexpected RABCK for a BookCrossing friend :-)

Carrying Christmas Greetings across the Irish Sea .... :-)

Thank you very much for this early christmas surprise, along with the lovely "snow globe" card and a wrapped up surprise (which I'm leaving wrapped up until Christmas).

Have a great holiday, and a fabulous 2012 my friend.

I enjoyed this book a lot, it created an interesting snippet of time with a small number of characters interacting. I enjoyed reading a book about a very wealthy man whose wealth and responsibility wasn't the focus of the story.

The chapters/sections of the book are written from either the husbands or the wife's point of view, which was interesting to see how they viewed each other and the situation they were in. I found the son exceptionally annoying and arrogant and frustrating, and wondered if his character would have seemed more rounded if chapters were written from his point of view.

The last few pages were just weird.

Thanks so much for passing this book on to me Nu-knees.

I passed this on to my mother, -Tui-, who is having logging on issues.

She thought it was complicated by deception and seperation.

If you aren't familiar with Bookcrossing, take a few minutes to check out this very cool site. Bookcrossers LOVE books, and more than anything, they love to read books and then set them free for other people to find and enjoy. I would love it if you would leave a journal entry -- you can say where you found the book or how you liked it when you read it.

Was given this book by kiwiinengland whilst she was visiting, I too found the book very absorbing at first, but a little strange towards the end! Still, a good book! back to the cafe with you!

goodluck little book!