The Captain's Bride

Title: THE CAPTAIN’S BRIDE
Author: Lisa Tawn Bergren
Publisher: WaterBrook Press
Republished June 2009
ISBN: 978-0-307-45806-3
Genre: Inspirational/historical

Three women and a man leave Norway for the New World, dreaming of a better way of life. Elsa and Peder Ramsted are newly married, and Peder is finally the captain of his own ship. He dreams of opening a Ramsted shipyards in America. Elsa wants to be the perfect wife and mother, and possibly, an artist.

Kaatje Janssen is newly pregnant, and her husband, Soren, has a wandering eye. Catching him in the act of being unfaithful, Kaatje doesn’t want to forgive him, but when he finds out she’s pregnant, she caves…dreaming that life in America will help them start over and that Soren will have eyes for no one but her.

Elsa’s younger sister Tora is used to getting what she wants and she wants to go to America, for starters. After that, well, we’ll just see what catches her fancy?

Karl Martensen has secretly loved Elsa all these years, but he is torn by his friendship with Peder, the man who married the woman Karl loved. His emotions could ruin them all…

THE CAPTAIN’S BRIDE is a reprint of a story originally published back in 1998, book one in the Northern Lights series. I bought the book when it originally came out, having read Ms. Bergren’s contemporaries and liking them. This historical story is a story about four different people, and while it starts out kind of confusing with everyone’s point of view introduced at once, I was quickly able to differentiate between the characters and follow each of their stories…but it did take several chapters for it to begin sorting itself out.

I cared for Kaatje the most, she won my heart right away, though I wanted her to dump her worthless no good husband and not keep forgiving him every time...though I understand historical women didn’t have the luxury of that option. A preview of Deep Harbor, the second book in this series (available now) is included at the end of the book. If you like historical fiction and missed THE CAPTAIN’S BRIDE the first time around, you have another chance. Plus, since it’s a reprint, it’s cheaper at only $6.99 389 pages.



Thanks to A Romance Review for providing a copy of this book.