Sometimes you just need a lighthearted, easy read and this was a good one. Predictable and sweet.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

Historical romance set at the turn of the century. While this is not my normal taste in books, I did enjoy the story of Nell, Ellen and June. And I definitely have friends who will LOVE it! There were a few surprises at the end. In my opinion you'd have to be pretty thick to not guess one of them. The other two were a pleasant way to end the story.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me read and review this book.

I love Sandra Dallas and her blend of historical fiction and romance. The Patchwork Bride is one of my favorites!

Ellen is putting the finishing touches on a wedding quilt made from scraps of old dresses when the bride-to-be—her granddaughter June—unexpectedly arrives and announces she’s calling off the marriage. With the tending of June’s uncertain heart in mind, Ellen tells her the story of Nell, a Kansas-born woman who goes to the High Plains of New Mexico Territory in 1898 in search of a husband.
This was a pretty decent story woven within another story about a woman’s journey. It reminded me loosely of a movie called How to Make an American Quilt that I really enjoyed when I was younger. I imagine if I’d had a grandmother who told similar tales as I got older, I would have liked it even more. I recommend.
**I voluntarily read and reviewed this book

DNF 50%

I tried multiple times to read The Patchwork Bride, but unfortunately I couldn't make it past 50%. I don't mind slow, quiet novels, in fact that's normally how and why many historical fiction novels thrive, but this felt too slow and too long even though it is under 300 pages. It may be more of a "it's me, not you" case.

It is the story of a runaway bride who continues to search for her real true love. She runs away twice from being the bride and finally meets her soul mate. Entertaining full of adventure.

Thank to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I have read and enjoyed many of Sandra Dallas’ books In the past. This book didn’t keep me as interested as some of her previous works. Although it was a pleasant story, it just wasn’t one of my favorites.

The fact that it took me T E N days to finish this should tell you a lot about this book and how much I didn't like it. Meh.
Sometimes bullet points are the best way to review a book, so here we go:

What I disliked about this book:
* Nell was a moron
* Nell was WAY. TOO. TRUSTING.
* The stories that she tells are just shy of being unbelievable. WHO asks someone to marry them 2 months after they meet them? Especially when you learn all the secrets at the end? Sigh.
* I hate how women are treated and the expectations around women in this time frame. It absolutely makes me insane. And Nell is at one point strong and independent and then she is not and is wishy-washy and meh. Ugh. Some of the conversations in the book about made my head spin off.
* The end. W T H was that about? Really? Ugh.

What I LIKED about this book:
* Nell was [initially] a strong and likeable character. And in the end, she was as well.
* How Nell deals with an attacker. Coffee cups rule.
* The love that June has for her grandparents. I adored mine and I love when stories tell that kind of story as well.

I really like this author and was pretty excited to get this from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I was pretty disappointed in this book and the end of it.

This was an utter delight, in spite of its simplicity or perhaps because of it. You catch on pretty quickly what yarn Grandma Ellen is spinning but the characters are so likable and the situation so frustrating, I zipped right through to the end. Ellen tells her granddaughter June the story of Nell and the three marriage proposals she ran away from through the pieces of cloth in a patchwork quilt. It’s storytelling at its best.

I am reminded of how little control women had over their lives in the very recent past. There was no place for independent thinking and a woman who wasn’t married by the time she was 22 was a hopelessly lost cause. Legitimate professions were limited; she could teach or waitress. And once a woman was married she could no longer teach because married teachers weren’t tolerated. I find myself still thinking about how unprotected and vulnerable Nell was without a husband and how everything she did was to find one. We have come a long way in a relatively short time.

This was a quick read. The story hooked me right away and I loved the long and winding path it took to a "happy ending."

Have you ever had to miss out on your favorite baseball team play on TV? Even though you may have heard who won the game you still want to come home and watch a recorded version so you can discover all the details of the game that you missed. Reading "The Patchwork Bride" was a lot like the kind of experience I just described. Right from the beginning pages of the novel, you know that Ellen has a story to tell her granddaughter about a friend (Nell) who struck out once, twice, three times at love. The reader has to assume that Nell was still able to win the game of love, because why else would Ellen be using her story as motivation for her granddaughter who is having problems with her fiance. So this is where my sports analogy comes into play. Even though I had a very strong feeling that Nell's story would work out in the end, I was strongly compelled to read the book to find out how it was all going to play out. I wanted to know how and why Nell was striking out on love. Who was she going to meet? Why wasn't it going to work out with some of the men? Which man was going to make it to home plate and stay in Nell's heart forever? I felt like I was at the edge of my seat during more than one inning of the book as Nell gets to know each of the men. The book was a very fast read and didn't drag on and on like a real baseball game sometimes does. I was invested in the characters from the start and eagerly ate up the book like concession stand popcorn. Despite the book having some very predictable moments, there were also some surprises that I didn't even see coming. In summary, this book is a home run in my mind. It's definitely worth reading. Thanks to St.Martin's Press and NetGalley for an advanced reader's copy of "The Patchwork Bride." This review is an honest opinion of my feelings for this book.

I am giving the Patchwork Bride a 4/5 stars. This book was a farily surprising read for me. I didn’t quite know what to expect going into it, but I’m very glad that I decided to pick this book up. I loved the various characters throughout the book and how their stories intertwined, in the past and present. Ellen was a great storyteller and I wish that I had a grandmother as great as she is. This book was just very artfully done. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a cute, quirky summer romance read.

THE PATCHWORK BRIDE by Sandra Dallas is a work of historical fiction which, frankly, was disappointing given my enjoyment of other work by Dallas. I especially liked her earlier titles like Alice's Tulips and The Persian Pickle Club so perhaps my perspective has changed? However, THE PATCHWORK BRIDE really seemed to lack the sense of community and strong support amongst women which I remembered from Dallas' writing. In this latest work, the main focus is on Nell, a young girl living in the late 1800's who wants to find a husband. She runs away from three possibilities and there is, sadly, not much of a story in terms of her personal development. If you are really looking for a light romantic feel with historical detail about the old West, THE PATCHWORK BRIDE may work for you – otherwise, I would recommend other titles by Dallas or even one of Jennifer Chiaverini's Elm Creek quilt novels or Earlene Fowler's Benni Harper mysteries which also have a quilt theme.

Ellen's granddaughter, June, comes to her seeking comfort and advice after calling off her upcoming wedding. Ellen begins to tell her the story of Nell, a woman who travelled west in 1898 hoping to find better marriage prospects than in her Kansas hometown. Nell seems to have found love when she falls for a cowboy on the ranch where she works. She soon learns that the path to love and happiness is not as easy as she was hoping, and she runs. And then runs again. And again. Nell must learn some difficult lessons about love and herself before she can stop running. In the story, June must also find the strength to make the right decision for herself on whether or not to run as well.

The first Sandra Dallas book I read was "Prayers for Sale." Dallas has a way of capturing and retelling a tale that is both heartwarming and hopeful. Life is filled with disappointment and hardships, however, Dallas always shows the love that transcends the hurt. She breathes life into her characters who reflect the times and situations in which they lived. I love stories about strong women who don't settle in life and forge ahead in self-discovery and in search of their dreams. A great summer read!

June is set to marry her fiance before he goes off to war in the 1950’s when she decides to flee to her grandmother’s home.  Once there her grandmother fills her in on another bride in the latter part of the nineteenth century. The women in this novel are strong women.

Dallas writes in an easy and compelling manner that keeps the story moving along quickly.  She prefers strong female characters in her novels and this one is no different in that aspect.  You can expect a cozy style read with quilts taking on a role in the story. I would categorize this book as romance and historical fiction.  Fans of Dallas’ previous works will not be disappointed with this latest novel.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this novel.

If you've ever lived in Colorado, and I have, Sandra Dallas is a local treasure and a go-to author. Not only is she a first rate storyteller, but she is also able to conjure the days when Denver was the Queen City of the Rockies, still a Cowtown but with a certain rough elegance that other cities didn't have. She clearly has a love affair with the state, narrating tales that stretch from the dug out homes of the early prairie families, to the scarlet women of Holiday Street, to the mansions of Capitol Hill.


In this book, an elderly couple on a Southern Colorado ranch provide a hide-out for their granddaughter who is a runaway bride. June, who is engaged to David and about to be married before he ships out to Korea. David is pushing for a quick wedding and June is weighing a banking job in Colorado Springs. So, in a sprint from her home in Chicago, June goes to her favorite place, her grandparents' ranch where her grandmother is preparing a wedding quilt for her while worrying if she can keep the ranch in light of her husband's Alzheimers.

June finds a sympathetic ear in her grandmother, and also a wealth of stories about Nell, a young woman ahead of her time, who ran away from not one but three weddings.

Each story reveals the mistakes of youthful inexperience that Nell made, and the cultural necessity of finding a husband -- any -- husband, in an era when unmarried women were housed in the spare bedroom of an unwilling relatives house. It strikes me that, as recently as forty years ago, that was still the expected path for most women until the Women's Movement began to open more paths of independence. Nell, at the ripe age of her mid-twenties, grabbed at possible mates with very distressing conclusions.


There are Easter eggs throughout the book. The Swandyke home of "The Last Midwife" shows up, as does "The Persian Pickle Club," that Ellen belongs to. It's fun to find these returning pieces of earlier books.

The first part of the book, when Ellen moves to her aunt's ranch and has an adversarial relationship with a cowboy called Buddy, sound remarkably like the romance between Curly and Laurie in Roger's and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma." The whole book, despite situations that sometimes verge on the #metoo movement, has a feeling of repetition. It's also pretty obvious how each romance will evolve and end (since Ellen says, early on, that Nell had been a runaway three times, you have to expect three broken romances). The surprise reveal at the end really isn't all that surprising, nor is the resolution of what choice June will make and how it will impact her grandparents' future.

I enjoyed the book, but I didn't feel the urgency to finish that I normally do with Dallas' books. You might say that this was more or a gentle trot than a ride on a runaway Bronco.

Nevertheless, if you are a Dallas fan, you will want to read this latest book. The end even leaves room for a sequel of that's the way she chooses to go.

Will Ellen’s marriage and her story of Nell’s long ago courtships help June and Dave find their way? This was the part of the story I wasn’t sure about but I’m satisfied that they’re working things out. As I said, I liked the first section best. It came to life and made this world real to me. The next parts felt as if I was marking time as I already knew Nell would run from these men and that she wasn’t as at ease in these other places. Things sort of dragged a bit. I would have enjoyed seeing Nell and her ultimate choice reconcile in real time but Ellen’s story was almost as good. B-

Every book this author publishes is a must read for me! When June unexpectedly shows up at her grandmother's house without telling her fiancee she has an uncertain heart. She was run away from him and unsure if she should marry him. Her grandmother Ellen tells her a story about a woman named Nell who ran away from the uncertainty of three relationships that have resulted in marriage proposals. Nell is looking for love and marriage along the way on her journey she finds excitement,heartbreak,disappointment and self-discovery. The circumstances in this author's books couldn't get any more real in this historial romance. Nell, did she eventually find true love? June, will she decide to marry her fiancee ?
Pub Date 05 Jun 2018
A complimentary copy was provided to me by St. Martin's Press through NetGalley. All opinions expressed are my own.

THE PATCHWORK BRIDE by Sandra Dallas
Dallas writes characters especially well. They live and breathe as naturally as you and I. In this book , a modern young woman is a runaway bride, unsure of her love and commitment. The woman she runs to tells her the story of a turn of the century runaway bride – one who runs three times! This story within a story is the “real” story of this book.
The tension grows as the young woman falls in love (or like) and then is disillusioned each time. We watch her character change while she grows in maturity as heartache after heartache consumes her. Each time she (and we) learn a bit more about her character, her needs, the time she lives in and the men she chooses, or who choose her. The modern runaway learns as well. The middle of the book drags a bit, but stick with the story. There is a surprising twist near the end. The opportunities open to women and the strictures they live under are presented with sympathy for the characters, the place and the time.
This is not Dallas’s best, but it is a satisfying read. You will be glad you stuck with it.
4 of 5 stars