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WANTED:
Wife for a blacksmith.

Now this was fun! A light hearted romance read full of cowboys and adventures!
Barry’s storytelling transports you to an era where matchmaking and mischief are in full swing.

What you'll find in Kit McBride Gets a Wife:
Historical Romance
Forced Proximity
Slow Burn
Cowboys
Small Town Western Vibes

“He was quite a man. Strong, but sensitive. He was powerfully built and capable, but he was also nervous and shy, gentle, thoughtful. Dreamy.”

The McBride brothers' lives take an unexpected turn when their younger sister, Junebug, secretly places an ad for a mail-order bride. Kit McBride, the eldest, believes there's no need for a wife in their rugged Montana town. However, Junebug is tired of household chores and wants to bring in some help. Meanwhile, Maddy Mooney, an Irish immigrant working for a poor widow, finds herself abandoned and mistaken for the widow en route to Montana. Now, Maddy must convince Kit that she is his mail-order bride and the partner he never realized he needed.

If you’re looking for a sweet, feel-good read with a perfect mix of humor and romance, Kit McBride Gets a Wife is a must-read. It’s the kind of book that leaves you with a smile on your face and a warm feeling in your heart.

Maddy Mooney escaped her old life in Ireland to work for an eccentric young widow determined to regain her wealth. When her mistress decided to answer an ad for a mail-order bride, she was dragged along for the ride. Meanwhile, Kit McBride from Buck’s Creek, Montana, wasn’t looking for a wife. But unbeknownst to him, his sister Junebug was sick of cleaning and cooking for her big brothers, so she placed an ad in The Matrimonial News to get him hitched.

Aww I ended up loving this one more than I had thought! To be honest, I picked this up solely because of the attractive cover design. I was fully expecting a fluffy, insta-love story and nothing else.

I was super happy to be surprised by the turn of events in this book. The romance wasn’t as insta as I had thought, and the female characters were strong, assertive, and modern for the time period! It was also funny in places, and I couldn’t help but falling in love with Junebug - the messy-mastermind of the entire thing!

The audiobook narration was upbeat and on tempo, delivering the story performance perfectly. All in all, it was a super fun book and even though I wasn’t planning to, I think now I have to read the next book in the series!

This book was a little slower then I would have liked so I struggled with the first half but I really enjoyed the second half of the book!! I feel like I went into this thinking it would be a cute country romance but it was more on the historical fiction side of this which is totally fine and probably on me for going into the book blind.

Overall I did enjoy the book and ended up finding it humorous! I’m looking forward to reading Morgan’s story!

I found this audiobook difficult to get through. The chapters are long which makes it harder to maintain concentration (in my opinion). The narrator was alright, but I didn't find that there was enough differentiation between characters to know quickly which character was speaking. Overall I found it a bit slow, but when it picked up it was alright.

Rating: 3.75/5

- Historical western romance
- Montana setting
- Mail-order bride
- Secret identity
- Forced proximity
- Irish FMC
- Three POVs (in third person)
- Narrated by Eve Kaminsky

The first word I'd use to describe Kit McBride Gets a Wife is unique! It's less historical romance and more historical women's fiction with a romantic comedy subplot, if that's a thing 😂. But if you go into it expecting this, you'll probably have a good time.

Junebug is a teenage girl sick of doing all the chores for her four older brothers. So she secretly places an ad for a bride for her brother, Kit, in The Matrimonial News.

Things get complicated, though, when the bride arrives and runs off with someone else, leaving her maid behind. Junebug and Maddy decide to pretend Maddy's the bride. But things get even more complicated when Maddy and Kit fall for each other while she's pretending to be her mistress.

This book is full of hijinks, unique characters and forced proximity. You have Junebug's lively personality, Kit with his inner softness and grumpy Morgan.

Eve does a great job with the audiobook, producing unique voices for all the characters. Considering the POV jumped between Junebug, Kit and Maddy, she didn't have it easy.

While I didn't love it, I'd still be interested to check out Morgan's story next. Especially if Eve is narrating!

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Audio for the early audio copy!

Unfortunately this book isn't for me. It's not that it's poorly written, my preference is books set in present day - so this was on me not looking into the book enough. I requested based on the cute cover and because I had heard about it on social media

Rated highly due to the issue being genre preference, not disliked due to authors work

After visiting Montana in August 2022 (coincidentally when this was first published) I knew I absolutely had to read this book. While it’s been on my TBR for over a year, I’m so glad I waited for the audiobook because it is amazing. Seriously, the accents were all on point.
I’ve never read a romance where the fourteen year old little sister has more main character vibes than either of the love interests and I’m obsessed. Junebug is just so sassy! While all of her opinions are incredibly quotable, this one has to be my favourite: “Where was it written that she knew how to cook just because she was a girl? Nowhere, that was where.”
I’m a big fan of a soft-hearted love interest and Kit fit the bill perfectly. And he’s a reader: “Kit had a thing for books. And he had a thing for no one else touching them.” Honestly, same.
Maddie is plucky and courageous and deserves so much happiness. Every one of her and Kit’s interactions had me sighing and feeling butterflies. Although, I think this book may have given me a foot fetish haha.
I’ve never read a mail order bride romance but the spouse advertisements Maddie and Kit wrote for each other had me absolutely swooning! Can’t say the same for those written by Junebug, but hers are hilarious and so true!
I think the best part of this book is the incredible familial bonds the McBrides share and I can’t wait for Marrying Off Morgan McBride and the rest of the series.

I wasn’t entirely sure that this story was going to work for me. To start with the pacing and time it took to establish all the characters took a while. But it was worth the wait. I appreciated the pay off in the end and was satisfied with the resolution.

June Bug lives on a mountain with her brothers and is tired of having to do all the domestic labour for them. So she hatches a plan to order a bride for her least objectionable brother, Kit. Maddy is a maid who has left Ireland to escape heartache (and a narrow miss with disgrace) and has found herself the sole maid for a broke woman who is on the hunt for her next husband. With her economically limited choices Maddy follows her employer to rural Montana where the employer intends to marry Kit. However, the employer promptly takes off leaving Maddy unpaid, and June Bug without a wife for her brother. In a case of mistaken identities, and the limited choices of a woman in the “old west” things get complicated when Maddy and Kit start to feel sparks.

I have a bad habit of either hating supporting characters or becoming absolutely obsessed with them. June Bug was a bit much for me. While I recognise her narrative necessity to move the plot along, as a character I found her for the most part unlikable. Although, a person who just decides what they want and lets nothing stop them, regardless of the damage it causes to others, probably is unlikable because it’s TOO accurate. But I did come around to her in the end and I think watching her develop complexity through the series, I will probably grow to love her. I found the interaction between Morgan and Kit more enjoyable. Morgan teasing Kit about his feelings for Maddy and then poking Kit’s jealousy a bit was a fun interaction to watch.

I am aware that this is setting up to be a series and it’s likely that I’ll have a peek at the next ones too. I’m curious to see what kind of person Morgan ends up with and I really want to know what happened with Charlie….

Thank you NetGalley for this audiobook, I loved it! Was very very slow burn, but the characters are all so sweet and lovely and I adored the Montana western setting. I am absolutely putting the rest of this series on my to read list! I really enjoyed the narrator for this as well, and this is one of the first audiobooks I really enjoyed listening to.

Huge high-fives to @simonschusterau for hooking me up with a sneak peek at this audiobook! 🎉 This little treasure came my way as a gift in exchange for an honest review.

Let me tell you, I had a blast with this audiobook and the whole McBride family fiesta that Amy Barry cooked up. Junebug? Absolute rockstar. Her colorful language and wild spirit was like a party on its own, especially in the conservative 1886 setting. 🌈 I loved Junebug so much so, that the Kitt and Maddy love story took a backseat – sorry, lovebirds!

This book's a total charmer, serving up heartwarming, cute, and downright fun moments. 📚💖 Although, I have to be real here, the main romantic duo didn't quite steal my heart.

I also need to shoutout to the audio crew! 🎧 Eva Kaminsky's narrations was fantastic, I looking forward to listening to more of her narrations.. 👏🎶

This review also appears on my Goodreads account and will be posted on my Instagram (6/2/24)