THE BRIDE WORE BLUE BY MONA HODGSON

I received "The Bride Wore Blue," by Mona Hodgson from the "Early Giveaway" program on Librarything.com. I didn’t read the first book in the Sinclair Sister Trilogy so I wasn’t able to get the beginning of Vivian’s story but I did read "Too Rich for A Bride" about when her sisters came to Cripple Creek. Having siblings who so effortlessly seem to make all the right choices even though she didn’t, made me only want her to succeed on her own even more. The lives of Kate, Ida, and Nell were interesting but dulled in comparison to Vivian’s. After being humiliated by her beau and having her request to travel to Paris to be with her father rejected, Vivian carried with her a sense of low self worth. Coming to Colorado was not her idea of success. Vivian had to be able to show her sisters she was not coming to Cripple Creek to be "babysat" but to prove she was grown up. Vivian, being strong willed, wanted so much to prove herself capable and independent it just so happened that the way she achieved that got her into a lot of trouble. Her pride pushed her to refuse her sister's help in finding employment since this would only show she was indeed still the baby and needed looking after. By making the decision to hide her insecurities Vivian continued to move further and further away from the bond that her sisters wished to share with her. Hiding what she did from her sisters and even from the woman at the boarding house became easier with each lie. I totally enjoyed Vivian's story of struggles and adventures because I saw some of myself in her in my younger days of making fool hearty choices. She was Feisty, proud and stubborn and yet so venerable. I do wish that Vivian and Carter’s relationship would have developed slower allowing me to experience some happier moments for her. All in all I gave the book four stars out of five because I really did like the difference of the rebellious independent sister who brought excitement to Cripple Creek, turning everyone's life upside down. I think in the end they all realized that they didn’t know Vivian as well as they thought they did which taught them to pay a bit closer attention to what lies between the lines.