Last Chance Wife is a historical inspirational romance set in Deadwood, Dakota Territory. I picked this book up because I could not resist its premise, and I kept reading it because it’s fun and silly and short and easy to read and I was super stressed out so I needed that kind of book. I would say that your enjoyment of this book, which has a Pollyanna-like heroine who cheers miners by putting drawings in their lunch pails (along with food, of course) will depend heavily on your mood. In addition, like me, your experience may change and not in a good way if you think critically about the plot once you’ve finished it.

I’m just going to let the publisher’s blurb explain the plot:

When six-time mail-order bride Winifred Sattler is stranded in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, she’s grateful to find a temporary position at Mr. Ewan Burke’s business until she can return home. Ewan is handsome, but stuffy and serious—her complete opposite. Unlike her new anonymous correspondent, Mr. Businessman, who appreciates her bubbly optimism.

To keep his mining company afloat, Ewan can’t be distracted by Winifred’s vivacious beauty. He needs a no-nonsense wife. Someone like Miss Thoroughly Disgruntled, the only respondent to his recent ad with whom he truly connected. In person, Winifred and Ewan don’t get along, but in their letters they’re falling in love. Will they discover a perfect match in each other?

Winnie is devoutly Christian, which didn’t bother me nearly as much as her also being so chipper and relentlessly optimistic that I fully expected birds and other small woodland creatures to gather ‘round and help her with the cleaning. She has tried to get married six times, each time being a no-go. One of her suitors died and the others were not a good fit for Winnie, who wants a marriage based on “sacrificial love.” (More on sacrificial love later). Her most recent suitor turned out to already be married. Winnie had enough money to get out of that situation and part of the way home, but she ran out of money in Deadwood and needs a temporary place to stay and a temporary job so she can earn the rest of her fare.

Ewan, the local (or a local) mine owner hires her to work in his convenience store. He seems stuffy but expends considerable time and money providing jobs to people in need. He has a broken heart from his beautiful, vivacious ex and now wants a wife who is basically as dull as possible. He’s been posting ads to this effect, and Winnie answers one, scolding him for being so unromantic. Unaware of each other’s true identities, they continue to correspond while as their normal selves they bicker.

The publisher’s blurb is a bit misleading. Actually, the reason that Mr. Businessman and Miss Thoroughly Disgruntled are able to communicate so easily is that they rule each other out as potential spouses immediately. Without the pressure of courting, they write to each other to vent a little about their circumstances, about feeling like failures, and about having big dreams. The premise is adorable although the idea that Winnie and Ewan don’t recognize each other’s handwriting, drawing, stationary, or other broad hints at identity is utterly ludicrous.

This is part of a bigger problem: the characters’ level of intelligence changes as the plot requires it to. Winnie is shown to be quite practical and intelligent. She has a reason for everything she does in the store, no matter how whimsical it may be, and she’s a whiz with numbers. However, when the plot requires that she go into the mine alone except for two miners, despite being forbidden to do so, she totally does. Does Ewan have to let the mine experience multiple catastrophes that are obviously the result of sabotage before considering the possibility of sabotage? Of course he does.

I also had a problem with the phrase “sacrificial love,” which I had not heard before. When Winnie talks about “sacrificial love,” (she just drops it into a sentence two or three times) she means the kind of love that her parents had. They were considerate and sweet towards each other, and when Winnie’s house caught fire her father ran into the house to save Winnie’s mom. Both parents died. So her father literally sacrificed herself for her mother. Additionally, both parents worked towards a common goal (raising orphans, OF COURSE), and that kind of partnership is important to Winnie.

So in that context, Winnie seems to have healthy relationship goals – she wants a partner in a larger enterprise which helps people, she wants romantic love, and she wants someone who loves her so much that he is willing to risk his life if needed for her and vice versa. But I can’t help worrying that the concept of  “sacrificial love” could be used to convince women to stay with abusive partners and the more I googled the worse it looked. Anyone with a more fluent Christian background want to weigh in on this?

I have to admit that even though this book made no sense from beginning to end, and despite my lurking concern that it might be problematic (seriously, the sacrificial love thing creeps me out, y’all) it was funny (usually on purpose), and moved quickly and had a “Hey, let’s put on a show!” quality slightly mixed with the ending of It’s a Wonderful Life. Also Ewan gets to say this:

She softens my hard edges. She encourages me with the way she is steadfast in her principles and loyal to both those she knows and those she doesn’t. She expands my mind and makes me believe in the impossible.

This is a good book to read during a stressful time, unless you start to think heavily about it, which will only lead to more stress. I do believe that art is healing, but can miners really be cheered up with drawings in their lunch pails? If God talks to Winnie and Ewan all the time, why doesn’t He tell them to be honest and forthright about their feelings so that this book can end much more quickly than it actually does? Why doesn’t anyone say grace before eating? By the time this book is set, Deadwood has structure and law and order, so instead of giving jobs to women who escape from one of the brothels after being lured there under the impression that it’s a theater and then kept in captivity (it’s a subplot), why doesn’t Ewan just get the place shut down for kidnapping or false advertising or something?

My experience was somewhere around a C-. I did get into the story, and was entertained. However, in all honesty, upon reflection this is more of a D+ book, especially given some weird stuff at the ending which I won’t even begin to try to describe. Perhaps other readers will be able to unpack the deep mysteries of the plot better than I can – good luck!