The Wedding Kiss

Ugh, this one suffers from some serious issues. Mostly, a total disconnect with the advertised story (the title, cover(s), and synopsis all failing to portray the story), and a mishmash of historical assumptions that have little basis in actual history. The timeline is all over the place too, with some serious historical errors.

–Trail of Tears was claimed to have affected Cherokee removed from Pennsylvania...um, yeah, Cherokee weren't native to PA. It was also claimed to have been “recent” in 1900 (it happened primarily in the 1830s) and a family was mentioned to have stopped along the way to Oklahoma for a while and been hidden from removal (Arkansas population wasn't removed as their land was part of a separate treaty, but many headed to OK later on as the free land was offered and the tribal headquarters was founded in Tahlequah.). A large crux of the side story concerns a character who tried to prevent Pennsylvania Cherokee from being sent to Oklahoma. Again, no Cherokee there (until present day), and no Pennsylvania tribes were sent to Oklahoma.

–women's corsets took a beating: Ugh, when will this trope die??? A lady either wore some form of underwear or she was a heathen, either stays or a corset, until women burned their bras in the 1960s. And you can't just go borrowing them from a friend at the drop of a hat, as all women had to be custom fitted at a corsetier since they were all of different shapes. Tight lacing wasn't practiced by most women and if she hadn't worn one, she couldn't have borrowed dresses from other women who did, either, as her chest would have been flat as a fritter after a life of working with no support.

–the romance was nonexistent...not generally a problem for me, but when I got told this was a book about falling in love, I kinda expected to see more than 3-4 pages of it, and fancy that, all she had to do to make him love her was wear dresses for a few weeks and keep house for him...ugh.

–the woman who ran for her life on a priceless horse...but somehow she wasn't hugely rich in her home back east? Comfortable but not wealthy? And then she just flees through the night for weeks on end with no money or food and miraculously survives?

–name dropping: time changed from 1900-1901 at some point during a story that took place during a single season and then some random dude name drops having spent time on tour with Roosevelt while he was president (but Teddy took office in 1901 so why did the guy leave his cushy Washington job if so?)...this is a good way to really pull me out of a story from sheer unlikelihood.

–Farmers without weather: this is smaller, but it really made me laugh because as an Arkansan, weather is everything. Hot and cold, rainy or dry. If it's not frequently rainy, it's drought season and everyone's worried about herd forage. Seriously couldn't muster up one rainy day in the entire book? Haha.

–Unfinished business: it just...ended? Like that? I still have so many questions. I suspect the author has no answer to them.

Probably won't ever try a historical by this author team again. Maybe will try the suspense I own but I'm not in a hurry to do so.