Bride of Paradise (Mail Order Ministers #1) by Katie Crabapple

I enjoyed this book, I liked it.  A short read, a couple of hours will polish it off.  Samuel finished his schooling and moved to Paradise, Texas, but finds there are no women there of marriageable age there.

Samuel wrote his old friend the president of the seminary he recently graduated from, telling He and his wife how lonely he is.

The wife has realized that many of their ministers that moved to small towns are in the same dilemma.  Lonely but no women in their towns who aren’t married.  She decides to find wives for these ministers.  He receives a letter from the President’s wife and from a young woman he doesn’t know asking to get to know him by letter and perhaps they will marry.

He really wants to marry and he decided to travel back to the seminary and meet the woman that has been chosen to be his wife and to marry her.

The longer he knows her after their marriage, the more he knows he doesn’t feel she is the right woman for him, as she knows that about him.

Many important things happen once they get home and Samuel decides that there must be a reason this woman was sent his way, God had to have a hand in this and he decides to wait and see how things turn out before speaking his feelings. 

The book was given to me in a kindle format, by the author in exchange for an honest review.

Here is the description as found on Good Reads:

Samuel, a lonely pastor in Paradise, Texas, writes to the president of the seminary he recently graduated from expressing his need for companionship. Just weeks later he receives a letter from the president's wife and a woman he's never met, informing him a bride has been found. Although uncertain whether he really wants to marry, he agrees, thinking she may be the one God has selected for him. He is hopeful that the woman will be the help-meet God has chosen to lift his lonely heart.

When Kristen meets her future husband, Samuel, they both find the other lacking. Will they be able to get past their first impressions of one another and become an effective team serving God together?