Born in the Wrong Century

     In The Inconvenient Marriage of Charlotte Beck: a Novel by Kathleen Y’Barbo, Charlotte Beck is a headstrong, independent, often immature only child born in a time when women are suppose to get married, have children, and tend to family responsibilities.  This creates numerous collision points with her family and society in which she must sometimes strike a few bargains to achieve her goals.  At first, Charlotte was hard for me to like because of her selfish attitudes.  As I got into the book, it was evident that many of her escapades may have been motivated by selfish desires, but they also portray her as person struggling to find her way. I enjoyed the foreshadowing provided by the quotes by Miss Pence, Charlotte’s etiquette teacher, at the beginning of each chapter. 

     The book is an easy, fun read.  There isn’t really a deep spiritual content, but the importance of a relationship with Christ is important to Charlotte’s father as he “interviews” her prospective husband.  This questioning prompts the young man to examine his faith, and isn’t that what we all need to do daily? The discussions some of the characters have about arranged marriages, I feel, gave an accurate portrayal of some of the arranged marriages from the historical old west. Although this is the third in “The Women of the West” series, it doesn’t require knowledge of the first two stories to understand. 

     I received The Inconvenient Marriage of Charlotte Beck: a Novel for free from Multnomah Publishing in exchange for my honest review.