The Bride's House
by Sandra Dallas
List Price: $14.99
Pages: 400
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781250008275
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
From the New York Times bestselling author of Whiter Than Snow and Prayers for Sale comes a novel about the secrets and passions of three generations of women who have all lived in the same Victorian home called the Bride’s House.
It’s 1880, and for unassuming seventeen-year-old Nealie Bent, the Bride’s House is a fairy tale come to life. It seems as if it is being built precisely for her and Will Spaulding, the man she is convinced she will marry. But life doesn’t go according to plan, and Nealie finds herself in the Bride’s House pregnant --- and married to another.
For Pearl, growing up in the Bride’s House is akin to being raised in a mausoleum. Her father has fashioned the house into a shrine to the woman he loved, resisting all forms of change. When the enterprising young Frank Curry comes along and asks for Pearl’s hand in marriage, her father sabotages the union. But he underestimates the lengths to which the women in the Bride’s House will go for love.
Susan is the latest in the line of strong and willful women in the Bride’s House. She’s proud of the women who came before her, but the Bride’s House hides secrets that will force her to question what she wants and who she loves.
Sandra Dallas has once again written a novel rich in storytelling and history, peopled by living, breathing characters that will grab hold of you and not let you go.
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1. What do you see as the immediate appeal of Will? Of Charlie? Would you have chosen Will or Charlie as Nealie’s husband?
2. Do you believe Mrs. Travers knew Nealie was pregnant? What were the options and limitations of an unmarried pregnant woman had in 1880.
3. What was the real reason Charlie married Nealie --- love or money? What evidence do you have for your opinion?
4. Why did Charlie want to control Pearl? Why does any parent want to control their child?
5. Do you believe Frank’s motivations for pursuing Pearl were mercenary or genuinely emotional? Did they change from his initial relationship with her?
6. Why did Pearl remain in the Bride’s House after she discovered her father’s role in Frank’s breaking the engagement?
7. Describe what you think Pearl’s reaction would have been in finding and reading the documents in the strong box. Would she have forgiven her father for keeping secrets?
8. Describes Pearl’s strengths and weaknesses as a mother.
9. If Peter had lived, would Susan have married him? Would it have been a happy marriage? If she chose not to marry him, would she have regretted that choice?
10. What do you think Susan’s daughter --- her baby has to be a daughter, of course --- would be like?
11. What ways are the three women --- Nealie, Pearl, and Susan --- alike? In what ways different? With whom did you most identify? With whom did you feel the most sympathy?
12. Should the secrets have been kept? How would the women’s lives have been different if they had known about the documents in the strong box?
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