Books for Christian Girls: "Five Brides" by Eva Marie Everson {Age Warning!}

This is not a book for teens! Even if you love 1950s clothes (like me!) you will not want to read this book or this review because of Sexual Content in it! :(

*This review is my opinion which I have a right to.

About this book:

“One dress, five women, a lifetime of memories.
Five single, fiercely independent women live together in a Chicago apartment in the early 1950s but rarely see one another. One Saturday afternoon, as they are serendipitously together downtown, they spy a wedding dress in a storefront window at the famous Carson, Pirie, Scott & Co. After trying it on—much to the dismay of the salesclerk and without a single boyfriend or date between the five of them—they decide to pool their money to purchase it. Can one dress forever connect five women who live together only a short time before taking their own journeys to love and whatever comes happily ever after?”

Series: No, it is a stand-alone.

Spiritual Content- All the girls are different forms of Christians (like: Betty is Catholic, Evelyn is Methodist, The sisters are Lutheran (and their family to a professor at a Lutheran Bible College; Inga says that she’s not keen on religion, though), etc.); Prayers & talks about it; Mentions of God & Him directing our paths; ‘H’s are not capital when referring to God; A few Scriptures are quoted and mentioned; A few mentions of those in the Bible; Talking to a nun; Mentions of going to Mass and Church; Two mentions of how Jesus came into the world (a virgin birth); A dream about Heaven.

*Note: Harlan says a quote by Karl Marx (which is basically it’s foolish to have a religion; he is not a Christian by any means and is most likely an Atheist.)

Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘blimey’, a ‘bloody’, two forms of ‘dumb’, three ‘stupid’s and four ‘gosh’s; Mentions of clubs, bars, pubs, drinking, cocktails, wine & drunks; Mentions of smoking, cigarettes, & tobacco; Mentions of drugs and opium.

Sexual Content- a almost kiss, four not-detailed kisses;eleven barely-above-not-detailed kisses, three boarder-line barely-above-not-detailed // semi-detailed kisses, seven semi-detailed kisses, six detailed kisses; Many nose kisses, two hand kisses and nine cheek kisses; Wanting to kiss; Watching another couple kiss (semi-detailed); Noticing; Touches, Embraces, Shivers, & Nuzzling (semi-detailed); Many mentions of kisses, intimate moments, boyfriends, and dates (up to semi-detailed): Mentions of sharing beds and sleeping around; a ‘vixen’, two ‘harlot’, two ‘baby’s, two ‘bimbo’s, two ‘sexy’s; Mentions of flirting; 3 mentions of a honeymoon; Mentions of unwed mothers; A mention of guys following a girl’s caboose; Mentions of chastity, wanting to have passion and the marriage bed; (Also: “One thing my mama and daddy taught me is that a man isn’t going to buy a cow when the milk comes to the door every morning for free.”) Trying to sashay; A cocky guy proposes; Betty call George a womanizer (which he is); When Frank wants to take Inga to his room she says she won’t go into a man’s apartment alone; Inga plays with fire *Spoiler* When her and Frank are alone on a mountain he says “I want to love you” and when she almost says yes, her mother’s word come to mind about being chaste. She tells him to take her home; A little later, when she’s afraid that Frank is with (read: sleeping) when other girls, she decides that she won’t lose him and does it with him. (This is told in her POV a few days later, the reader does not read it as it’s happening). She recalls the morning after and being disappointed when Frank treats it casually, as if nothing happened. Retta tells her the she’s wasn’t his first and won’t be his last. (That was Inga’s first time though). Inga says she “acted like Ava Gardner, sultry and sexy, throwing herself at a playboy…”. She ends up pregnant with his child (mentions of a cycle, being and sleeping with someone), when she confronts him about it, he says they can live together but won’t be married (she turns him down.). Later, her father arranges a marriage between Inga and a man two years younger, they (Inga and Axel) agree that it’ll be a marriage in name only.; Harlan wants Magda to spend the week with him (alone) at his cabin, she turns him down and walks away. *End of Spoiler*; Magda is afraid that a married man wants to have dinner so she leaves when he’s not looking *Spoiler* (turns out his wife died a few years ago) *End of Spoiler*; Love falling in love, & the emotions (times 5!)

*Note: Two mentions of puberty; Mentions of leggy girls and tight clothes; Mentions of underthings and lingerie (from girls, not guys).

-Joan Hunt

-Evelyn Alexander

-Betty Estes

-Inga Christenson

-Magda Christenson
P.O.V. switches between them.

Set in 1951-1956 {Prologue & Epilogue is in Julie’s POV and set in 2015}
453 pages

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Pre Teens-

New Teens-

Early High School Teens-

Older High School Teens-

My personal Rating-

Oh. I was so wanting to like this book, really, I had high hopes for it. *sigh* At the beginning it completely pulled me it, it was written so beautiful and elegant. And then you get 75 pages in and the major romance emotions come in—between five girls. So, yes, there’s a lot of love, the emotions and kissing. Truly, it’s a great plot and I wish it could have been cleaner so I could rate it higher, but it just wasn’t. :(

No, this book wasn’t as sexual as another book I reviewed a few weeks ago, it’s cleaner than that one star, but to hold “Five Brides” up to the Philippians 4:8 standard…it fails to be clean for teens. ~~(I can hear the haters now…)~~ Joan was truly the only girl I liked out of the main five (Evelyn was naïve, Inga was a twit (as my British Nana would say), Magda was…interesting and Betty was decent). This author has a good writing style, it’s very flowy and sweet but I do think that this book was dragged out just a bit too long—450 pages and six years. It might have been better if this was a series with each girl having her own (smaller) book instead of one large book with many POVs. Personally, I think this book would have been better set in the 1920s because of the Sexual Content. (Not that this stuff didn’t happen in the 50s, mind you, I just wasn’t expecting this kind of content in a 50s novel from what I would expect from a book set in the 20s).

Will I try this author’s books again? Maybe. But I will be cautious if I do so.

This was a great plot with a beautiful cover but in the details it was just too sexual.

See y’all on Friday with a new (much better!) review!