The Sheepish Scribe

The Marshal's Promise by Rhonda Gibson
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I really wanted to like this book because the premise is good, the conflict is good, it should have been a good story. Instead the writing is flat, the characters are flat, the dialog was modern, and the facts are... not well researched. Does Love Inspired have an editor anymore?

For instance, the struggling town seamstress has 2 sewing machines in New Mexico Territory in 1885. Household sewing machines were not marketed in the U.S. 1889. They certainly weren't available in the territories before then. Even one would not have been in the budget of a struggling town seamstress. I only made it about 40 pages in. One of the few books I won't finish.

It has been pointed out - nicely - to me that some home sewing machines may have been out west during this time frame. My sources were admittedly old, so I did a very quick Internet search. If they were out there, they would have been very expensive so a struggling seamstress owning a pair is still exceedingly unlikely - but technically possible.