Title: Bridges
Author: Linda Griffin
Genre: Sweet Vintage Romance, Historical Sweet Romance
Book Blurb:
In 1963, Neil Vincent, a middle-aged World War II veteran and "Christian atheist," is working at Westfield Court as a chauffeur. He spends most of his spare time reading. Mary Claire DeWinter is a young, blind, Catholic college student and reluctant heiress. To secure her inheritance, she has to marry within a year, and her aunt is pressuring her to marry a rich man who teased and bullied her when she was a child. Neil and Mary Claire shouldn't even be friends, but the gulf between them is bridged by a shared love of books. Can they cross the bridge to more?
My Review:
A young, blind heiress in need of a husband crosses the societal class ocean to befriend her aunt’s chauffeur, hopeful of something more. From the moment Mary Claire met her aunt’s chauffeur, Neil, she likes him. He treats her like a regular person, not like an invalid or something. She could always tell a good person from a bad person by how they treated her and her blindness. When her uncle dies, she suddenly becomes an heiress, but there’s a catch. She must marry within a year. Her aunt keeps pressuring her to marry a wealthy man who bullied her in school. Companionship, that’s what she wants. The one man who’s always treated her with respect and as an equal is Neil. They have a love of reading in common and they could take care of one another. He balks at their difference in station, but she doesn’t care about things like that. Can she convince him to cross over to her way of thinking or will she have to marry that mean-spirited man her aunt has chosen?
Bridges is a heartwarming vintage romance taking place in the 1960s I thoroughly enjoyed. Before I started reading, Bridges intrigued me. The hero is a ‘Christian atheist’, a term I never heard before. Linda Griffin took great care in crafting Neil, the hero, and his belief system. It makes sense the whole story is from Neil’s POV. As I read, I grew to understand his beliefs and how they shaped him. The heroine, on the other hand, is Catholic. They talk at great length about religion and beliefs in Bridges but it’s not overbearing or preachy. It’s a friendly discussion on beliefs that fit right into the story. The plot moved at a nice slow pace. There’s a certain cadence to this story and it unfolded naturally, like classic literature. The romance was slow-burn and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. If someone were to ask me for a comp for Bridges, I’d say it’s Driving Miss Daisy meets Christy by Catherine Marshall. If you like romantic fiction or classic romance, you’ll want to read Bridges. If you enjoy vintage romance with a classic vibe, pick up Bridges. Brilliantly written, this is one of the best books I’ve read this year. Highly recommend!
My Rating: 5+ stars
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Author Biography:
I was born and raised in San Diego, California and earned a BA in English from San Diego State University and an MLS from UCLA. I retired from a position as fiction librarian for the San Diego Public Library to spend more time on my writing. In addition to the three R’s—reading, writing, and research—I enjoy Scrabble, movies, and travel.
My earliest ambition was to be a “book maker” and I wrote my first story, “Judy and the Fairies,” with a plot stolen from a comic book, at the age of six. I broke into print in college with a story in the San Diego State University literary journal, The Phoenix, but most of my magazine publications came after I left the library. My stories have been published in numerous literary journals, including Eclectica, The Binnacle, Orbis, and The Nassau Review. Four romantic suspense novels are available for order from the Wild Rose Press.
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Reviewed by: Mrs. N