The Bride's Farewell by Meg Rosoff

5 stars -- I love it.

If you haven't read any Meg Rosoff, I really recommend you do. She's a brilliant writer, and the breadth of topics her books cover is fairly wide. I've read What I Was (I rated it 4 stars), How I Live Now (5 stars), and Just In Case (which got 3 stars from me). Obviously my favorite was How I Live Now, but I didn't dislike any of them.

The Bride's Farewell is another wonderful book that I hope Rosoff is proud to have written. The story is just beautiful and Pell is such a wonderful character, and the way everyone's story is interwoven is played so well.

The story begins with Pell running away from her home on her wedding day. Set in England in the mid-1800s, Pell doesn't live in a world where it's wise for a young girl to be on her own nor is it considered normal to desire to be single.

Planning to take only her horse, Jack, and minimal supplies, Pell also ends up taking her adopted younger brother, Bean, a mute. Together they travel to a horse farm where Pell is sure she can find work with horses, as she is a horse whisperer and even more skilled than her now-ex-fiance, Birdie, a farrier.

Sure that Birdie will now marry her younger sister Nell, Pell has no regrets about leaving... until Bean disappears with Jack, presumably stolen by the man who hired Pell's services at the horse fair and disappeared without paying.

The rest of the book details Pell's search for Bean and Jack, as she's sure they're in danger and unhappy without her. She meets many people who come to care for her, including the ultimately imporant Dogman, who all help her in her search (in some way or another).

I don't want to give too much away, because I really feel like Rosoff tells it well enough that you should read it from her. It's a beautiful story, but it's realistic enough as well. Not everyone ends up happy, and Meg certainly portrays some of the hardships that occurred in the 1800s, to be honest, but Pell does, and since she's our main character, I feel happy enough with the ending.

So go out and get a Meg Rosoff book. They're well worth the emotions they can bring to the forefront. Rosoff's books are a joy to read.