Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Patchwork Bride
    The Patchwork Bride
    The Patchwork Bride
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Patchwork Bride

    Written by Sandra Dallas

    Narrated by Barbara McCulloh

    3.5/5

    ()

    Switch to ebook

    About this audiobook

    From the bestselling author of A Quilt for Christmas comes the irrepressible story of one woman's quest to find love without losing herself in the American West. Ellen is putting the finishing touches on her granddaughter June's wedding quilt-made from scraps of old dresses, both remembered and forgotten-when June breaks off her engagement and seeks sanctuary at her grandparents' ranch. June's fiance is set to go off to fight in Korea as soon as they're married, but the young bride doesn't think she can go through with it. Ellen has spent the last fifty years on this ranch with her beloved husband, Ben. Theirs has been a wonderful life, the best Ellen could imagine; yet, she cannot accept the fate which is looming all too close. Ben's failing memory and her poor health have made selling their ranch and moving into town an inevitability. Ellen wants just one more winter in front of the fireplace Ben built, the two of them warm under the quilts she's stitched, before they say goodbye. But first, June's uncertain heart needs tending. With the rose-colored New Mexico desert as backdrop, Ellen tells June the story of Nell, a Kansas-born spitfire who ran away from three different weddings before marrying the love of her life. It's a tale filled with excitement, heartbreak, disappointment, self-discovery, and hard-earned life lessons that taught her how a woman can learn to love without giving up who she is and who she wants to become. Ultimately, the story of Nell revels a twist with tremendous significance not only for June as she decides her fate, but also for Ellen, as she embraces hers.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateJun 5, 2018
    ISBN9781501979521
    Author

    Sandra Dallas

    SANDRA DALLAS, dubbed “a quintessential American voice” by Jane Smiley in Vogue Magazine, is the author of over a dozen novels, including Little Souls and Where Coyotes Howl, many translated into a dozen languages and optioned for films. Six-time winner of the Willa Award and four-time winner of the Spur Award, Dallas was a Business Week reporter for 35 years, and began writing fiction in 1990. She has two daughters and lives with her husband in Denver and Georgetown, Colorado.

    More audiobooks from Sandra Dallas

    Related to The Patchwork Bride

    Related audiobooks

    Historical Romance For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Top 10 Books

      Jun 16, 2023

      Top 10 Books
      1 min read

    • Article

      March Fiction

      Feb 15, 2022

      Run Rose Run by Dolly Parton and James Patterson (Century, £20) In 2018 the ever-prolific James Patterson got together with Bill Clinton to write the best-selling The President Is Missing: a novel that combined Clinton’s insider knowledge with Patter

      2 min read

    • Article

      Secret SANTA

      Oct 22, 2020

      Secret SANTA
      4 min read

    • Article

      Summer Reading Guide

      Jan 2, 2022

      Summer Reading Guide
      6 min read

    • Article

      THE BOY WHO KEPT Bees

      Oct 6, 2021

      All you could hear was rain, rain, rain. Rain drumming on the slate roof, streaming down the kitchen window, saturating the meadows and the dark woods beyond. Jess waited until her dad had turned away to check his phone, then dropped her half-eaten s

      8 min read

    • Article

      Out of THE BLUE

      Aug 22, 2023

      Out of THE BLUE
      11 min read

    • Article

      The Stonemason’s Wife

      Sep 1, 2020

      JOLINA HAS been hearing voices of men she’s never met. Voices like water, clear and cold, eddying at the back of her mind. They’re not real. She knows this. As in, she’s not crazy. They’re only the voices she’s heard on the phone, voices of men who b

      6 min read

    • Article

      Make A Stand

      Jan 17, 2024

      Make A Stand
      6 min read

    • Article

      EZRA’S Stories

      Apr 6, 2022

      EZRA’S Stories
      6 min read

    • Article

      It’s Her Day

      Aug 2, 2021

      She’s not naive enough to believe your wedding day is the start of a brand-new life, but she’s going to try like hell to make it that way. I’m getting married today! Jen would scream it to the few people on the street this early, below the hotel balc

      6 min read

    • Article

      He’s leaving HOME

      Aug 3, 2022

      How am I going to get used to this?’ Jenny sighed as her friend Isabel arrived and put down her bags. Jenny felt as if she’d been rattling around the house all morning. Even her eight-year-old Siamese cat Mikita seemed out of sorts and was complaini

      3 min read

    • Article

      Lie Of The LAND

      Aug 2, 2023

      Lie Of The LAND
      8 min read

    • Article

      One Carrot

      Jul 2, 2020

      One Carrot
      5 min read

    • Article

      Happy Families

      Aug 5, 2021

      Happy Families
      7 min read

    • Article

      Old And New FLAMES

      Dec 1, 2020

      Old And New FLAMES
      6 min read

    • Article

      A Strange REQUEST

      Sep 30, 2020

      A Strange REQUEST
      6 min read

    • Article

      Karen’s CHOICE

      Jul 7, 2021

      Karen’s CHOICE
      6 min read

    • Article

      Pants On My pillow

      Oct 26, 2023

      Laying out the picnic blanket in the garden, I basked in the sunshine, taking in the blue, cloudless sky, the hum of bees. And the hunk in trunks sitting in a deckchair just a few feet away… It was June 2021 and Aleks, then 30, had recently rented a

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Glove

      Mar 4, 2024

      The Glove
      8 min read

    • Article

      Summer Beach Reads

      Jan 10, 2021

      Summer Beach Reads
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Scarlet PEBBLE

      Feb 7, 2024

      The Scarlet PEBBLE
      9 min read

    • Article

      An unexpected LESSON

      Mar 9, 2021

      An unexpected LESSON
      6 min read

    • Article

      Keys and TREES

      Mar 31, 2021

      Keys and TREES
      3 min read

    • Article

      Dark DEEDS

      Jan 13, 2021

      Dark DEEDS
      9 min read

    • Article

      Saved By The House MOUSE

      Apr 19, 2023

      Saved By The House MOUSE
      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Patchwork Bride

    3.5/5

    30 ratings9 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Not bad. I think the character or narrator could have been more down to earth without high pitched exclamations
    • 4/5
      This one is just a little gentler than some of the other Sandra Dallas stories I've read (thinking about [The Persian Pickle Club] and [Alice's Tulips] as I write this), but a wonderful read all the same--three runaway bride stories within a larger story and a little plot twist at the end that made me close the book smiling.
    • 2/5
      I really did not enjoy this book. The writing style was overly simplistic - telling and telling and never showing - and the plot ranged from boring to implausible to downright baffling at times. I caught on early to several of the big reveals Ellie is Nell, Ben is Buddy but the biggest of them all Nell has a baby after leaving Buddy just came out of nowhere for me and added very little to the story.

      The only redeeming quality for me was the way each story was tied to a location. Each episode felt well-grounded in time and place, and I particularly enjoyed reading about northern New Mexico.

      I received a copy of this book from Netgalley to read in exchange for an honest review.
    • 4/5
      The Patchwork Bride by Sandra Dallas is a heartfelt historical romance.

      In the present, Ellen is nearing completion on a quilt that she is giving to her granddaughter, June, as a wedding present. However, June is visiting her grandparents' ranch after calling off her upcoming marriage to her fiancé Dave Proctor. As June wonders if she has made the right choice, Ellen seizes the opportunity to tell her the story of Nell, a young woman who journeyed to the New Mexico territory in 1898. Nell also struggled with her marriage choices and Ellen hopes her story will help June as she wrestles with her decision.

      Nell is an independent young woman with very few marriage prospects since she lives on her grandparents' farm in Kansas.  She has grown weary of her teaching career and she quickly seizes the chance to join her Aunt Lucy on the ranch in New Mexico Territory where she works. Not long after her arrival, Nell meets Buddy, a handsome young cowboy that quickly steals her heart. Their romance is a bit of a rocky one since both are incredibly stubborn and after one particularly heartbreaking argument, Nell leaves the ranch to return to Kansas.

      A year later, Nell is still looking to settle down so she travels to Colorado where she hopes to find the man of her dreams. Working as a waitress, she meets James Hamilton, a traveling salesman whom she gradually falls for. With their wedding date within reach, an unexpected discovery sends Nell once again fleeing back to Kansas.

      Nell's third engagement is to a much older gentleman in Kansas City. He is a gentle soul and although she is not in love with him, she decides that friendship might be a better basis for marriage.  But alas, their nuptials are not to be although the reason for this break up are not revealed until very late in the story.

      Throughout her recounting of Nell's heartache, Ellen is faced with some difficult choices as the love of her life, Ben, continues to decline due to his worsening dementia. She is also dealing with some health issues of her own but Ellen is very reluctant to leave the ranch they so dearly love.

      Then there is June's dilemma about what to do about her own future. She left Dave without telling him why she is uncertain about marrying him.  Is there any chance the couple can work through their differences? Or will June's life continue to follow the same unhappy path as Nell's?

      The Patchwork Bride  is a captivating novel with wonderful settings and a cast of fantastic characters. Nell is certainly a sympathetic character whose search for a soulmate will resonate with readers. Sandra Dallas brings the novel to a heartwarming conclusion that will delight fans of wholesome, homespun romances.
    • 3/5
      As June's wedding approaches, she becomes more and more uncertain of her future. Trying to escape, she runs away to her grandparents house, into the arms of her Grandmother Ellen. Ellen tells June the story of Nell, a woman who ran away from the alter three times and the doubts and fears that Nell had.I found the stories about Nell way more interesting than the present day saga with June. I think the book would have been much better if the author skipped the present day entirely. Despite this, it was well written and engaging. 3 out of 5 stars.
    • 4/5
      I always love Ms. Dallas' novels and this is no exception. Ellen shares the story of a woman who left an engagement three times as consolation to her granddaughter who has cold feet about her upcoming marriage. Most of the novel is taken up with the story of Nell and her adventures in the pursuit of a husband. The frame story is the weakest part of the novel and the conflict introduced is too easily resolved. But the story of Nell and her adventures is filled with interesting characters and real heart and there is a twist in the end. Mentions of the Persian Pickle Club.
    • 4/5
      THE PATCHWORK BRIDE by Sandra DallasDallas writes characters especially well. They live and breathe as naturally as you and I. In this book , a modern young woman is a runaway bride, unsure of her love and commitment. The woman she runs to tells her the story of a turn of the century runaway bride – one who runs three times! This story within a story is the “real” story of this book. The tension grows as the young woman falls in love (or like) and then is disillusioned each time. We watch her character change while she grows in maturity as heartache after heartache consumes her. Each time she (and we) learn a bit more about her character, her needs, the time she lives in and the men she chooses, or who choose her. The modern runaway learns as well. The middle of the book drags a bit, but stick with the story. There is a surprising twist near the end. The opportunities open to women and the strictures they live under are presented with sympathy for the characters, the place and the time.This is not Dallas’s best, but it is a satisfying read. You will be glad you stuck with it.4 of 5 stars
    • 3/5
      2.5 Very much a book of time and place, a lighter, quiet read. Stories within a story as a grandmother tells her granddaughter of times past. Times when women had little choice but to marry, a journey of the heart spanning over fifty years. I have liked this authors books in the past, but this one wasn't as commandeering of my attention as some of her others. Interesting enough not to decide to put it down, but one that did not call to me either. The prose sometimes seemed too simplistic, and the tone seldom varied, with the end result of seeming flat. Although there were highs and lows in the story itself, reading I seldom felt them. So I finished thinking this was just a nice story, but not much else. Still, for a lighter read it served its purpose. ARC from Netgalley
    • 3/5
      A light-hearted, fun read with a life lesson.June has run away from an impending wedding and headed to the ranch she loved a child. To take a deep breath, clear her mind and ask advice. However her grandparents are going through problems of their own! In sorting out and finding answers to ALL their worries, Ellen/ Nellie relates her story of being a runaway bride 3 times over. What we learn to expect from love, what we learn to simply accept, what we hope for, and most importantly, when we know what is right. What fits.