Love in the Balance by Regina Jennings

Love in the Balance tells the story of Molly Lovelace and Bailey Garner, characters introduced in Regina Jennings' first novel, Sixty Acres and a Bride. Although they love each other, Bailey's financial future doesn't match the expectations of Molly's parents, or the life Molly wants to lead. He moves to a nearby town and tries his hand at any job that comes along, hoping to find a good fit that will enable him to provide for Molly.
Molly, meanwhile, has problems of her own. To stall her parents from forcing her to marry a wealthy local banker, Molly pretends interest in a wealthy stranger from New York, Edward. He lavishes presents on her and mentions wanting to take her around the world. After a disagreement and family trial, Molly sends Bailey an ultimatum: come for me tomorrow or else. When Bailey, who doesn't receive the message in time, fails to appear, Molly gets on the train with Edward, half delirious with the flu.
In haste, Edward is forced to marry Molly on the train and, although she dreams of Bailey, she decides he never loved her and she must learn to be content with the choices she made. However, her happily ever after is far in the distance. She is forced to return home in disgrace when her husband abandons her in Wyoming, leaving a note only saying she shouldn't wait for him but he will try to come back to Texas someday.
That's about the halfway mark of the book. I must admit, I struggled to get through some sections. For the first half, Molly is a very difficult heroine to like. Her decision making and selfish attitudes made me feel like she got what she had coming. Also the character development wasn't well defined or fully realized until the major crises in the last half of the story. I felt like I didn't understand the characters or their motivations for behaving certain ways. For instance, Edward is still a mystery to me on so many levels. For being a main character in the book, he didn't seem very developed to me. Also, there were times when a character seemed to change their mind or attitude at the drop of a hat, almost like a page was missing from the book. I had many question marks about motivations, and why certain things were handled as they were but I had to wait about 150 pages to find out.
The second half of the book seems much more connected and flows better. Molly and Bailey are more fully drawn and described so you can understanding what is driving them and causing them to react how they do. There are several storylines/incidents that all come to a head at once but it makes sense and keeps the action flowing.
The author has a good way with descriptions and a creative use of words. Some of the dialogue seemed a little stilted but the action moved along well and kept me interested enough to keep turning pages.
All in all, this is a good read about mistakes having consequences and the power of forgiveness, from others and from God.