Book picks similar to
Kentucky Bride by Norah Hess


romance
historical-romance
historical
western

Paper Husband (Mills & Boon Short Stories)


Diana Palmer - 2013
    Where is it written that a rancher’s daughter has to marry a long, tall Texan—or lose the ranch that’s her home? In Dana Mobry’s father’s will! And Dana has just discovered that her partner in this marriage of convenience is none other than the sexiest cowboy in Texas—Hank Grant!

In Your Arms


S.L. Sterling - 2019
    I didn't plan to take a trip down memory lane on the eve of our anniversary. But taking this trip down memory lane leaves me in tears, sharing a story of deceit, lies, ...and misunderstandings. The man I gave my heart to ten years ago is being ripped away. CarterWe lost each other over the past decade.That’s why I'd tried to push off this trip until after our anniversary. As usual, my career took precedence over what was important... US. Yet, the last thing I expect when the plane lands is a call saying that my wife thinks I’m having an affair. I almost lost her once and promised that would never happen again. Now I'm headed home to claim what's mine before someone else does.

Separate Beds


LaVyrle Spencer - 1985
    It seemed like a page out of a fairy tale. But everything about it–from the formal vows to the magnificent reception–was a lie, Catherine had reluctantly agreed to Clay's "marriage of convenience"...and the only thing that could threaten their arrangement was the unexpected arrival of love.

Blackmail


Penny Jordan - 1982
    Hopelessly because his spurned lover vowed to have him back. Hopelessly because Gilles felt nothing for her.

Passage West


Ruth Ryan Langan - 1988
    With her sister and hard-drinking father in tow, she needed all her strength for the long trek westward. But Abby could hold her own with any man, until she met a rugged gunman named Rourke...a man who roused the unspoken yearnings of her passionate soul.Rourke was a battle-scarred Union veteran, hired to guard the wagon train. A loner by choice and by fate, his heart was moved by Abby's plight--though the young beauty proudly refused his aid. Yet with the wagons rolling on through dusty plains and treacherous deserts, a tenderness bloomed between them as he taught her how to survive in a brutal land. Mile by mile, she grew to adore this magnificent man, and when he touched her she longed to be his alone. But as she tasted rapture's first, wild depths, she faced a bitter secret from the gunman's violent past. With Rourke in mortal danger, they would challenge destiny itself--to save the love and happiness they discovered on a perilous...Passage West...

Sing My Name


Ellen O'Connell - 2010
    Matt Slade is the orphaned son of hardscrabble Texas settlers. Sarah knows about every Civil War battle from studying newspaper accounts. Matt fought in the bloodiest of them under Generals Longstreet and Lee. If Matt and Sarah ever crossed paths, it should have been for an unremarkable moment. He would tip his hat. She would nod and pass on by. Except that as survivors of a Comanche attack, Matt and Sarah spend far more than a moment together. They come to know each other, depend on each other and love each other. Humiliated by Sarah's love for "Rebel trash," her jilted fiance extracts a revenge so vicious, he boasts that he destroyed the young lovers. Did he? Or when Matt and Sarah meet again years later, can they put their lives and their love back together?

The Devil's Love


Julia London - 1998
    She believes her betrothed is a generous and noble man who has been longing for her. But the handsome man waiting for her at the altar is a dark, brooding stranger who rushes her into marriage, then abandons her at his country estate. Only the passion of Michael's kiss gives her hope that theirs can be more than a marriage of convenience. A man's need... With scandal shadowing his past, Michael, the Devil of Darfield, had no need for a wife. Remembering only the little hellion who made life miserable for him aboard her father's ship, he resents the agreement he made to marry her so he could save his ancestral home. Though determined to ignore her, he cannot stop thinking about his lovely violet-eyed bride. Her beauty tempts him. Her charm bedevils him. He tries to drive her away until he almost loses her. Then he vows to regain her love—before it is too late....

Love Me with Fury


Cara Miles - 1991
    But even more frightening was Jess Wilder, the dangerous bounty hunter who pulled her from the wreckage and took her prisoner. She didn't understand why he called her by another woman's name, but when she met his fiery gaze, she vowed she'd do anything to escape her arrogant captor.

All That Glisters


C.J. Fallowfield - 2016
    A spin-off to The Temptress. Hunter Donovan. He was everything I openly loathed, but everything I secretly desired.Cocky, arrogant, and crude. When Hunter wanted something, he pursued, relentlessly, until he got it. And right now, I was his prey. The trouble was, I didn’t want to be added to his endless list of conquests.Gorgeous, masculine, with a body made for sin. The most perfect specimen of male I’d ever set eyes on, and he knew it. The trouble was, I saw the pain he was trying to hide, and I wanted to heal him.He wanted my body, but I wanted his heart.Coco Barella. She was everything I openly desired, but everything I’d convinced myself I didn’t need.Beautiful, sexy, and sassy, all of the qualities that I wanted in my bed.Compassionate, loving, and perfect, all of the qualities that I didn’t need in my life.I needed to pull her to me, but at the same time I wanted to push her away.When the sexual magnetism between two people is so hot, it can scorch everything around it to ash, who will emerge from the flames victorious?All That Glisters is a standalone novel, a spin off to my best-selling humorous erotic romance novel, The Temptress. It features the supporting characters of Coco, Dom and Hunter. You don't need to have read The Temptress to enjoy this novel.All That Glisters was previously released with a different cover image

Duncan's Bride


Linda Howard - 1990
    Someone to have children with, someone to help rebuild his ranch, someone uncomplicated, and very different from his first wife, the woman who'd destroyed his life. Now he had Madelyn--sophisticated, citified, willing to herd cattle, keep house and start a family. The only thing she asked for in return was love--one thing Reese couldn't guarantee.

Bride of the Lion


Elizabeth Stuart - 1995
    But nothing could defend her from the brooding magnificence of the invader who quickened her wild Welsh blood and stole her tender soul.Robert de LangleyFaull of arrogance and outlaw vigor, the fabled Lion of Normandy would hold his old enemy's daughter hostage for his plundered lands - until he decreed that he must keep them both.Tossed between vengeance and lingering desire, war made them enemies, and passion possessed them.

His Convenient Wife


Ruth Ann Nordin - 2014
    Instead, his focus has always been on her twin sister. So when Stan proposes to Harriett, she knows it’s only because he needs a mother for the little girl he recently adopted. And while her first reaction is to turn him down, she can’t bring herself to turn her back on an innocent child who needs her. So it is with reluctance she agrees to marry him. But only on one condition. Theirs will never be anything more than a marriage of convenience. She will not be vulnerable to him ever again. But as soon as Stan marries her, he regrets the deal he made. She’s not the wallflower he thought her to be. In fact, she’s much more appealing than her sister. The problem is, how can he convince her of that so they can turn their marriage of convenience into something much more?

Above The Surface


Serena Akeroyd - 2020
    

The Unexpected Bride


Lena Goldfinch - 2014
    Her childhood sweetheart taught her to ride bareback and shoot a rifle, but then he chose a “perfect lady” for a wife—a real Southern belle, who’s now expecting a baby. Heartbroken, Becky signs up to be a mail-order bride to a Seattle man, sight unseen. She resolves to squelch her hoydenish ways and become a “perfect lady” for her future husband.If logging-operation owner Isaac Jessup had wanted a bride, he’d have chosen a sturdy frontier woman, not some fragile lady from back East. Ready to explain the mistake, honorable Isaac takes one look into Rebecca’s vulnerable eyes...and knows he’ll marry her, even though this delicate waif is obviously unsuited for wild Seattle.Can an unexpected marriage ever be a match made in heaven?Book One in The Brides SeriesSweet Historical Western Romance / A Mail-Order Bride Novel***Excerpt***The lean-to was chilly and not for the first time, Isaac considered boarding it up proper and calling it a barn. He sat on the stool and began milking the goat, all the while mentally preparing for the worship service they planned to go to later that morning. The Scriptures he’d read first thing that morning were fresh in his mind, and his prayers kept returning to the problem of Rebecca. One inner voice urged him to send her back home, but another voice spoke of commitment. He’d said vows before God to love and keep her till death do them part. Those weren’t words he was willing to dismiss lightly.“What’s her name?” His wife’s voice was suddenly in his ear, quite close.Isaac jumped. The goat bleated at him.“Sorry, girl.” He patted her side and resumed milking her with slow, careful hands. He glanced over his shoulder toward the subject of his thoughts.Rebecca stood watching him, leaning over the rail and peering in at them with curious eyes. He was surprised to see her out this early. She usually left him to his morning chores, and most times he’d get back inside the cabin and find her already up preparing breakfast.“What’s her name?” she repeated.“Name? The goat?” He looked at the goat dumbly. It was a goat. He’d never gotten much further than that. She gave them a daily supply of milk, but other than that she was generally a nuisance. She liked to butt down the stall door. And whenever she got loose, she’d eat what few vegetables he was able to grow in the summer. She also liked to nip at his shirts and underthings when he hung them out on the line—if he was lucky. Most times she’d tug the whole line down and drag it through the mud.“Yes, the goat,” Rebecca said, a pleasant-sounding smile in her voice. “Don’t tell me she hasn’t got a name?”There was something nice about hearing a woman’s voice in the morning. It reminded him a little of when he was young, and his mother had chatted with him in soft tones while they ate breakfast. As if speaking too loud would jar them too quickly out of whatever dreams they’d had the night before.Rebecca’s soft voice put him much in mind of those times.“All right. I won’t.” Isaac focused on his milking.“She doesn’t have a name?” Rebecca pressed. “How can you have an animal that doesn’t have a name?”“Never gave it much thought. She’s good for milk, but other than that she’s nothing but trouble, always munching on the laundry.”“Well, then I think your choice is clear. Either you call her Milky or you call her Trouble.” Her teasing tone brought a reluctant smile to his lips.“Well, then, if I have to choose, then I guess she’s Trouble.” The real Trouble was standing behind him, her elbow propped against the top of the rail, her chin cupped in one dainty hand.***

Only Work, No Play


Cora Reilly - 2019
    Leaving the States and following her sister to Australia to work as the personal assistant of rugby star Xavier – The Beast – Stevens seems like the right kind of distraction. Tall, muscled and devilishly handsome, Xavier is the lov’ em and leav’ em kind of guy. He never forgets a girl’s name because he never bothers to remember it in the first place. Evie soon realizes that being Xavier’s assistant is a 24/7 job; the man seems unwilling to even set an alarm for himself. As she watches him move from one woman to the next, Evie is glad that her heart is safe from his attention. After all, she’s a far cry from the size zero models he usually takes to his bed. But soon being around Xavier doesn’t feel like a job, and seeing him walk around his apartment half naked all the time isn’t helping either. Evie knows that giving in to her attraction will lead to heartbreak, but when Xavier starts treating her as more than just his assistant, resisting his charms seems like an impossible task.