Book picks similar to
Gideon's Secondhand Bride by Kristin Holt


western
mail-order-bride
romance
historical-romance

Liberty Hill


Sonja Heisinger - 2013
    But in New York City, two young Irish immigrants are fleeing something else. For Evelyn Brennan, an impending marriage she doesn’t want. For Lucius Flynn, the burden of a life in business and trade under his tyrannical father. Brash and adventurous, Lucius decides the only way to be free of his doomed future as a bored tradesman is to risk everything on the burgeoning and dangerous gold fields of California. However, that “everything” that he plans on risking is in fact the dowry of his headstrong bride, Evelyn. The truth that they were once childhood friends is something Evelyn sorely tries to forget as her new husband drags her along the quickest but deadliest path to the California gold rush: the Panama Route. Under the pretense of honeymooning in New Orleans, Lucius and Evelyn board a steamship bound for California, where they bear each other’s company with little grace and frequent bickering. Evelyn’s contempt for Lucius’ adventure is soothed, however, when she meets an Australian named Brock Donnigan. Sharp, handsome, and heartless, Brock sets out to seduce Evelyn just as Lucius finds himself falling in love with her. Through their adventures and misadventures over land and sea, the two men try to win Evelyn’s affections. But as they draw nearer to Panama City, where a mass migration of Argonauts lies in wait for transportation to California, a battle of wits and wills escalates into a war where all fortunes, dreams, and innocence may be lost; where lust demands blood, and love inspires sacrifice.From the black cliffs of Ireland to the streets of New York, from the Spanish fortress of Havana to the beaches of Panama, Liberty Hill is a sweeping historical romance that combines what we love most about the West- guns, saloons, horses, and handsome outlaws- with the tropic heat of Central America.The first young adult fiction in her Western Tide series, Sonja Heisinger molds a fresh and epic literary experience from an old world setting. Liberty Hill awakens the past with the exciting elements of drama, comedy, and action, with the additional zests of forbidden pleasure and unrequited love. This adventure book takes you on a wild journey that anyone looking for an exciting historical fiction will love!

The School Mistress


Tess Thompson - 2020
    Her widowed mother and baby sister are depending upon her for their survival back home in Boston. And the self-appointed mayor of the rugged mountain community is counting on Miss Cooper to prove herself a fitful teacher for the young and old alike. Lord Alexander Barnes is determined to bring a bit of English civility to the wild terrain of Emerson Pass. Using his own resources, the widower and father of five builds a schoolhouse and recruits a young teacher from the east to provide an education for both the adults and the children in his rapidly growing mining town. But when the lovely, and much younger than anticipated, Miss Cooper arrives to town, Lord Barnes finds himself providing more than just employment when the boarding house proves to be an unsafe accommodation for the school mistress. As Miss Cooper takes a room in the Barnes' home, the five Barnes children are delighted. They are sure Miss Cooper is the perfect woman for their lonely father. But when a friend of the Englishman turns up dead, the hope for progress in the untamed town seems immediately lost. Can Miss Cooper and Lord Barnes bring change to the closed-minded locals? And will their endeavor open their hearts to something more? The first installment of USA Today bestselling author Tess Thompson's historical romance series brings a touch of whimsy and an extra dash of mystery to Edwardian romance. Readers will fall in love with the courageous Miss Cooper and swoon for the magnanimous English Lord as they struggle to save their exciting new world at the turn of the 20th Century.

Wild Wild Widow


Emma Jay - 2011
    She and her husband delighted in shocking San Francisco society with their sexual exploits, not hard to do in 1888. But now her husband is dead. He left her penniless, forced to live under her wealthy father’s thumb. While searching for a protector, she once again becomes the focus of society gossip, and her father exiles her to her brother’s ranch in Central California.Rebecca is miserable, until she meets the very handsome, very virile ranch foreman Judah Merrill. A real cowboy. Though she’s aware of their differences in status, she pursues him with a single-mindedness, until he catches her in the creek (and in the barn and on horseback). But what happens when she falls in love with him? Will he accept her wild wild heart?

A Lady of Esteem


Kristi Ann Hunter - 2015
    Quite by happenstance, she's introduced to the Hawthorne family and their close family friend, Anthony, the reformed marquis of Raeburn. They welcome her into their world, but just as she's beginning to gain some confidence and even suspect she may have caught Anthony's eye, she's blindsided by an unexpected twist in her situation accompanied by nasty rumors. Will she lose her reputation when the world that has only just accepted her turns its back on her, or will she rest in the support of the friends who've become like family and the man who's shared his faith and captured her heart?A Lady of Esteem is an e-only novella that gives an exciting introduction to Kristi Ann Hunter's new Regency romance series about the aristocratic Hawthorne family! Includes an extended excerpt of Kristi's debut full-length novel, A Noble Masquerade.

Tennessee Waltz


Trana Mae Simmons - 1997
     Arriving at Sawback Mountain, Sarah meets Wyn, Mairi's handsome older cousin, and finds herself wishing for something she doesn't have: a glimmer of beauty. Wyn had his fill of beautiful city-bred women during his time in Washington, DC, as a senator's aide. Yet he's impressed by Sarah, working hard to gain the love and respect of the mountain folks. But Sarah is making mistake after mistake as she tries to use her money and influence to improve the lives of the children. Perhaps the proud mountain folk are right: a cultured socialite, even one without beauty, has no place on their mountain or in the heart of a mountain man who's vowed to never again leave the life he loves. REVIEWS: "The mountain community... comes alive under Trana Mae Simmons' artful pen. Her romance charms." ~Gerry Benninger, Romantic Times "...a refreshing, fun-to-read American historical romance. This reviewer will gladly waltz to more tales by Ms. Simmons." ~Harriet Klausner THE HOMESPUN HEARTS SERIES, in order Tennessee Waltz Town Social Winter Dreams MEET TRANA MAE SIMMONS Trana Mae Simmons lives in East Texas with her family and pets in a haunted house. When not writing romance, she loves to travel, exploring off-the-beaten paths. And when a ghost happens by, it delights her immensely. Learn more about Trana at www.tranamaesimmons.com

Seduced by a Pirate


Eloisa James - 2012
    What happens when a pirate decides to come home to his wife — if she is his wife — given that the marriage was never consummated? And what happens when that pirate strolls through his front door and is met by... well, that's a surprise!

Mail Order Bride Leah


Rose Jenster - 2015
    Her father lost his business and Leah did not want to spend the rest of her life living with her protective brother. She begins to correspond with a man from Montana who ran an ad for a mail order bride. Could she have found someone who also loves literature and shares so many of her interests? How does Leah handle her brother's negative reactions to the correspondence that now was the focus and light of her life? Can she leave the desperate situation in New York and find that joy that her heart dreams? Or is she destined to live a life without fulfillment? Will Leah find happiness in Montana? What secrets does her love keep to himself that makes him so hard to reach and read? Can Leah help Henry open up his heart? This is a stand-alone story without a cliffhanger and a clean romance.

Mountain Wild


Judith Bronte - 2012
    In the process of saving the daughter of an immigrant from raiding Blackfoot Indians, Josiah decides to take the white woman as his wife. Hardened by the wilderness and his own past, the trapper wrestles against change and the gentle ways of a woman who threatens to tame his heart.Through circumstances beyond her control, Emma Perkins suddenly finds herself the wife of a wild and leathery mountain man. His rough and tumble temperament go against her upbringing, and Emma struggles to keep her faith and survive in a land where the animals, and the people, are mountain wild.This historical romance can be found at the author's website as a free read. All scripture references are from the KJV (King James Version).Word count: 235,534*** Includes a bonus "Behind the Scenes" look at each chapter ***About the AuthorJudith Bronte has been writing inspirational romance since 1998. Her novels can be found at her website, where she publishes a newly written chapter for her online work in progress on the 15th of every month. With over a million words of free romantic fiction on the Internet, she's read monthly by thousands of returning readers.Love stories have long been Judith's passion. She loves to capture the dynamics of a romantic relationship, and the challenge of bringing two people together from different backgrounds and finding a way to make that relationship work. Her style often follows the characters even after they marry, so readers get to see how their relationship works after the I-do's. There's always lots of dialogue, as Judith loves to bring the drama home to the reader, through the characters, themselves.