Book picks similar to
The Unexpected Wife by Mary Burton
historical-romance
western
mail-order-bride
romance
Adelaide
Callie Hutton - 2016
Adelaide Markham is one of four female prisoners sitting in Dodge City Jail. The sheriff offers them a choice. Either sit in jail until the circuit judge sobers up enough to hear their cases, or get on the wagon train traveling to Santa Fe as mail order brides. A recent widow who just lost her child, Adelaide prefers marriage to jail, but wants no part of motherhood. The pain is too great. Miles Ryan has been threatened by the wagon train master that he and his two recalcitrant daughters will be left behind at Fort Dodge if he doesn’t find a wife to control the girls. Miles takes one look at Adelaide and decides she’s for him. Unfortunately, it’s not until the deed is done that she learns she is a mother once again.
Sunset Embrace
Sandra Brown - 1985
Two passionate travelers, united by need, threatened by pasts they could not outrun ...Lydia Bryant --- voluptuous and russet-haired, fleeing from a secret shame, vowing that never again would a man, any man, overpower her ...Ross Coleman --- dark, brooding and iron-willed, with the shadow of a lawless past in his piercing eyes, sworn to resist the temptation of his wanton longings ...Fate threw them together on the same wild road, where they fought the breathtaking desire blazing between them, while the shadows of their enemies grew longer. As the wagon train rolled west, the danger to them drew ever closer, until a showdown with their pursuers was inevitable. Before it was over, Lydia and Ross would face death ... the truth about each other ... and the astonishing strength of their love ...
A Husband for Margaret
Ruth Ann Nordin - 2010
This light-hearted tender romance is the sequel to A Bride for Tom.
The Last Renegade
Jo Goodman - 2012
With all of the good men dying at the hands of a local rancher and his three sons, Raine hires a shootist to be the town’s protector. But her handsome new employee is more than a hired hand; he’s a man who keeps his guns close and his secrets closer. BUT NOTHING COULD PROTECT HER HEART After a chance encounter on a train, Kellen Coltrane travels to the Pennyroyal to carry out a dying man’s last wish. But once he meets the hotel’s fiery-haired proprietor, Coltrane finds himself assuming the role of the shootist’s accomplice and agrees to protect Bitter Springs. And as he learns more about Raine’s own tragedy, Coltrane can’t deny his growing desire for the courageous widow, or the urge to protect her from the threat that draws near…
The Endearment
LaVyrle Spencer - 1982
to become Karl Lindstrom's mail-order bride in the beautiful, treacherous Minnesota wilderness.Karl forgave Anna for her deceptions--but there was still one shameful, burning secret that she had to hide from him, knowing its revelation would destroy the love that had become her very life!
Shotgun Grooms
Susan Mallery - 2001
So he proposed a chaste businesslike "merger" to Miss Emily Smythe, a uniquely enterprising schoolmarm. But how could he keep them wed in name only when all he wanted to do was bed down with his bride in her brand-new inn?And as for his brother ...The fur would fly sure enough when his bear of a brother, Jackson, woke up to find himself hitched to Miss Molly Malone. He'd thought surely she was mistaken. But delirious with fever, he'd unknowingly consummated their marriage. And the Irish firebrand was determined that their union stick "'til death did them part"! Well, now he was guaranteed his inheritance, but what was the miner to do with a wife?
Joe's Wife
Cheryl St. John - 1999
Nothing will stop her from saving Joe's dream. The war has taken nearly all the able-bodied men--and a devilishly handsome bad boy seems her only choice. Town pariah, Tye Hatcher has a reputation as a hell-raiser, but he's looking to prove himself and has his own plans for the land. Meg's proposal might be too good to be true, but he's willing to take the risk, even if the risk is his heart. Struggling with guilt and the rejection of the townspeople, Meg must learn that her convenient husband is a man who takes risks and does what's right for the sake of others. Her vulnerable dreams and their hard work will be for naught unless she and Tye reveal their secrets and face what they're both coming to understand--they can't change the past, but the future is in their hands
The Courtship of Izzy McCree
Ruth Langan - 1998
So she traded her lonely Eastern existence for life in a mountain cabin with her rugged mail-order husband and his brood. But could she ever put her haunting secrets behind her and become a 'real' wife?Between raising four children and training wild stallions, Matt Prescott had no idea how to court a woman again. Especially not a shy beauty like Isabella. Yet when he looked into her blue-green eyes he saw strength - as well as a pain that mirrored his own - and knew he'd somehow find the way to her heart.
The Escape
Kirsten Osbourne - 2014
When terrible lies about Bonnie, Gwen and Libby are spread all over town, a scandal of epic proportions erupts. To save the family from further disgrace, their father promises them to three of the most lecherous old goats in Beckham, Massachusetts. They would do anything to avoid such a miserable fate, including becoming mail order brides. Walton Dalton, the oldest of identical triplets, has dreams of building a ranching empire in north Texas. He’s claimed his land, but now he needs to convince his brothers to join him. He knows all he has to do is ask for their help and they’ll come, but are Nate and Bart as ready as Walt is to take a wife and settle down? Aw heck, what they don’t know won’t hurt ‘em! The Escape is the short prologue to three connected books by historical western romance authors Kirsten Osbourne, Cassie Hayes and Kit Morgan.
A Bride for Keeps
Melissa Jagears - 2013
Not again. He's already been jilted by three mail-order brides and figures a wife just isn't in his future. However, a well-meaning neighbor hasn't given up on seeing him settled, so she goes behind his back to bring yet another woman to town for him.Julia Lockwood has never been anything more than a pretty pawn for her father or a business acquisition for her former fiance. A mail-order marriage in faraway Kansas is a last resort, but she'll do anything to leave her life in Massachusetts and the heartbreak she's experienced there.Although Everett doesn't see how a beautiful, cultured woman like Julia could be happy sharing his simple life, he could really use a helpmate on his homestead. Determined to prove she's more than just a pretty face, Julia agrees to a marriage in name only. Faced with the harsh realities of life on the prairie and hesitant to explore the tentative feelings growing between them, can Everett and Julia ever let each other in long enough to fall in love?
The Visions of Ransom Lake
Marcia Lynn McClure - 2002
And somehow, young Vaden managed to be ever in his way-either by accident or because of her own unique ability to stumble into a quandary.Yet the enigmatic Ransom Lake would involuntarily become Vaden's unwitting tutor. Through him, she would experience joy and passion the like even Vaden had never imagined. Yes, Vaden Valmont stepped innocently, yet irrevocably, into love with the secretive, seemingly callous man-Ransom Lake.But there were other life's lessons Ransom Lake would inadvertently convey to her as well. The darker side of life-despair, guilt, heartache. Would Ransom Lake be the means of Vaden's dreams come true? Or the cause of her complete desolation?
Morning Comes Softly
Debbie Macomber - 1993
Never before has she done anything so reckless, casting the only life she knows aside to travel to a strange place and marry a man she's never met. But something about this man calls to her—and she knows this may be her very last chance at happiness.Tragedy made Travis Thompson the guardian of three orphaned children—and determination leads him to do whatever it takes to keep the kids out of foster homes. When he decides to take a long shot on a personals ad, the results are surprising, and before he knows it, he has agreed to marry a mysterious Southern woman sight unseen.It could be the mistake of a lifetime. But Mary Warner may be exactly what this broken family needs. And with a little faith, a little trust, and a lot of love, two lonely hearts might just discover the true meaning of miracles.
Heartbreak Creek
Kaki Warner - 2011
Edwina Ladoux hoped becoming a mail-order bride would be her way to a better life, but as soon as she arrives in Breakheart, Colorado, and meets Declan Brodie and his four rambunctious children, she realizes she's made a mistake. Luckily, Edwina and Declan agreed on a three- month courtship period, which should give them time to get the proxy marriage annulled. Except that as the weeks pass, thoughts of annulment turn into hopes for a real marriage-until Declan's first wife suddenly returns.
Her Hesitant Heart
Carla Kelly - 2013
Tired and hungry after two days of traveling, Susanna Hopkins is just about at the end of her tether when her train finally arrives in Cheyenne. She's bound for a new life in a Western garrison town. Then she discovers she doesn't even have enough money to pay for the stagecoach! Luckily for her, the compassionate Major Joseph Randolph is heading in the same direction. As a military surgeon, Joe is used to keeping his professional distance. But, despite Susanna's understated beauty, he's drawn to this woman who carries loss and pain equal to his own and has a heart that is just as hesitant and wary...
The Stranger
Elizabeth Lane - 2007
So when a tall, dark stranger came knocking on her door, she greeted him with a rifle --- cocked and loaded.Every instinct told her to turn Caleb McCurdy away --- except she needed a man's help. Soon Laura discovered his hard body hid a warm heart that melted all her fears away. But the dark places in Caleb's past would divide them, unless Laura could learn a tough lesson about forgiveness.