Book picks similar to
Beneath Montana's Sky by Debra Holland


romance
historical-romance
western
historical

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.

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?

A Bride for Tom


Ruth Ann Nordin - 2010
    This historical romantic comedy is rated G.

Faith


Lori Copeland - 1998
    Applicants may apply by mail. Must allow at least two months for an answer.With the matrimonial prospects in her little Michigan town virtually nonexistent, nineteen-year-old Faith, along with her two sisters, Hope and June, answers an ad for mail-order brides. Before she knows it, shes on her way to Deliverance, Texas to marry wealthy rancher Nicholas Shepherd.But from the moment she arrives in Deliverance, sparks fly between Faith, a strong-willed tomboy, and her prospective husband, a man with a strong will of his own! After a string of wedding postponements and a slew of interferences, a union between Faith and Nicholas begins to look less and less likely.In the meantime, Faith and Nicholas are beginning to care for each other, but is their matching stubbornness destined to forever be a barrier between them?

The Bride Wore Spurs


Sharon Ihle - 1994
    How could John Winterhawke, a fiercely independent and unsettlingly handsome half-Indian, possibly make room in his heart and in his life for her?As far as Hawke was concerned, the last thing he needed was a high-spirited, overeager Irish wife who knew nothing about surviving on the harsh prairie. But once the determined Lacey sensed the rough kindness and simmering hunger under Hawke's forbidding demeanor, she set out to match his dark passion with her own – and claim his wild heart on her terms.

Saving Grace


Sandy James - 2013
    The victim of a violent rape at the hands of a rich politician’s son, she must “disappear” to escape his constant attempts to recapture her. Moving from cattle drive to cattle drive as a cook, she avoids her tormentor for nearly twenty years. When she discovers that the brother she gave up for adoption after their mother died in childbirth was orphaned at an early age, she is frantic to verify that he’s safe. She tracks him to a cattle ranch in Montana.Widower Adam Morgan owns the Twin Springs ranch, but finds himself falling into a life of loneliness. Although he enjoys spending time with his grown daughter and the two men he rescued when they were living on the streets, he longs to meet a woman he can love. Living in the Montana territory where men greatly outnumber women makes finding a new wife difficult. Weary of working cattle, he is ready to make some changes in his life.Grace falls ill on her journey, but she manages to make it to the Twin Springs ranch where her brother is supposed to be living. Adam takes her in, concerned for her health and the reason she’s searching for one of his adopted sons. Their chemistry is immediate and intense, but can Grace heal from her past of pain and fear? When her secrets are finally revealed, can Adam forgive her deceptions and learn to love again?

Texas Bride


Joan Johnston - 2012
    Now marriage to a stranger is her only hope of finding a home where she and her two younger brothers can escape the brutality of the Chicago orphanage where they live. With any luck, she can even start a family of her own, once the three of them are settled at Jacob Creed’s Texas ranch. But Miranda has one gigantic concern: Her husband-to-be knows nothing about the brothers she’s bringing along. What if he calls off the deal when he discovers the trick she’s played on him?Jake Creed is hanging on to his Texas ranch by his fingernails. His nemesis, Alexander Blackthorne, is determined to ruin him. Jake will never give up, but he’s in desperate trouble. His wife died six months ago in childbirth, along with their stillborn son, and his two-year-old daughter needs a mother. The advertisement Jake wrote never mentioned his daughter—or the fact that he has no intention of consummating his marriage. He’s determined never to subject another wife to the burden of pregnancy. But Jake doesn't count on finding his bride so desirable. He doesn't count on aching with need when she joins him in bed. And he never suspected his bride would have plans of her own to seduce him.

Montana Star


Deann Smallwood - 2008
    Aries read the ad Ben McCabe had placed in the paper and prayed the position hadn't been filled. She knew nothing about cooking, ranching, or being a wife for that matter. Aries had been trained by one of Philadelphia's best physicians, her father. Trained, but not board certified; trained but not allowed to practice. She longed to be a practicing physician, but no one wanted a woman doctor. Her father's death, which left her with nothing but gambling debts and a young brother to provide and care for, forced her to put aside her love of medicine. Answering this ad was the only way Aries could think of to provide for herself and her brother. She felt badly about deceiving Ben, but what she didn't know was that Ben had deceived her from the moment she'd read the ad and been sent the money to travel to Montana. There was no turning back. Aries knew that as she heard the clickety-clack of the train taking her closer to a man she knew nothing about and who wanted no part of a woman in his life -- and certainly not a wife.

Rose


Leigh Greenwood - 1993
    But when she first set eyes on her hero's ramshackle ranch in the wilds of the Texas brush country, and met his utterly impossible brothers, Rose decided even George's earth-shattering kisses weren't compensation enough for the job ahead of her.Never in her life had she seen a place more in need of a woman's touch, or men more in need of a civilizing influence. The Randolph brothers were a wild bunch—carving an empire out of the rugged land, fighting off rustlers and Mexican bandits—and they weren't about to let any female change their ways...not until George laid down the law and then lost his heart to the beguiling spitfire who'd turned all their lives upside down.

To Catch A Spinster


Megan Bryce - 2012
    She has her studies and her duties, what need does she have of a husband? With five sisters married she knows the reality does not live up to the promise, and does not need to personally experiment with the state to know she would be ill-suited to it. However, she finds herself envious of at least one aspect of marriage. But to experience the physical side of marriage, one doesn't need a husband, all one needs is the right man...Nathaniel Jenkins knows his duty. Marry a young girl from a respectable family and father an heir, no matter how cold the endless parade of suitable girls leaves him. But a shocking proposal from a scholarly spinster leaves him wondering if unsuitable is just what he's looking for. Can he convince his spinster that marriage is the greatest experiment of all?

Paper Roses


Amanda Cabot - 2009
    Leaving the past behind in Philadelphia, mail-order bride Sarah arrives in San Antonio ready to greet her groom, Austin Canfield, a man she has never met but whose letters have won her heart from afar. But there is one problem--he has died. And Sarah cannot go back East.As Sarah tries to reconcile herself to a future that is drastically changed, Austin's brother, Clay, struggles with his own muddled plans. Though he dislikes working on the family ranch and longs for a different life, Clay is driven to avenge his brother's death. But something between them is growing and neither Clay nor Sarah is ready to admit it. Book 1 of the Texas Dreams series, Paper Roses will sweep readers into the Hill Country with a tale of love and loss, closed doors and beautiful possibilities that will leave them wanting more.

Shades of Honor


Wendy Lindstrom - 2010
    Desperate for peace, Radford is ambushed by his unexpected and forbidden love for Evelyn—his brother's fiancée.

Outlaw Hearts


Rosanne Bittner - 1993
    Orphaned and then widowed, desperate to find a safe haven, she sets out to cross a dangerous land alone…until chance brings her face-to-face with notorious gunslinger Jake Harkner.Hunted by the law and haunted by a brutal past, Jake has spent a lifetime fighting for everything he has. He's never known a moment's kindness…until fate brings him to the one woman willing to reach past his harsh exterior to the rebellious heart inside. He would die for her. He would kill for her. He will do whatever it takes to keep her his.Spanning the dazzling West with its blazing deserts and booming gold towns, Jake and Miranda must struggle to endure every hardship that threatens to tear them apart. But an outlaw's promise comes with a price…and even their passion may not burn bright enough to conquer the coming darkness.

In His Eyes


Peggy L. Henderson - 2015
    When a tragic accident claims her father’s life, Katherine is left to deal with an overbearing mother whose agenda does not include a young daughter. Fate deals her another devastating blow, leaving her to face an uncertain future far away from everything and everyone she’s loved. Trace Hawley used to push the limits of the law, and no one was going to plan his future for him. The death of the man who always had his back leaves him to finally face responsibility. The promises he made a decade ago have shaped him into the man he is today, and will bring him face to face with the one girl from his past he always tried to avoid. After a ten year absence, Katherine returns to the ranch she once loved to discover the shocking reason her mother summoned her home. Surprised to find Trace still at the ranch, her childhood infatuation grows into something far stronger as he challenges her to lead the life she once wanted, but seems to have forgotten. When Katherine is forced to make a choice between saving her father’s dreams or following her own, Trace might be the only one who holds the key to both. ***Content Warning: This book contains mild language, mild violence, and adult situations including physical intimacy, and is intended for mature readers.

The Promise of Jenny Jones


Maggie Osborne - 1997
    Though she and the six-year-old Graciela get off to a rocky start, Jenny will do everything in her power to keep her promise, even with the child's cousins in hot pursuit. Then she is mysteriously drawn to the handsome cowboy Ty Sanders, and though neither know it yet, their purpose is the same.