Book picks similar to
Westbound Awakening by Hildie McQueen


romance
western
fiction
historical-romance

Bounty Hunter's Woman


Eugenia Riley - 2016
    . . But never did he dream he’d have to track down and capture his own bride! Raised motherless, beautiful feisty Kate Maloney hates the proud, disdainful father who abandoned her upbringing to a series of failed governesses and strict boarding schools. When Kate’s rancher father reaches his wit’s end and sends her to live with a brutal schoolmistress in East Texas, Kate retaliates by burning down the boarding school. Languishing away in jail, Kate has no idea her father is at home plotting her comeuppance . . . Ready to leave the harsh trail and settle down, handsome bounty hunter Charlie Durango never dreamed his most dangerous quarry would be his own future bride! When Charlie agrees to an arranged marriage with Jeb Maloney’s lovely daughter, he is stunned when his willful fiancée rejects him, sight unseen, and rides off into the treacherous Texas Hill Country on the eve of the Comanche moon. Charlie gives chase, only to be rewarded when Kate shoots him through the shoulder and steals his horse--all before she even realizes he is the man her father chose! Theirs becomes a battle of wills hot enough to ignite the Texas prairie. But the smoldering attraction between Charlie and Kate proves stronger than them both. The headstrong lovers blaze a trail of passion and pride as they head for a reckoning as fierce and shattering as the searing love that binds them. Bounty Hunter's Woman is a fun and sexy Western Historical Romance of approximately 104,000 words. Author Eugenia Riley is the renowned, bestselling author of dozens of historical, contemporary and time-travel romances, including the classics A Tryst in Time and Bushwhacked Bride. She has numerous romances available in Kindle.

One Night at the St. Nicholas


Jodi Thomas - 2019
    At twenty-one, future heiress Jacqueline Hartman needs a husband, or so her father claims. And at tonight’s ball, she must choose one, even though what she longs for is independence and adventure far from the Texas ranch where she was born. Gruff, honorable former Army captain Cody Lamar is just one of the local ranchers who plans to ask for her hand, even if his primary attraction is to the land she will inherit. A down-and-out actor mistaken for a bank robber (and currently impersonating a marshal) and an Irish hotel maid with dreams of her own are only two of the people who will complicate the evening. When it comes to love, this Christmas promises to deliver the most unexpected gifts... Previously published in the anthology, A Texas Kind of Christmas

An Old Love's Shadow


Abby Gray - 1999
    She’s on a charitable mission, by damn, and that rowdy cantina next door is drowning out her gospel singing. The clash with the sexy-as-hell man who runs the cantina hits with enough force to burn down the small Mexican town. What happens in Mexico… Is supposed to stay in Mexico but Hunter can’t get that blonde with the ice blue eyes out of his mind when he goes home to Texas. Finding her isn’t the problem. Convincing her that he’s interested—well, that’s another story. Mercy tried to get over Hunter, especially when she found out about his past. She had two choices: move on or give him one more chance because no other man should have to live in an old love’s shadow. If you liked Carolyn Brown’s books, Love Is, Trouble in Paradise, The Wager or The Yard Rose, you will love An Old Love’s Shadow.

Building Forever


Cat Cahill - 2019
    A family to save. A love that can’t be.When Emma Daniels’ well-to-do family finds itself destitute, she answers an ad for the Gilbert Company seeking young women to be waitresses at hotel restaurants along remote railroad lines out west. The rules for a Gilbert Girl are strict: work hard, act respectably at all times, and no courting allowed. None of them present a problem for Emma, at least until she meets the hotel’s builder, Monroe Hartley. His smile and teasing manner were the last things Emma expected to find on the Colorado frontier. But as intriguing as he is, Emma would be risking her job – and her family’s lives – if she allowed his attentions.Building this hotel for the Gilbert Company is the perfect opportunity for Monroe. Not only will it advance his career, it barely gives him a moment to drown in guilt over his wife’s death. When Emma arrives, he finds himself drawn to her. But he can’t promise her anything, not unless he wants her to end up with the same fate his wife suffered.Giving in to their feelings would mean losing everything, yet they find themselves growing closer as the summer stretches on. When a man who covets Monroe’s job discovers their secret and threatens to reveal it, they must each decide whether their love is worth uprooting everything they’ve worked so hard for.Building Forever is the first book in the new Gilbert Girls series. Like all of Cat's books, this sweet and clean historical romance will warm your heart and fill you with hope.

The Yankee Widow


Linda Lael Miller - 2019
    When Jacob joins the Northern army, no one anticipates he will not return. Then Caroline gets word that her husband is wounded, and she must find her way alone to Washington City and search among the thousands of casualties to find him.When Jacob succumbs to his injuries, she brings his body home on the eve of the deadliest battle of the war. With troops and looters roaming the countryside, it is impossible to know who is friend and who is foe. Caroline fights to protect those she holds most dear while remaining compassionate to the neediest around her, including two strangers from opposite sides of the fight. Each is wounded… Each is drawn to her beauty, her kindness. Both offer comfort, but only one secretly captures her heart. Still, she must resist exposing her vulnerability in these uncertain times when so much is at risk.In The Yankee Widow, gifted storyteller Linda Lael Miller explores the complexities and heartbreak that women experienced as their men took up arms to preserve the nation and defend their way of life.

Boaz's Wager


Ruth Ann Nordin - 2014
    But in order to get them back, he needs to marry a woman who’ll be their mother. Eva Connealy left Omaha, Nebraska to be a school teacher. While in Montana, her stagecoach is attacked, and the men decide to sell her. While the men in Lewistown post bids for her, Boaz makes a wager of his own and wins the right to marry her. Despite the shaky beginning, Boaz is sure she’ll adjust to her new life as his children’s mother. But she wants to be more than a mother. She also wants to be a wife and vows to figure out how to take their marriage of convenience into something much, much more.

Now and Forever


Margaret Scutt - 2021
    But if she thinks she’s safe at home, she is wrong.Her scheming brother wants to marry her off to a fortune-hunter, and he won’t take no for an answer. Out on a lonely walk, Catherine is attacked and left for dead.Could this be her brother’s doing?Catherine won’t wait to find out. Her childhood friend, Martin Lacey, lives in the manor house across the woods, and there was a time when he would have done anything for her.But in the turmoil of Restoration England, nothing lasts forever. Will turning up at Martin’s door be the saving of her — or the end?

Chase The Wind


Janelle Taylor - 1994
    Special Agent Navarro Breed and his beautiful undercover partner embark on a perilous mission to save Geronimo . . . and fall passionately in love.

Mail Order Bride: Her Christmas Joy


Emma Ashwood - 2018
     Tally May Jones needed a life that was more than just helping out at her father's haberdashery store in their dusty small town on the East Coast. She believed she had found it when she saw the advertisement from Jacob Tucker a rancher from Cedar Fields. But life as Mrs Jacob Tucker was not at all as she had dreamed. Yes, he was a handsome man - handsome beyond expectations, but he was cold-hearted and seemed only to want a bride to fill the role of housekeeper in his home. Tally was homesick and lonely. She was thankful for the company of Ellie the daughter of the ranch’s right hand man and Jacob’s friend, Pete. Tally is almost at her wit’s end living the lie that her life out West has become, when she is called upon to help Ellie and Pete. She knows it is wrong to keep secrets from her husband, but she also understands the fear those around her have for her husband. He could be unreasonable and unfathomable. And Tally was kept in the dark as to his secrets, causing her to not understand his hardheartedness. With Christmas fast approaching Jacob turns even more cold, what could be done to thaw his heart? Was it possible for an innocent to break down the walls of grief thrown up by a brave man to shield himself from love and hurt? Could the promise of a newborn heal the wounds etched deep in the soul of a man who had lost all he once loved? Allow the author to lead you through the trials and tribulations of two families brought together by loyalty and love, and see whether love can indeed overcome all hardships.

Rustlers and Ribbons


Kirsten Osbourne - 2018
    When her friend Doris proposed sending for a mail order husband for Gretchen, who was seven months pregnant and unwed, she hoped for the best for her friend, but still felt badly for herself. Darryl Miller has always been known as one of the demon horde. If he stays in Beckham, Massachusetts, he will never rise above the reputation, but he has nowhere to go! When he receives a letter from his sister asking him to marry her pregnant friend, he only hesitates for a moment. Two weeks later, he arrives in Salmon to marry a stranger. The only trouble is the stranger refuses to marry him. Within an hour, he finds himself married to another friend of his sister’s. Will he be able to make a go of life with the beautiful straight-laced schoolteacher? Or has he made a huge mistake leaving everything to travel across country? A Distant Shore: a Kansas Crossroads novelette by Amelia C. Adams Collette Barnard has traveled from England to America to work as a ladies’ maid for a spoiled socialite who doesn’t want the California life her husband is seeking. When her employer leaves her husband in the middle of the night, Collette is discharged and abandoned in the town of Creede, Colorado, with little money and no idea what to do next. When the kind hand of fate lands her at the Brody Hotel in Topeka, Kansas, she meets a handsome young man named Gabriel Brody, who is also struggling to choose the right path for his life. Perhaps together, they can piece together a future from the bits that have been left them. Mail Order M’Lady by Carra Copelin Lady Anne Medvale, the daughter of the Marquess of Thamesford, has created a scandal by running away with a prominent politician. In America, alone and penniless, she answers an ad in the Grooms’ Gazette and travels to Beaumont, Texas as a mail order bride. Morgan Grant, a dedicated cattleman/lawman isn’t looking for a wife, but circumstances present themselves and he marries an unlikely mail order bride. Can the two of them overcome their differences to live happily ever after? Mail Order Millennium by Peggy L Henderson Growing up in a privileged society may seem glamorous, but having every material possession has left Sherri Stucki feeling empty, exploited by her friends, and abandoned. A world where people see past her money seems like a far off dream, until a mysterious stranger offers her a second chance at the life she seeks. Alexander Walker learned the hard way that city life – and its women – were not meant for him. He must complete one final job before returning to a life of solitude in his beloved mountains. The last thing he needs is a distraction from a spunky socialite who seems like a fish out of water. As they travel together toward new destinies, Alexander and Sherri discover that the life they desire can only be found in each other. Mail-Order Brides of Coldwater Creek Josie by Margery Scott Josephine (Josie) Parker’s birthday is coming up, which means she’ll have to leave the Chicago orphanage where she’s lived her entire life. With nowhere to go and no future to look forward to, she agrees to become a mail-order bride to Cooper Thompson, a rancher in Coldwater Creek, Montana. Cooper Thompson is happy with his life. He has his work, his family, and enough money to get by. He doesn’t need – or want – anything more, especially a wife. When Josie arrives in Montana, she’s shocked to learn that Cooper’s sister actually wrote the letter, and that he knows nothing about it.

Saving the King


Leilani Love - 2018
     Katrina would do anything for her long-time friend and Queen, so when the newborn Prince is thrust into her arms she promises to protect him as she is rushed with Arthur to Merlin’s. When Morgana’s Demon Army attacks her carriage, Katrina is outnumbered and outmatched as she finds herself surrounded with nowhere to run. On his way home Bryan stumbled upon a turned carriage. His wolves take off following after the trail of what looks to be a small army of men. When he sees a giant painted man about to kill a small woman he rushes to help without thinking about the consequences. Riding his horse as fast as he dares, the woman in his arms lips are blue from the cold, the baby cries getting softer Bryan feels his panic rising. Who is she and how did she come to be traveling along with a baby that wasn’t hers? Will he be able to figure out before those men come back to try and finish the job? A fantasy King Arthur retelling.

Solitary Horseman


Deborah Camp - 2016
    Love Takes Courage.He’s known her his whole life, but he never really knew her until she revived in him emotions he thought had died on the Civil War battle fields.The Civil War is over, but the battles continue. Callum Latimer returned from the war to a life he didn’t want and with inner battle scars he can’t heal. Banner Payne clutched desperately to the remaining shreds of the life she’d known, but she is losing her grip. Brought together by bad luck and cruel twists of fate, Callum and Banner forge a partnership they hope will keep them afloat even as neighboring Texas ranchers go under and their land is snapped up by opportunists. Fate smiles on them and Callum and Banner find the missing pieces of themselves in each other. Healing begins as their hearts are awakened. Now they must remain strong in their determination to forge a more peaceful existence and not be poisoned by the bitterness of a country still divided.

One True Love


Lori Wilde - 2013
    And if you write a letter to Cupid, you will get an answer in return . . . Now, from New York Times bestselling author Lori Wilde, read how the legend of Cupid began . . . All it took was one great love story! Too bad for pretty young housemaid Millie Greenwood that her one true love is John Fant, the handsomest, wealthiest man in town. But in 1924, a maid—no matter how lovely—isn't about to marry into the town's foremost family, and John is on the verge of becoming betrothed to another. Everything seems hopeless until Millie writes a desperate letter to Cupid, and the most romantic legend of all is born . . .

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.

Sarah Mayfield


J.S. Anthony - 2020
    On the strength of three letters she has traveled by railroad, riverboat and stagecoach to meet her new life out west. Grady McGuire, her intended and the author of those letters, though formally dressed and still holding a bouquet of wilted prairie flowers, is unfortunately passed out drunk in a buckboard behind the saloon.That new life isn’t beginning quite as she envisioned it. As she attempts to salvage the promises they made to each other, she finds herself involved with others in town with their own stories to tell:Addison Pruitt, Sarah’s saving grace, owns the very fine Russell Hotel and keeps the irritating John Russell close as she spends his money.Diego, the Mexican hotel cook possessed of an exquisite repertoire of French dishes, has a secret that he hopes he never has to tell.Jim, Booker and the boy Abraham, Grady’s long-suffering hands, are her new family. They run the ranch Grady didn’t intend to inherit and love him even though they can’t keep him out of trouble.Ellen, Grady’s strong-willed mother, lies under a headstone out by the river, but won’t quite stay dead.Last but not least, there is Elijah Blue, a member of the tribes, shotgun rider and horse trainer, who drove cattle with Grady from the time they were barely out of childhood, and is now waiting to see if his friend can make amends with the woman from the East, the one in the black traveling dress covered with dust, the one that he noticed the minute she stepped down off the stage.