Book picks similar to
Cold Night, Warm Stranger by Jill Gregory


historical-romance
western
historical
romance

Courting Miss Hattie


Pamela Morsi - 1991
    She was certainly spirited and delightfully sweet natured, and she'd managed to run her family farm almost single-handedly. But wasn't a twenty-nine-year-old lady farmer too old to catch a husband?An Irresistible Suitor.All his life handsome, black-haired Reed Tyler had worked Miss Hattie's farm--and dreamed of one day settling down on his own piece of land with the pretty young woman he'd sworn to marry. Hattie was someone he could tell his hopes and troubles to--someone he looked on as a sister. So he thought, until the idea of Ancil Drayton calling on her made him seethe. Until the night a brotherly peck became a scorching kiss... and Reed knew nothing would bank the blaze--and that his best friend was the only woman he would ever love.From the Paperback edition.

Romancing Olive


Holly Bush - 2011
    . . Spinster librarian, Olive Wilkins, is shocked to learn of her brother's violent death at a saloon gaming table and her sister-in-law's subsequent murder, traveling far from her staid life to rescue her niece and nephew, now orphans. She arrives to find the circumstances of her brother's life deplorable and her long held beliefs of family and tradition, shaken. Accustomed to the sophistication of Philadelphia, Olive arrives in Spencer, Ohio, a rough and tumble world she is not familiar with, facing two traumatized children. Her niece and nephew, Mary and John, have been living with a neighboring farmer, widower Jacob Butler, the father of three young children of his own and a man still in pain from the recent loss of his wife. Real danger threatens Olive and Mary and John while Jacob and his own brood battle the day-to-day struggles for survival. Will Olive and Jacob find the strength to fight their battles alone or together? Will love conquer the bitterness of loss and broken dreams?

Under the Desert Moon


Marsha Canham - 1992
    Disguised as a prim schoolmarm, she hid more than her alluring beauty. For no one could see her fierce determination, her able sharp-shooting, her survivor's heart. No one except the one man determined to claim her as his own...HIS PAST WAS A SECRET...Christian McBride sought justice for the misguided verdict that wrongly jailed him years before. Traveling westward with his stoic Ute companion, Sun Shadow, the rugged, bold plainsman knew the perils of the West better than his own heart - which was about to fall hostage to the mysterious, raven-haired woman who boarded the stage he was riding - and who, it would turn out, was not at all what she seemed...

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.

A Taste Of Fire


Hannah Howell - 1988
    Now, in "A Taste of Fire", she spins a poignant tale of promises made and kept, as a deathbed vow sends a feisty young woman to find the Texas cattle rancher she must save from danger...and claim as her beloved.Antonie Ramirez could ride and shoot as well as any man—and better than most. Now, the headstrong beauty had come to Texas to honor her father’s last words: find the cattle rancher named Royal Bancroft and repay him for saving their lives long ago.Royal Bancroft didn’t who was behind the outlaws trying to drive him off his land, but he would fight to the death rather than lose it. Yet with his sister and brother kidnapped, he felt defeat run through him like a chill wind… until a girl with cornsilk and a steady gunhand rode into his life.Antonie was wild, hard, and hurting inside, and Royal knew from the moment he saw her that, if he tried to tame her, he’s break her spirit. Instead, he would let her ride with him as an equal partner, fight beside him for a future, and come to him as a woman on fire for blazing love…

What Price Paradise


Katherine Allred - 2005
    Until the night he gets drunk and sleeps with a woman he barely knows.Now, six weeks later, she's pregnant, alone, and broke. Once again, Tate must take responsibility for his actions, and makes plans to marry his child's mother. There's only one problem...he has to tell his fiancée.Abby Grayson hasn't had an easy life. As the daughter of the town whore, people either avoid her or think she's like her mother. For Abby, it's a struggle just to fill her belly and keep a roof over her head.Loneliness and a secret yearning for this man she thought she'd never have led her to spend the night with Tate. But the last thing she needs is a baby when she can barely take care of herself. Desperate, but too proud to ask for help, she finally agrees to accept a job from Tate - the job of being his wife. Now she has almost everything she's ever dreamed of.Unfortunately, only one thing will gain her Tate's love - his realization that the night he spent with her was no drunken accident. It was a last-ditch attempt to win the woman he really wanted.

Capital Bride


Cynthia Woolf - 2012
    They could go live with her cousin William, but Sara believes there’s something untoward about his offer and it leaves her feeling uncomfortable. She's qualified to be a governess, but no one will have her because she wasn't married when she had her precious MaryAnn. Matchmaker & Co could be her salvation as mail-order-bride to Mr. John Atwood. Single father, John Atwood, is raising his daughter the best he can in the wilds of the Colorado Territory but knows he needs help. No woman he knows wants to take on the raising of his daughter who hasn't spoken since she saw her mother brutally murdered during a bank robbery. Can Sarah, John and their two daughters overcome their pasts and find happiness together?

Abby: Mail Order Bride


Verna Clay - 2012
    Left with three children, he's desperate to find a mother for them. Ten year old Jenny does her best to care for two year old Ty, and fourteen year old Luke works the ranch with his father, losing himself in dime novels to ease the pain of his mother's passing. Brant's options are limited since eligible women seldom pass through Two Rivers, much less settle in the small Texas town. In desperation, he places a classified advertisement for a mail order bride. Marrying a woman he'll come to know through a newspaper advertisement scares the bejesus out of him, but at this point, he's out of options.Abigail Mary Vaughn always dreamed of having her own family, but caring for her elderly parents, as well as working as a teacher to help with finances, ended that dream. Her parents are now dead and she's faced with the reality of her lonely existence. After reading Mr. Samson's advertisement in the Philadelphia Inquirer, she garners enough courage to respond. Since she is considered an old maid at the age of thirty-eight, she'll more than likely spend the rest of her life wondering "what if" unless she does something unconventional.Sensual love scenes.

Lions and Lace


Meagan McKinney - 1992
    Born to luxury, she belonged with the Astors and the Vanderbilts at cotillions and soirees. But she shivered with fear and something more as she faced the handsome, ruthless Trevor Sheridan. He had bankrupted her fortune and would expose her family's scandalous secret unless she accepted his outrageous offer, his emotional blackmail ... his heart-stopping kiss.HE BROKE THEM ALLBorn Irish, brought up in the streets, Trevor "the Predator" Sheridan learned early how to get the wealth and the women he wanted. An expert at games of power, he played one that would destroy every famous family who had snubbed him. Tricking the beautiful Alana was his trump card. But he never intended to want her ... until her beauty and her resolve stole his breath away.NOW THEIR DESIRES SWEPT THEM TOWARD RAPTURE ... OR RUIN

A Rogue by Any Other Name


Sarah MacLean - 2012
    Now a partner in London’s most exclusive gaming hell, the cold, ruthless Bourne will do whatever it takes to regain his inheritance—including marrying perfect, proper Lady Penelope Marbury.A broken engagement and years of disappointing courtships have left Penelope with little interest in a quiet, comfortable marriage, and a longing for something more. How lucky that her new husband has access to such unexplored pleasures.Bourne may be a prince of London’s underworld, but he vows to keep Penelope untouched by its wickedness—a challenge indeed as the lady discovers her own desires, and her willingness to wager anything for them... even her heart.

Matthew


Emma Lang - 2012
    . .and died for. To the eight Graham siblings, no matter how much hard work or hard love it takes, life is unthinkable without. . .In the wake of his parents' murder, Matthew Graham must take the reins at the Circle Eight. He also needs to find a wife in just thirty days, or risk losing it all. Plain but practical, Hannah Foley seems the perfect bride for him. . .until after the wedding night. Their marriage may make all the sense in the world, but neither one anticipates the jealousies that will result, the treacherous danger they're walking into, or the wildfire of attraction that will sweep over them, changing their lives forever. . . Praise for Emma Lang and her novels: "A sweet and sensual Western in which the heroine discovers her inner strength with the help of a delightfully sexy hero." --Angela Knight, New York Times bestselling author"With a fresh voice and engaging characters, Emma Lang's Restless Heart kept me reading late into the night." --Tina Leonard, bestselling author

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?

Texas Mail Order Bride


Linda Broday - 2015
    But when mail-order bride Delta Dandridge steps off the stagecoach and claims he sent for her, he scrambles to set her straight. The tempestuous woman makes him see red and also challenges all his vows to remain a bachelor. It turns out Delta Dandridge is going to set Cooper Thorne straight about a few things...

Short-Straw Bride


Karen Witemeyer - 2012
    Not if they value their life. But when Meredith Hayes overhears a lethal plot to burn the Archer brothers off their ranch, a twelve-year-old debt compels her to take the risk.Fourteen years of constant vigilance hardens a man. Yet when Travis Archer confronts a female trespasser with the same vivid blue eyes as the courageous young girl he once aided, he can't bring himself to send her away. And when an act of sacrifice leaves her injured and her reputation in shreds, gratitude and guilt send him riding to her rescue once again.Four brothers. Four straws. One bride. Despite the fact that Travis is no longer the gallant youth Meredith once dreamed about, she determines to stand by his side against the enemy that threatens them both. But will love ever be hers? Or will Travis always see her merely as a short-straw bride?

Lord Ruin


Carolyn Jewel - 2002
    He planned to marry for beauty. But a night of unforgettable passion left him a changed man—a man tied to a bespectacled spinster. Anne Sinclair's long legs drove him wild with desire, and her quick wit challenged his mind. Ruined for any other, the notorious rake had only one choice: to court his wife. To win her confidence, however, nothing less than his love would do.The Divine SinclairAnne Sinclair had sworn to protect her sister from the infamous Lord Ruin. Yet she never expected to sacrifice her own virtue. Forced to give the rogue her hand in marriage, she vowed never to relinquish her heart. But Ruan worshiped her body and valued her intelligence, making Anne long to succumb to the ultimate temptation: falling for her husband.