Promised by Post - Katy Madison (HH #1227 - Apr 2015)

Series: Wild West Weddings (Book 2)

"CALIFORNIA RANCHER SEEKS AGREEABLE WOMAN FOR PURPOSES OF MATRIMONY"

Anna O'Malley is desperate to put her impoverished past behind her. Posing as a respectable lady, she becomes a mail-order bride, hoping to find security by marrying a wealthy ranch owner.

When her stagecoach is held up, Anna shoots one of the bandits. But the man she wounds is none other than her fiancé! His brother -- sinfully attractive Daniel Werner -- must conceal that fact by any means necessary, but how long can Daniel keep up the facade when he craves Anna for himself?

Good mail order bride story. Anna is one member of an Irish immigrant family that came to America for a better life and instead found one that was even harder. After the mill she was working in shut down because of the war, Anna and two friends decided to become mail order brides. Olivia (Bride by Mail) has found her happy ending and now it is Anna's turn. 

Anna feels that her past has put her at a disadvantage, so she wasn't very truthful when she wrote to her prospective groom Rafael, portraying herself as coming from a well-to-do family. She also looked carefully at her choices for husbands, wanting one who owned his land and was prosperous. 

When the stage is nearly to its destination, it is stopped by two men. When the shooting starts, Anna wounds one of the men. What she doesn't know is that the wounded man is her fiancé, who had stopped the coach as a lark, in order to see her before her arrival. The other man is Rafael's brother Daniel, who had come along to try to stop him. Now Daniel has to find a way to protect Rafael from being discovered until he can heal, which means he's the one who has to entertain her. This is difficult for him, because he has discovered that he wants Anna himself.

Daniel is the younger brother, one who has been ignored by his mother for most of his life. His father died when he was young, and Rafael became his best friend and role model. That doesn't mean he can ignore when his brother is being and idiot, and the whole episode is one disaster after another. 

There is some question about whether the family will be able to keep their land because of the way the Americans have been dealing with the Mexicans who own property in California. Rafael felt that having an Anglo bride would be an advantage. Once he picked Anna from the applicants, he couldn't be bothered with anything more, so Daniel took over writing to Anna. As soon as he saw her, he was smitten with her, but knew she was promised to his brother.

Anna had the feeling that there was something strange going on once she arrived at the ranch. Her fiancé was rarely around and when he was he didn't seem very interested in her. Her future mother-in-law was secretive and not very welcoming. Even Daniel seemed to be hiding something when they were together.

I thought Rafael was quite immature and was very lucky that Anna hadn't killed him during his stupid stunt, I also got the feeling that there was more going on with the land problems than he was telling Daniel, and I was right. At least he wasn't keeping the secret maliciously, he just didn't know what to do about it. The mother was creepy and downright nasty to everyone except Rafael. I didn't like her at all and as it turned out she was even worse than I thought she was.

I really liked Daniel. He had a mostly good relationship with his brother and was really a kind and honest man. The things he had to do went completely against everything he really was. He was caught between trying to protect his brother and wanting to be with Anna because of his own feelings for her. I loved seeing him finally stand up and go after her for himself. It looked good until a misunderstanding nearly drove them apart. 

I mostly liked Anna, though there were times she really irritated me. First, I didn't like the way she lied about her background, though she confessed about that pretty quickly. I also didn't really care for the way she snooped. I know she was only trying to find out the truth, but there were a couple instances where she took it a little too far. At least it came out all right in the end. I did like that she really wanted to do the right thing by sticking to her promise to Rafael, but her feelings for Daniel got to be too strong.

The ending was intense with the mother pretty much losing it and what she tried to do to Anna. I liked seeing Rafael finally do the right thing for everyone and face up to the consequences of his actions. Anna and Daniel get the life they wanted and we even get to see Olivia and her husband again.

Bride by Mail - Katy Madison (HH #1187 - June 2014)

Series: Wild West Weddings (Book 1)

27-year-old fur trader seeks wife and helpmate.

Expecting a plain, dependable woman to reply to his advert, what Jack Trudeau actually gets is pampered fashion plate Olivia Hansson. There's no denying she's pretty, but patently ill-equipped for life in his simple log cabin -- with its one bed -- in the wild Rocky Mountains.

Olivia must make a success of her new life. But how to convince her skeptical husband that she is capable? She doesn't cook and only knows how to grow flowers, not practical vegetables! Undaunted, Olivia sets out to win his grudging admiration -- and his closely protected heart.

After several months of exchanging letters, Olivia has finally arrived in Denver, ready to marry Jack. The letters he wrote describing the beauty of where he lives touched her heart and made her long for something she hadn't had in years - a place to belong. Things don't go quite as she hoped, as Jack's first reaction to her seems to be dismay.

Jack had certainly not expected the young woman in the fashionable clothing, who can't even look him in the eye. As they travel toward his home he discovers that she can't cook, knows nothing of growing food, and seems to be afraid to even touch him. He's bitterly disappointed and has no trouble letting it show.

Olivia sees his disappointment, and feels rejected already. She has grown up feeling that she doesn't meet anyone's expectations. Her parents died in a train wreck when she was a child and she was raised by an older woman who rarely had anything good to say to her. As an adult she worked in a cotton mill where she was also looked down on. Ever since writing to Jack she has dreamed of finally having someone who accepts her for who she is. If she wants to make her marriage work she has to learn a new way of life. 

I felt bad for Olivia because she was way out of her depth. She had never experienced anything like the wilderness she was now going to be living in. She waffles back and forth between wanting to stay and make it work with Jack and wanting to leave because she can see he doesn't want her. She's also extremely innocent, and doesn't understand the feelings that Jack rouses in her. They scare her a bit and cause her to shrink away from him. It takes a near tragedy for her to see that she is stronger than she thinks she is. I liked seeing her start to display the strength she'll need to have the future she wants.

I was a bit frustrated with Jack. I got the impression that he hadn't been all that specific in his letters to Olivia about what he actually expected of her. I felt that he could have at least offered to teach her what she needed to know. Instead, all he can see is that she doesn't fit the preconceived picture he had in  his mind of what the perfect wife would be. Jack spends a lot of time comparing her to his mother, who had left him and his father because she couldn't handle the life there, and to his late Indian wife, who had known exactly what needed to be done and how to do it. Added to that, he's really attracted to her, but afraid to get close because it will hurt when she leaves. So he blows hot and cold with her, as the attraction makes him want her to stay, but his fears cause him to push her away.

Things would have gone much more smoothly with them if they would have just talked to each other about what they were feeling. They were so busy protecting themselves that they couldn't see what needed to be done. The only times they really communicated in any way was when the attraction would take over. I did like Jack's patience and gentleness with Olivia and her innocence.

I liked the section where they were caring for Jack's former brother-in-law. It was a terrific demonstration of the things that could happen and how they would need to be dealt with. I loved seeing the progression that Olivia made from her fears at the beginning of it, to her courage and determination by the time Jack came back. I also liked seeing that Jack finally realized what an idiot he'd been. The plans they made for their future together were an excellent compromise to both their needs. The only thing that might have made it better would be an epilogue from a year or so later.