Workaholic exec Drew Connelly returned from hisbusiness trip—dog tired, happy to see his daughterand…engaged? Before he could question how, his“fiancée” moved in for their “trial marriage”!What kind of woman could his six-year-olddaughter—and her octogenarian grandma—have found on the Internet? Kristina Simmonsseemed…enchanting. The virgin bride-to-be waslooking for a fresh start—any start, actually. Butmarriage was not on Drew's To Do list. He'd letKristina down gently, make her see he was nothusband material. But then he made a tacticalerror: he kissed her.…
Ethan Cruz should be mending fences on his Montana ranch, but instead he's driving to the Chance Creek, Montana, airport - to pick up the bride he didn't know he had. This latest salvo in his ongoing practical joke battle with his best friend, Rob Matheson, has gone too far, and Ethan plans to send his "bride" right back home, then get busy plotting his revenge. One look at Autumn Leeds changes his mind, however. Perhaps he needs a bride, after all. A breathtakingly beautiful city bride. Autumn Leeds needs a story - fast - or she's going to lose her lucrative contract with CityPretty Magazine, so when she sees the crazy video plea for a modern mail-order bride for a cowboy, it sounds like the story of the century. Making a video of her own, she casts herself as the perfect mail-order bride for a rancher, but when she finally reaches Montana, she's surprised to find Ethan's the perfect cowboy husband-to-be. Against her better judgment, her plan to keep her handsome groom at arm's length disintegrates into a night of passion spent in his arms. Ethan knows he can't keep playing this game - he has to come clean with Autumn and tell her the truth; about the practical joke and about the state of his ranch. He's about to lose it all because of the debts his mother racked up before his parents' deaths. Now his sister, Claire, wants to sell the ranch and collect what little money they can. He'll be out of a home and a job, and in no shape to support the bride he desperately wants to marry, after all. Autumn's in bigger trouble than ever. Not only has she fallen in love with the subject of her expose - she might be carrying his child. If she doesn't write this article and secure her contract for another year, she'll lose everything - her career, her apartment, and more importantly, her family's approval. The only alternative is to stay and marry Ethan. But how can she trust a man she's just met when she knows too well that men always let you down? Can a love based on lies last? Cowboys of Chance Creek: BOOK 0: The Cowboy Inherits a Bride BOOK 1: The Cowboy's E-Mail Order Bride BOOK 2: The Cowboy Wins a Bride BOOK 3: The Cowboy Imports a Bride BOOK 4: The Cowgirl Ropes a Billionaire BOOK 5: The Sheriff Catches a Bride BOOK 6: The Cowboy Lassos a Bride BOOK 7: The Cowboy Rescues a Bride BOOK 8: The Cowboy Earns a Bride BOOK 9: The Cowboy's Christmas Bride
Staff Sergeant Austin Hall has a brilliant record in the Special Forces—except for one disastrous decision that cost his best friend’s life. Now he’s heading home to Chance Creek, Montana, where he’d like to spend the rest of his days in the obscurity of his family’s ranch. Too bad Great Aunt Heloise won’t hand the ranch over unless all four of the Hall brothers marry and one of them produces an heir within the year. Austin is too broken to marry for love, so he places an online ad for a fake wife. What could possibly go wrong? Ella needs to leave Hollywood—fast. It’s bad enough another actress stole her fiancé—on national television. Now she’s ruined her comeback by decking her ex on a morning talk show. Pursued by paparazzi, Ella needs a new life, a new name and someplace to hide. When she reads Austin’s ad for a stand-in wife, she knows she can act this part perfectly. To the rest of the residents of Chance Creek, they’ll be a happily married couple. In private, they’ll just be roommates. In a year when she’d old news and the Hall brothers secure the ranch, she and Austin will quietly divorce and she’ll go on her way. Or will she? Austin’s already finding it hard to remember his promise never to love again. Ella’s finding it hard to keep her hands to herself. But when they’re asked make a back-up baby, Ella realizes she may have stepped into a lifetime role. Can this pretend marriage go the distance? The Heroes of Chance Creek: BOOK 1: The Navy SEAL's E-Mail Order Bride BOOK 2: The Soldier's E-Mail Order Bride BOOK 3: The Marine's E-Mail Order Bride BOOK 4: The Navy SEAL's Christmas Bride BOOK 5: The Airman's E-Mail Order Bride BOOK 6: The Navy SEAL's Second Chance Bride
Eric Johnson’s real mail order bride shows up later than expected, and she quickly learns he is already married. Now Allie Jones is stuck in a small Colorado town with no way to leave. She must either marry the only suitable bachelor or risk being sold to the saloon’s owner to be one of the soiled doves. Seeing she has no real choice, she agrees to marry the bachelor. Rumored as being a monster by the people in town, Travis Martin is content to live alone, sheltered in the wooded area of the mountainside. The last thing he expects is a preacher when there’s a knock on the door. With great hesitation, he agrees to the marriage. He can’t confine such a beautiful young lady to the saloon, but he knows the marriage won’t be a happy one for her, not when she could have had someone so much better. So the best thing he can do is keep his distance and leave her alone. She, however, can't help but be intrigued by her new husband. Is he the ugly beast the people in town claim, or is there something beautiful worth loving just beneath the surface?
There have always been mail-order brides in America—but we haven’t always thought about them in the same ways. In Buying a Bride, Marcia A. Zug starts with the so-called “Tobacco Wives” of the Jamestown colony and moves all the way forward to today’s modern same-sex mail-order grooms to explore the advantages and disadvantages of mail-order marriage. It’s a history of deception, physical abuse, and failed unions. It’s also the story of how mail-order marriage can offer women surprising and empowering opportunities. Drawing on a forgotten trove of colorful mail-order marriage court cases, Zug explores the many troubling legal issues that arise in mail-order marriage: domestic abuse and murder, breach of contract, fraud (especially relating to immigration), and human trafficking and prostitution. She tells the story of how mail-order marriage lost the benign reputation it enjoyed in the Civil War era to become more and more reviled over time, and she argues compellingly that it does not entirely deserve its current reputation. While it is a common misperception that women turn to mail-order marriage as a desperate last resort, most mail-order brides are enticed rather than coerced. Since the first mail-order brides arrived on American shores in 1619, mail-order marriage has enabled women to improve both their marital prospects and their legal, political, and social freedoms. Buying A Bride uncovers this history and shows us how mail-order marriage empowers women and should be protected and even encouraged.
A Wild West wedding! Thomas Greenwood expected his mail-order bride to be plain and pregnant—not a willow-slim beauty! She's clearly no practical farmer's wife, but she's his chance finally to have a loving family… Runaway heiress Charlotte Fairfax fled the possibility of a forced marriage, yet now, assuming a stolen identity, she's wed to a stranger the moment she steps off the train! She plans to stay only until it's safe to leave. Except marriage to kindhearted Thomas is far more complicated—and pleasurable—than she ever imagined!
A washed-up rockstar, a single mother, and a marriage of convenience. David Weston is done with the rockstar lifestyle. After a decade of decadence, he moves back home to the country hamlet of Ocilla, Georgia, to rediscover who he always meant to be. But finding himself in the small town of his childhood is harder and lonelier than he thought it'd be. Cassidy lost her husband, her life savings and is on the brink of losing her sanity. With three children to feed and no roof over their heads, she moves back in with her parents. Working two jobs and taking care of a family has exhausted every reserve she has, and with the medical bills piling up, she can't see a way forward. When a friend signs Cassidy up for online dating, she finds herself face to face with her high-school sweetheart, who just happens to be one of the biggest rockstars in the world. He's rich, handsome and kind. She's lonely, tired and desperate. When he suggests a marriage of convenience it doesn't take much to convince her to give it a try. But there's more to this relationship than either one is willing to admit. A small-town, heartwarming and laugh-out-loud romance that will give you all the feels. Perfect for fans of Debbie Macomber, Inglath Cooper, Carolyn Brown, and Catherine Bybee. This contemporary love story involves a rockstar, a widow, three loveable children, a marriage of convenience and plenty of spine-tingling kisses.
Complete with actual advertisements from both women seeking husbands and males seeking brides, Hearts West includes twelve stories of courageous mail order brides and their exploits. Some were fortunate enough to marry good men and live happily ever after; still others found themselves in desperate situations that robbed them of their youth and sometimes their lives. Desperate to strike it rich during the Gold Rush, men sacrificed many creature comforts. Only after they arrived did some of them realize how much they missed female companionship. One way for men living on the frontier to meet women was through subscriptions to heart-and-hand clubs. The men received newspapers with information, and sometimes photographs, about women, with whom they corresponded. Eventually, a man might convince a woman to join him in the West, and in matrimony. Social status, political connections, money, companionship, or security were often considered more than love in these arrangements.
Available digitally for the first time ever, Duncan’s Bride is a classic novel of romantic suspense from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Linda Howard It's been seven years since rancher Reese Duncan's first wife left him high and dry, and he's been trying to rebuild his life ever since. What he needs is a dependable mate—someone uncomplicated with whom he can start a family and who will help out around the ranch. At first glance, city girl Madelyn Patterson seems all wrong. But Madelyn isn't after his money or his land. She wants the one thing Reese can't guarantee—his heart. Featuring an excerpt from TROUBLEMAKER, Linda Howard’s new hardcover novel!
