The Cowboy’s Mail-Order Bride
by Megan Crane
Release Date: May 9, 2024
Publisher: Tule Publishing
Book #1 in The Careys of Cowboy Point series
Number of pages: 175
Source: ARC from publisher
Contemporary Romance
Ages 14 and up
CW: gaslighting, loss of a parent, grief
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Cowboy looking for wife to work the land, help with the business, and raise the next generation. Must be practical, reasonable, and honest.
Harlan Carey needs a wife, and fast. Because his father is dying and wants to see his five sons settled before he goes. It makes sense to put out an ad like he’s on the frontier and he’s looking for a bride from somewhere back in civilization. He’s expecting something workable. What he gets is a wildfire.
Kendall Darlington needs to disappear from her messy life. Becoming a mail-order bride sounds close enough to actual time travel to work. What she’s not expecting is to fall, hard, for the beauty of the land and the surprising delight that is Harlan himself.
But when her past comes calling, can Kendall trust the future Harlan promises enough to finally stay—with the only man she’s ever loved, in the only place that’s ever felt like home?
To say this book is a slow starter is an understatement. I have trust in this author so I kept going, although I was getting annoyed. In the first half of this story, we barely see anyone other than Harlan and Kendall, they have one brief kiss during their quick wedding for their marriage of convenience, and there is a lot of internal dialogue which equates to being told instead of shown that these two are falling in love.
Once they finally kiss and Kendall gets more incorporated into Harlan’s family, the last half is a great story. These two are great together and work off each other well. There was a spark between them upon their initial meeting, it comes back if you’re patient. The last quarter of this book kept me riveted and feeling all the feels.
Harlan’s family are very loving and kind people, even with all of the ribbing and wrestling that happens amongst the brothers. The community as a whole is tight knit and that serves Kendall well when her past comes back to bite her. I wasn’t crazy about her keeping her family a secret, especially once she got to know the Carey family. It didn’t matter though, they still had her back in a big way.
As for Harlan’s dad and step-mom…they may be fantastic in many ways but I have an issue with their ultimatum to the kids. Although it’s skirted around and no actual disease is named, he is lying to his kids in an abhorrent way to get them to start thinking about having families of their own. It’s laid out in the beginning so this isn’t really a spoiler but a warning to those who wouldn’t be able to read beyond the first two chapters once you know the information. The father tells his kids he doesn’t have long to live and the step-mom (mom to the youngest sons) goes along with the ruse. Ugh! I love this family and will read the next book even though this one started so slowly. I want to see these cowboys all find their matches. I just hope the author rethinks things and this terrible trick isn’t kept going through every book.
2.5 stars
**I received an ARC of this book courtesy of the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and given freely**
All In Good Time 