I am a girl who has a hard time saying no to a historical western romance because some of my favorite themes fit so naturally into the time period. I love characters looking for a second chance or in need of redemption, and I tend to enjoy heroines with some backbone. Most western heroines pretty much have to have backbone or else the frontier would chew them up and spit them out within the first 20 pages of the story. Given my penchant for westerns, it’s a little unbelievable I’ve never read a Joan Johnston story before, and Wyoming Bride was a very interesting read for me on some very important levels. Most notably? She juggles a lot of moods and tones in this story. It is one part farcical and about six parts gritty.

Most traditional mail-order bride stories find the heroine married to the hero right out of the gate, and the bulk of the book is spent on the newlyweds falling in love. Johnston takes a different tack with her heroine, Hannah Wentworth, who is already married in the opening chapter —to a guy who isn’t the hero. She’s not in love with her husband and only married him to get her and her two sisters out of an odious Chicago orphanage. This is a practical solution, not a love match, and her wedding night doesn’t exactly set the world on fire. She’s seventeen, still reeling from the Great Fire of Chicago decimating the family fortune, and to see how her life has turned out was not at all what she had planned.

“No one had forced her to marry Mr. McMurtry. She’d volunteered to do it. She had to grow up. She had to put away childish hopes and dreams. This was her life, like it or not.”
The grittiness of the story enters in very early on, with tragedy striking as the newlyweds and Hannah’s two sisters are traveling to Cheyenne. Hannah is eventually found, barely conscious, alone and on foot, by the hero, Flint Creed. Women are scarce in his part of Wyoming, and his younger brother is now engaged to the girl that Flint fancies. Since Flint and Ransom live and work together on the ranch? That means Emaline will be living with them as well. Flint figures the surest way to stop coveting his brother’s soon-to-be-wife is to get married himself, and now like manna from heaven, Hannah—newly widowed—has fallen into his lap. You guessed it, this is where the farcical part of the story enters in, although later on it turns more serious when Hannah realizes that Husband #2 is keeping a big ol’ secret from her.

“She met his troubled gaze, and said, ‘So I’m keeping my distance from you.’
That was plain speaking. Flint had no idea how to reply.
She asked, ‘Is there anything else? If not, I’m tired and I want to go to bed.’
‘How long is this shut-out going to continue?’ She glared at him, ‘How long do you plan on being in love with another woman?’”
Have I mentioned how much I like historical western heroines with gumption?

The author includes two romances for the price of one, by featuring a healthy helping of Ransom and Emaline. They may be engaged, but turns out they have a lot to learn about each other, and the road to the altar is a bumpy one. The conflict is further rounded out by the presence of a nefarious villain determined to drive the Creed brothers off their land.

Books that are part of not just one, but two series, can be a tricky business for the uninitiated reader to navigate, but Johnston does a really wonderful job on that front. I never felt lost, confused, or like I was being manipulated by past couples or future protagonists. It’s a historical western that somehow manages to straddle the line between cozy and gritty. I prefer gritty, but also like cozy. To have both of those elements in the same book scratched two very different itches for me as a reader.

I normally don't enjoy historical romances but I have to say I really enjoyed this book. It was interesting and entertaining and (to me) at points heartbreaking. I'd recommend this book to anyone.

Wyoming Bride is a heartwarming, passionate story about secrets, forbidden desires, and love. This is book two of the Mail Order Bride series by the very talented Joan Johnston. As with every book Ms. Johnston pens we are treated to a romantic tale full of feisty women and headstrong men that hold us hostage until we flip the last page over.

After her parents are killed in a fire, Hannah and her five siblings landed in a revolting orphanage. Hanna’s older sister Miranda (Mail Order Bride book 1) left with the two younger children and became a mail order bride in Texas. Hannah and her two sisters waited for word whether they would be allowed to join Miranda and her husband in Texas. After no news arrives, Hannah decides to answer her own ad and become a mail order bride as a way to escape the daily beatings they are receiving in the orphanage. Tragedy strikes just a short time after they married and she is left alone and pregnant.

Flint and his brother Ransom are partners on their ranch. They have built a homestead and plan to grow their operation. Ransom also has plans to grow his family by marrying Emaline. Little does he know his brother is also in love with her. The only way Flint can see to keep his mind off his brother’s wife is to find a wife of his own. It’s by luck on both their parts that he finds Hannah out on the prairie dying of thirst and half starved. She has lost her memory and has no idea what’s happened to her.

So the story forms; she needs a husband to take care of her and her unborn child, he needs a wife to help him keep his mind off of the one woman he loves and can’t have. It seems like the perfect plan until more feelings develop between them than either of them were expecting. It’s a rough journey to watch them work through the obstacles that keep getting in their paths.

The storyline with Ransom and Emaline adds a skillful layer to this story that helps to bring out a lot of emotion. As well as the love story and the conflict that they must overcome this book is full of a lot of different twists and turns. Miranda and Hannah are finally able to make a connection; there is cattle rusting, Indian attacks, gun fights and much more. It’s a fast-paced book packed with a lot of intense action.

Whether or not historical romance is your passion, this novel will draw you in. I admit that I’m usually not a big fan of historical romance, but I am a huge fan of Joan Johnston. I love the way she tells a story, it’s like watching a movie instead of turning pages. I can’t wait to read the rest of this series and see what happened to the two sisters that disappeared.