UNEXPECTED BRIDES 01: A Bride For Keeps

A TENDER TALE OF LOVE ON THE PRAIRIE. Although Everett Cline can hardly keep up with the demands of his homestead, he won't humiliate himself by looking for a helpmate ever again--not after being jilted by 3 mail-order brides. When a well-meaning neighbor goes behind his back to bring yet another mail-order bride to town, he has good reason to doubt it will work, especially after getting a glimpse at the woman in question. She is the prettiest woman he has ever seen, & it is just not possible she is there to marry a simple homesteader like him. Julia Lockwood has never been anything more than a pretty pawn for her father or a business acquisition for her former fiancé. Having finally worked up the courage to leave her life in Massachusetts, she is determined to find a place where people will value her for more than her looks. Having run out of all other options, Julia resorts [...]to a mail-order marriage in far-away Kansas. Everett is skeptical a cultured woman like Julia could be happy in a life on the plains, while Julia, deeply wounded by a past relationship, is skittish at the idea of marriage at all. When, despite their hesitations, they agree to a marriage in name only, neither one is prepared for the feelings that soon arise to complicate their arrangement. Can two people accustomed to keeping their distance let the barricades around their hearts down long enough to fall in love?