Louise Archer boards a westbound train in St. Louis to find the Kansas homesteader who wooed and proposed to her by correspondence, then jilted her by telegram – Don’t come, I can’t marry you. Giving a false name to hide her humiliation, her lie backfires when a marshal interferes and offers her his seat.Marshal Everett McCloud intends to verify the woman coming to marry his homesteading friend … friend is suitable. At the St. Louis train station, his plan detours when he offers his seat to a captivating woman whose name thankfully isn’t Louise Archer.Everett’s plans thwart hers, until he begins to resemble the man she came west to find, and she the woman meant to marry his friend.
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“Don’t come, I can’t marry you.” Louise Archer’s heart is crushed when she receives a telegram from her intended, a man who she’s never met but fell in love with via his letters. Does that stop Louise? No, she boards a train west to Kansas determined to convince Jim to marry her. But her well-laid plans unravel when she meets Everett on the same train. She gives an alias while telling lie after lie. As her lies snowball, she finds herself in a myriad of trouble. Can she sort everything out and escape the noose to find her open door or will she suffer the consequences or her lies?
Letters and Lies is a heart wrenching story about one woman’s quest for a happily ever after. Colleen L. Donnelly takes on the classic mail-order bride trope and adds a new element to it. The descriptive narration told from Louise’s POV has a poetic quality to it. When she’s thinking to herself while doing something mundane, her recollection of one of Jim’s letters adds a depth to the plot. I connected with Louise right away and found her spunkiness refreshing. The suspenseful sub-plot had me whipping through the pages. There’s plenty of twists and turns I didn’t see coming. The ending tugged at my heartstrings. If you’re looking for a historical western romance with larger than life characters and a whip-smart romantic at heart heroine, you’ll love Letters and Lies. Highly recommend!
Disclaimer: I received a copy from the author in the hopes I’d review it.
My Rating: 5 stars
Having been jilted by a Colorado homesteader with whom she corresponded over the past many months, Louise Archer travels to the Colorado Territory to understand why “her Jim” would suddenly send a telegram telling her the wedding is off. All of her efforts are stalled in the form of Marshall Everett McCloud in the small Kansas town of Larned.
What begins as a short stopover turns into an adventure as Louise, posing as a grieving widow named Penelope, uses her canny business acumen to fight the machinations of a greedy banker out to destroy Larned and control its populace. In the process, she discovers things about herself and her own value.
Multi-published Colleen L. Donnelly has proven her ability to create intriguing and entrancing fiction. With Letters and Lies, Donnelly’s ability to create colorful, multi-layered characters and fascinating settings simply glows. With some laugh out loud moments, heroine Louise shows herself to be driven and unafraid as she confronts the irascible Cook, smarmy banker Brandt and the enigmatic Marshall McCloud. Well done.
On a scale of 1-5, Letters and Lies deserves a 4.
Kat Henry Doran, Wild Women Reviews
I received an ARC from Voracious readers
Louise traveled to find her open door. She didn’t realize her door was there in St. Louis!
When Louise arrives at Learned she knows she stuck, then comes up with a quick plan to help a woman in need. Not just herself but Lizzy as well.
Low of drama which I like in a book. Very detailed as well. I really didn’t like Amber or Mr. Brandt. Cook was a hoot and a straight shooter!
I thought Jim was Everett, that Jim wasn’t real and Everett was the one who corresponded with Louise.
It seemed Louise kept getting deeper and deeper in mud. She managed to dig her way out and still keep her friends she won over. Just shows that once a woman sets her mind to something, she gets it done.
There were parts that seemed slow, however the story picked up. Great read, I’m not saying more without giving things away.
I wouldn’t usually read a book set in the old West, but Ms. Donnelly kept my attention from the beginning. Louise is a fully-fleshed heroine, whose motives are not always admirable, but is all the more relatable for her flaws, as she reaches out through her brokenness to help others. Though the launching point for the story is a broken romance, it becomes more about friendship, and sisterhood in particular. This is the second book I have read by this author (also Out of Splinters and Ashes), and I enjoyed the distinctive style of each.
I enjoyed this story–although I admit to having a little trouble keeping up! I found myself laughing out loud at the word, “Drat,” and anticipating it. Colleen Donnelly has a warm, refreshing voice and I loved reading it.
I loved all the descriptions, details, and themes throughout the book. Louise’s heartache bled onto the pages, an intense hurt that I could feel as a reader.
When our heroine boards a train headed west where her ex-fiancé lives, she plans to force open the door that had closed to her after being jilted by the man. Only, when she meets his friend, Everett, on the train, her life begins to spiral out of control as she digs herself deeper into a hole with each lie she tells. What had begun as an innocent alias turned into something far more dangerous such as fraud and possibly even an accomplice in murder.
I absolutely loved the comparison of words to bullets throughout the story. Although Louise doesn’t need to shoot a gun, she has plenty of ammo on the tip of her tongue.
One of my favorite relationships in the story was the platonic one between Louise and Cook. Cook’s bark was as bad as his bite, but Louise never backed down, and although it took time (a lot of it), they came to eventually respect one another. The interactions between Louise and Cook show just how fearless she is and how far she is willing to go to make a good change in someone else’s life, or in this case, lots of people’s lives. Although her motive behind helping Lizzy with her restaurant had been selfish at first, it quickly turned into a desire to do good.
This book held me on the edge of my seat as I wondered what would happen next, what the reactions would be when people learned of her lies, and especially the mystery between her, Everett, Jim, and six powerful, heart-wrenching words: Don’t come. I can’t marry you.
Oh, what a tangled web we weave/When first we practice to deceive!
Letters and Lies by Colleen L. Donnelly is the third novel of Ms. Donnelly’s that I’ve read, and it won’t be the last. Unforeseeable outcomes spring from minor, apparently harmless decisions. It’s satisfying—and rare—to read an unpredictable story, one that makes the reader think about the consequences of the characters’ actions.
Genteel, jilted spinster businesswoman Louise Archer marches onto a westbound train to reclaim the man who has jilted her. She uses a different name and poses as a widow for what seems like a good reason but almost immediately leads to complications. Getting off at an earlier stop to extricate herself from those, an impulsive act of kindness leads to more lies and further complications.
The characters are believably developed, the writing is excellent, and I never foresee all the plot twists in Ms. Donnelly’s books or how they will turn out. For me, that makes a five-star novel.
I received a free copy to review via NetGalley and was delighted to do so.
I really enjoyed this historical western romance and found it to be well written and entertaining. The characters are well developed and likable. The storyline flows nicely from start to finish, with broken promises, deception, fraud, and a chance for romance.
This is the first book I have read by this author and would love to read more.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Louise has been corresponding with Jim, and accepts his marriage proposal. Shortly before she leaves St. Louis, he sends a telegram – “Don’t come. I can’t marry you.” She leaves anyway, intending to find out what happened. While on the train, she tells a little lie about who she is and where she’s headed, and now she’s stuck in Larned, KS. What a unique and different book – and I loved reading it! Louise is trying to make the best of a bad situation, and gets in over her head. But she’s persistent, and completely devoted to Lizzy, Les, Cook and Tina and their attempts to make the restaurant profitable. Brandt stinks from the first time he appears, and it’s a wonderful sight when he gets what he deserves. Amber is not much better than Brandt, especially her holier-than-thou attitude. Everett – I fell in love with this man from the beginning – love that he still likes Louise even when he finds out her secret. I loved reading snippets of Jim’s letter to Louise. When it was revealed why Jim couldn’t marry Louise, lets just say that there were a few tears on my part. I’m so glad I had the opportunity to read this book from a new-to-me author.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.