A historical western cowboy romance novel about a mail order bride.
** A clean romance novel **
Madelyn O’Connor is beautiful, popular, and comfortable with her opulent life. That is until she is brutally attacked by the son of one of the wealthiest families in Pittsburgh. Her parents are ready to fight the case out in the courts, but Madelyn doesn’t want any publicity about it. She wants … doesn’t want any publicity about it. She wants to forget that it ever happened, but can’t.
Her family grows increasingly worried about the depressive state she falls into and they try to come up with ways to help her, but nothing seems to work. Tessa feels that it would be best for Madelyn to get far away from the city and wants her to come to Montana, but Madelyn is resistant to the idea.
Seth Samuels, Tessa’s brother-in-law, becomes injured when he and his men are attacked by wild dogs on a cattle drive. He’s morose and anxious over the prospect of not being able to participate in drives any longer. Tessa sees two people she loves hurting and thinks that maybe they can help each other when no one else can. She appeals to Seth to help convince Madelyn to come west. Seth refuses at first, but then figures that since he can’t do much else he might as well try to help.
Madelyn and Seth begin a volley of letters in which Seth entices Madelyn to come meet him. She finds him charming and eventually cannot resist his entreaties. She and Tessa convince her parents to let her make the trip. Geoffrey agrees to accompany his second eldest daughter to Montana.
When Seth and Madelyn meet they are instantly attracted to each other, but when Seth’s condition becomes even more serious, Seth is prepared to face the worst. Madelyn isn’t about to give up on him, however, and becomes determined to help the man with whom she’s smitten to heal. Together they embark on a journey of recovery as Seth agrees to go back East to get more modern treatment. As their relationship deepens there are seemingly insurmountable obstacles that threaten to tear them apart. Can each of them compromise in order to have a future together or will their pride keep them from realizing their dreams?
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You arenot sending my book I read I I read westward brides by linda briefly
Audible. Also available on Audible Escape.
Please see my note at the bottom for trigger warnings & whether this is truly a “clean” romance as it contains spoilers.
This is the second book in the series and, despite being disappointed in the first one, I opted to continue as the ratings went up significantly. I think this series is best enjoyed by those who don’t take historical accuracy or plausibility too seriously. Also, while the first couple was truly a “mail order bride” situation ~ the MCs here are the siblings of the MCs from the first book. So it doesn’t actually fit that description.
Overall it was an OK listen. Again Bridey’s style of continually changing POV, even mid-paragraph, made it difficult to keep up with who is talking and damaged cohesiveness. As other reviewers mentioned there didn’t seem to be a consistency with what era the book was in. It’s better than the first one though, 2.5 stars.
Scott Bennett has a nice voice for this genre and did a good job giving each character their own individual sound. I look forward to listening to him in the future.
*** TW & Clean Romance issues ***
First, this book opens with the assault and attempted rape of Maddie. The physical blows she receives are detailed and the incident is mentioned throughout the book. If you just don’t want to hear about the actual assault, you could start with chapter 2 and do just fine.
Clean romance is kind of a inconsistently defined genre. However, I think there’s some things in this book that might be troubling to someone who sought this out specifically because it was clean. 1. There are curse words used regularly through the book. d***, a**, and jack*** appear multiple times. The nonspecific phrase “he swore” is also used repeatedly. Seth has vast sexual history outside of marriage and it’s talked about repeatedly by various characters. He does disclose this to Maddie, and she, in turn, admits to not being a virgin.
I listen to everything from clean to erotica, so I don’t care and it didn’t impact my rating ~ but I think folks who are specifically looking for clean romance might be caught off guard.
*** End spoilers ***
I received a free copy of this audiobook and am voluntarily leaving a review.
A second sister for a second brother and I couldn’t have been happier spending my time on this one. Maddie has always been a free spirit and social butterfly but her wings are well and truly clipped after a frightening event that leave her feeling brutalised. The once vibrant young woman becomes a social recluse. That is until her sister Tessa asks her brother in law Seth to correspond with her. Tessa has seen a need in both of them. When Luke is gravely injured Tessa asks for her fathers help. This sets off a chain of events that secures a happy ending for everyone. Loved it and loving how the story is building.
Madelyn O’Connor is from a well to do family in Pittsburgh. Maddie is generally the life of the party until one night changes her life setting her into a deep depression that leaves her family stumped at how to help her. Seth Samuels is the brother in law of Maddie’s sister Tessa. Seth becomes severely injured on a cattle drive and Tessa suggests maybe he write to Maddie while he is laid up so they can maybe help heal each other. This is a clean historical romance novella.
This is second in a series of books but fortunately you don’t have to read them all. This book does a nice job as a stand alone. Maddie was a young socialite who gets beaten and withdrawn until she starts getting letters from a sister’s brother in law. I would have liked more story while in Pittsburgh but overall I liked this book better than the first.