Nellie Wallace is a young widow with two children. In post civil-war New York, the men are scarce and none want the burden of a wife with children. Her dead husband’s family is wealthy, and cruel. Desperate to escape their influence, and eager for a home, a husband, and a stable life for her children, Nellie decides to make a new life in San Francisco as a mail order bride.
Saloon owner Blake … owner Blake Malone is a bachelor and likes it that way. He worked hard for everything he has, but the San Francisco City Council won’t approve his plans to build a family emporium unless he is a family man himself. The solution? A mail order bride from New York who will bring him a ready-made family, stability, and the council’s approval.
Blake expects his future wife to care for his home and, other than helping him impress the city council, to stay out of his business. He expects life as usual. What he gets is an unexpected desire to win Nellie’s heart, a dangerous threat to his new bride, and a rich benefactor determined to steal his new family out from under him. Blake believed his battle for success a hard one. But he will discover that the battle to win Nellie’s heart and keep his family safe is going to take everything he’s got.
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Good read.page turner
I like this cover better than the one I read. Would most likely pick it up more quickly
A perennial favorite of mine and the first book I ever read by the talented Cynthia Woolf. The first of her Brides of San Francisco series. I was instantly hooked! I read this book from beginning to end in one sitting, and have since been completely captivated by each addition to the series. Nellie and Blake’s story is very entertaining, and the secondary characters add just the right amount of spice to a well thought out plot and a wonderful location. You’ll love baby girl Violet and her older brother Henry. There is danger, passion, laughter and love filling the pages of this book and making it a must read for all lovers of great historical western romance.
Enjoyable read.
I really enjoyed the story and swept away with the characters. It is part of a series but can be read on it’s own.
Nellie is a war widow, living on the charity from her late husband’s parents. Tired of their controlling ways, she answers an ad for mail-order brides, willing to travel to San Francisco. When she is presented with a candidate looking for a bride, she gratefully accepts. When she arrives in San Francisco and meets Blake Malone, a saloon owner, she is immediately smitten and agrees to marry him the next morning, deciding there was no reason to wait. While she soon finds out Blake is not only kind and considerate, he loves her children and accepts them as his own. Her heart aches for her husband’s love, but he lets her know that he will never love her, even though he likes and respects her.
Relies on sex to pull off a book. Gave her a second chance, done with this author.
I don’t know what it is about Mrs Cynthia Woolf’s books but they are like a drug to me. She has a general plot formula that she follows in every book of hers that I have read. Still I can’t help myself, I just gotta get my hands on her books. I know that the hero will be really sweet and great in bed. He will treat heroine well, but will tell her that he can’t love her. I know that towards the end he will realize he is in love with her but was too scared to tell her. He almost always figures it out or tells her after she is almost killed. I also know that someone is always coming after the heroine 99% of the time to try and kill her. I also know there will be a pregnancy. I know they will be on the cheesy side but the second I am craving a mushy mail order bride book I go to Cynthia Woolf. She is my fluffy cheese fix.
Now I will say I have a fair number of friends that don’t care for her books, and the common thing they tell me they don’t like is the errors. Grammar, typos, wrong name, etc so if errors are a pet peeve for you don’t read these books. Errors don’t bug me so I’m good. I guess to me I know what I am getting with CW’s book and I like what I get almost every time. They are my safe, easy going fluff read. If you would like to try some of her books and see if they are addictive to you too she has free ones on Amazon all the time. This one was free! So you can try her out without losing any money if you don’t like. 🙂
Easy read. A feel good story with one little twist.
Enjoyed this book. Different from run of the mill romances. I was happy with this book.
I did not like it at all. Characters were too unrealistic.
Good idea for a story, but didn’t really hold me attention all the way through.
Porno in this book. Basic story ok, but not sexual descriptions!!
The book was nice to read but had some explicit bed scenes in it that were not necessary.
Very enjoyable read, I love Ms Wolfe’s writing style, and pick up one of her books when ever I can. Her stories, like this one, allows you to sit back, relax and dive into the characters and the story.
Very good – I purchased entire series
Nice quick read for travelling
Very enjoyable reading!
A good portrayal of the difficulties facing early American widows.the book was realistic and easy to read.
Beautiful story…..I was sad when it was over.