Madeline loves her job working at the newspaper, even if it’s under a pen name. What she doesn’t love is the knowing glances from her neighbors, thanks to the awful man who turned her away. When she is given the assignment to write about mail order brides, she decides to take it one step farther and become one herself.Nathaniel loves his homestead in the wilds of Idaho, and he’s ready to start up … ready to start up his new business. The only problem is that there are few women in the area, and he hopes to find a wife. When his friends suggest he try finding a mail order bride, Nathaniel finds the fiery Madeline’s application and sends off his letter.
While sparks fly between them, things on the ranch aren’t quite as perfect. Winter is coming quickly, making it difficult to get the harvest in, and someone is starting fires throughout the valley. Will their troubles be too much for Madeline and Nathaniel to handle, or will their love be enough to create their happily ever after?
This is Book 2 in The Brides of Golden Valley Series. Book 1, The Blushing Bride, is also part of The Book Club series
Read all the novels by Jaclyn Hardy:
Brides of Golden Valley
The Blushing Bride
The Rancher’s Bride
Silver Script Novels
Ring of Truth
A Christmas Worth Billions
Fashioned for Love
Change in Harmony
Another Chance for Love
Love in Return
Waves of Hope
Love on the Run
Never Say Necklace
Emeralds Are Forever
The Crown is Not Enough
Christmas Royale
Cottonwood Ranch
Roping His Heart
Taming His Heart
Rescuing His Heart
Finding His Heart
Renting His Heart
The Hopeful Heart
more
Madeline becomes a mail order bride for a couple of reasons. Nathaniel longs for a wife and family. I really enjoyed how they just clicked and how their relationship slowly turned true love match. The narrator did a great job switching voices between the characters.
A new author to me.
This is a wonderful story about a woman who writes for a paper in New York but under a man’s name since women would not be allowed to do so. She is also not well tolerated in town since her fiance called off their wedding. People thought it was all her fault plus her parents disowned her even when she told them he was the one to call off the wedding because he loved another.
After she had enough of the stares and gossip, she decided to become a mail order bride since she also just happened to be writing an article about the subject she knew nothing about. She needed research anyway and there was nothing keeping her tied to New York. She gets a stage coach out of town as the train wasn’t leaving until the next day, and she didn’t want to wait.
The same driver and coach took her all the way West to her destination.
She helped her new husband on his farm learning as she went. They had a big potato harvest to do all done by hand. He found her willing to try anything, while still keeping the house and cooking and still writing.
He also didn’t mind her writing as long as she still helped him get his harvest in to sell in town along with butter and cheese.
They fell deeply in love but there were still problems along the way. This is a wonder and inspiring story to read and I highly recommend it
The Rancher’s Bride #2 – This is a sweet story starting in New York and settling in Idaho about an independent woman becoming a mail order bride as research for her newspaper article. The romance is sweet, the characters are good, kind and caring, and the storylines are interesting. While not of the substance or depth as Ms. Hardy’s usual writing style, this is better than many of the mail order brides “books” available today. Cottonwood Ranch Series is still my favorite. 4*
Cottonwood Ranch Series:
The Cottonwood Ranch is a wonderful, heartwarming series. Clean, realistic, well written stories filled with fun characters, great descriptions and no stupid formulas. Whether writing as Jaclyn Weist or Jaclyn Hardy, her work is entertaining and filled with love.
Roping His Heart #1 – Heartwarming! A well written, humorous romance with lovable characters and real dialogue. This story was so good I read it in one sitting and was sad when it ended. I look forward to reading more of this author. I volunteered to ARC the Mansion series. 5*
Taming His Heart #2 – Fun and heartwarming! Another well written, happy romance with more lovable characters, old and new, along with real dialog and a well thought out plot. We find out what happened to Rachel and her family, along with meeting a new member to the cast. This book is just as interesting as Roping His Heart, the first book of this series. 5*
Rescuing His Heart #3 – Heartwarming. The third in the Cottonwood Ranch series is just much fun as Roping and Taming (His Heart). Our favorite characters are still with us growing into more interesting people and the new ones are interesting and lovable, too. The storyline and the dialog are well written and realistic, no stupid formula with this author. Rachel’s mansion is even a larger character with this book. Personality, humor and growth in a clean and happy, heartwarming style. 5*
Finding His Heart #4 – While this wasn’t my favorite, read the first three, it fits perfectly into the Cottonwood Ranch series. Well written with good storylines and interesting, realistic characters, this entertaining story keeps the reader glued to the pages. This quickly read, clean story to relax with is a great way to relax. 4*
Renting His Heart #5 – Heartwarming and funny! Another wonderful addition to one of my favorite series of clean, realistic romance series. While I’m not a fan of these fake marriages that’s so common nowadays, Ms. Hardy does a good job with this theme; the characters are actually in love to begin with, but must get the kinks worked out. There’s plenty of the series characters popping in and out, and some of my favorite character locations play their parts. A well thought out, realistic and entertaining book with good storylines and sweet characters. 5*
Cottonwood Ranch Series end.
Jaclyn Hardy is so good at weaving a story that I fell in love with and could not put down. The characters are so real that I felt like I was right there and they were my friends.
I also liked that characters from her book in the Book Club series were woven into this story about Madeline and Nathaniel. Madeline is a bold, outspoken woman in this book. She writes for a newspaper in New York City under a man’s pen-name. She decides one day just for research she would become a mail order bride.
The story was realistic and inspiring and I enjoyed visiting that time period. It was fun to go back to the late 1800’s to see how life was in the Idaho territory. Great characters and story of the trials and tribulations of that time with a breath of fresh air in the main characters. I received an advance copy of this book and I willingly chose to write an honest review.
This is the second book I’ve read in this series. The characters are sweet, but with an interesting desire to persevere and succeed in building new lives in Idaho. The writing is well done. The story lines are clean and anyone can read these books. I enjoy spending a few hours with these characters.
I feel like a lot of mail order bride stories are about how different life is and quite an adjustment period. We didn’t have that with this one. I kept expecting it, but it didn’t come and I kind of enjoyed how easily they melded their lives together. Madeline was a lot more adept at living out west than I expected and it was great. Her and Nathaniel work well together and both were invested in making it work. This was a fun story. Every once in a while things didn’t feel accurate to the time period, but for the most part it was a good story.
This was a little different than the average mail order bride books. Madeline is an unusual woman for her time. She writes newspaper articles under a male pen name. Nathaniel is a farmer in Idaho. Both characters are likable. The plot had some twists and turns and moves along at a good pace. There were a few little things that didn’t make sense to me, but I did enjoy reading this story. There’s an HEA and a tender epilogue. I like Jaclyn Hardy’s writing style and find it easy to read. If you like historical western romances and mail order bride stories, I think you’ll like this book.
The Rancher’s Bride was a very interesting book that I really enjoyed. Madeline was a very interesting character. She wrote for a newspaper – using a male pen name. When asked to write about mail order brides, she became one! Fortunately Nathaniel turned out to be a good man. There are many challenges as winter approaches, fires are set, and Nathaniel learns he was a research project. If you want to know more you will have to read this entertaining book for yourself.