Mail Order Noelle
He wanted Melanie. Instead, he got Scarlett
Free-thinking, ambitious Noelle looks to move West to improve her newspaper writing career. Wealthy cattle baron, Grant Chisholm has offered for her sister’s hand, but Merry has other ideas and the girls arrange a switch.
Grant seeks a woman to marry who won’t hamper his lifestyle, but will free him from his grandmother’s matchmaking efforts. His old school mate’s shy, reserved sister seems the ideal choice.
Noelle only needs to get established in the West before she tells Grant he married the wrong sister. Surely a reasonable and wealthy man will annul the marriage and turn her dowry over to her.
Being in Grant’s household provides Noelle interesting research. So does spending time with her husband. Before she can tell him the truth, her sister Merry arrives, and everything falls apart.
Oh my right from the start this one caught me going to tea room should not give you the chills. The story got even more twisty and interesting! The author had so much going on in this book it was fun to read. Noelle and Grant together took down a bunch of bad guys and Noelle gave Grant the one thing he wanted and that was the truth. Excellent book I am happy to recommend it. I did receive a free copy of this book from Booksprout and voluntarily chose to review it
I love Christmas stories! Especially when they’re filled with surprises and sweet romance as is Noelle! Marrying a man she thinks is involved with a railroad scheme, Noelle plans to expose everyone involved, including her groom, Grant. But Grant isn’t the ogre she thinks he is and has a mystery of his own to solve. When these two drop the pleasantries of married strangers and team up to help each other, I could feel the chemistry between them, and I enjoyed the few surprises Grant sprang on Noelle, not only for Christmas, but to convey he knows her better than she sometimes knows herself.
Excerpt
Seeking an unusual woman for matrimony. A helpmate in the serving of justice. Marriage in name only. Sheriff Holmes, Ridgemont, Colorado.
Talia spent most of the trip West praying she wasn’t making the biggest mistake of her life. And Lord knew, there’d been plenty of mistakes thus far in her twenty-some years on earth. She took solace from the fact that a group of women she knew and trusted from the church back home were convinced this was the right choice.
To date, the group had matched dozens of destitute, young, female parishioners with lonely, God-fearing bachelors on the other side of the country. Two of them even remembered Sheriff Holmes’s father, a preacher who had, unfortunately, been killed doing the Lord’s work. They encouraged her to put her name forward.
“What does marriage in name only mean?” she had asked one of the older ladies from the church who was helping her pen her response to the sheriff.
“He means it won’t be necessary for you to share his bed.”
Talia wasn’t sure what kind of helper the sheriff needed, office work perhaps, but compared to working off her deceased husband’s tavern debts, this chance to make a fresh start far from the Brooklyn docks and the tenement where she grew up seemed like the answer to a prayer, and before long she had a train ticket in her hand.
Her heart rate sped up as the train began to slow. “Next stop, Durango,” yelled the conductor. Talia rose and wiped her damp palms on the front of her best skirt. A dull-colored, serviceable cotton, it had been nothing special to start with, even before it became wrinkled and dusty from the trip. As she prepared to disembark, she wondered what kind of woman the sheriff was expecting, and prayed he was a kind man.
As she stared at her surroundings, inhaling the unfamiliar, dry, desert air, a man approached, dark-hair visible beneath his brown Stetson, sunlight hitting a silver star pinned to his chest. She smiled tentatively, but he walked right past her as if she was invisible.
“Sheriff?” she called. “Sheriff Holmes?”
He turned and his eyes raked over her in an impatient way that left her feeling wanting. He took a tentative step toward her, eyes narrowed. “Mrs. Frank?”
Relief flooded through her as she nodded.
He came right up to her then. Tall and broad-shouldered, he loomed over her, making her feel insignificant. “You’re Mrs. Frank?”
