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The Doubletree
TO THE VICTOR, THE SPOILSGlenna Ashe had to get out of town fast. The advertisement for a frontier wife seemed an answer to her prayers --- until she confronted the handsome, brooding widower she was soon to wed. Then even a cold Chicago jail began to look warmer than this Kansas rancher's icy indifference. What would it take to win her husband's heart?Jared Stratton's home needed tending, his boy needed raising and his bed needed warming on a wintry night. He'd wanted a hardworking helpmeet --- not a willful wife. But the more he fought his attraction to proud, headstrong Glenna, the more he realized a battle of love could only be won by surrender ...
219 pages, Unknown Binding
First published September 1, 1990
44 people want to read
About the author
Victoria Pade
351 books45 followersVictoria Pade is the bestselling author of numerous contemporary romances, six historical romances and two mystery novels. She began her writing career after leaving college to have her first daughter. That daughter was seven years old and there was a second daughter, before Victoria had her first book accepted for publication. That novel and the three that followed it were historical romances. But the exit of her husband and the urge to do more contemporary writing that explored the kinds of problems she was facing inspired a switch.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
May 7, 2009
Re-read. I am a sucker for Western romance, like whoa and goddamn. Nineteenth century, not modern day. Modern-day Western romance confuses me a little, because the cowboys are always driving around in Cadillacs and European sports cars, because their families got rich in the oil rush and they just keep ranching as a sort of hobby. Cowboys ride horses and drive pick-up trucks, the junkier the better. Please see Sutherland, Kiefer, The Cowboy Way, not Dynasty.
Anyway, the most amazing thing about this book is that the heroine is 22, not 17 and three-quarters. True, the hero is 11 years older than her, but he’s been widowed once after a marriage of six or seven years, so it’s not like he’s been lone-wolfing it for the entirety of his great bachelorhood. In fact, he has an 18-month-old son. Which is why he’s in Chicago in the first place, putting an advertisement in the paper for a bride. Ohmigod, excitement! Mail-order bride! Baby romance? OK, baby romance. I can deal.
I did enjoy it. Compared to the pinching of the nipple through the cookie sheet (Silk and Steel), this was a very pleasant read. Practically Victor Hugo. Seriously, though, the writing was very readable. There wasn’t too much purple stuff, and the main characters weren't atrocious and stupid and brainless. Their conflict was an understandable one. They weren’t all fussed at each other because she was seen talking to his brother, the notorious man-whore. (In fact, there is not a single man-whore in the entire book.) Instead, they had troubles for reasons that made sense for the historical period and for their characters, and resolved them in a pretty mellow manner for a romance novel. Great work, dear author!
My favorite character was probably the hero’s brother’s wife, Cally. There’s this great scene where she basically tells the heroine that something the hero told her is a bunch of bullshit. If she cursed more, Cally would totally be LSG. Here, just let me quote it, with a little background.
The hero (that’d be Jared) tells the heroine (that’d be Glenna) that marriage is like a doubletree. A doubletree is something that harnesses two horses together, so that they can pull a load more evenly. A marriage is a doubletree, and a husband and wife have to share the load. Jared is quite serious about this, and Glenna is just a tad bit intimidated by it. So, she tells Cally about it, and Cally reacts.
Keep on keeping on, Cally. These Stratton men don’t need a doubletree. They need a wife who will take the billow out of their sails when they get too puffed up. Start that rooster strut, and Cally will pluck your tail feathers out.
There were a couple things that bothered me:
1) The hero has a mustache, and the author spends a lot of time having the heroine admire it. How full and lush and shiny and wheat-colored it is. The first couple times it was just, “OK, so he has a cookie-duster,” but by the time she got around to be dumbstruck by his mustache being “flattened” by the water as he reared, whale-like, out of a pond as they were taking a bath, it was just kind of tired. (Note: “Whale-like” is my phrasing. There is a possibility he could have moved more like Flipper or Nessie.)
2) There’s this scene where everything goes wrong all at once. To wit: The hero’s infant son is sick with a fever and goes into convulsions, his brother’s wife goes into labor without the baby being positioned properly, and (the topper) the barn collapses in a blizzard, killing a shitload of horses and the oldest hired hand and breaking the brother’s oldest son’s legs and arm. He needed stitches as well, just so you know. EVERYBODY WAS IN GREAT PERIL. THE SITUATION WAS QUITE PERILOUS. IT PROVED THE HERO RIGHT THAT LIFE ON THE PRAIRIE INVOLVED MUCH PERIL. But the heroine came through. She saved the day – made pancakes while balancing a baby on her hip and everything, after helping birth a baby girl without killing the mother. What I’m saying is that it was a little over the top. It kind of felt like the author was told she needed to add a few thousand words and put more PERIL in the book.
Other than those two things, great book. If you like Western romance, I totes recommend it. It’s an older Harlequin Historical – published in 1990 – but you ought to be able to find it online. I just Googled, and it’s available on Amazon and Alibris and eBay.
Lastly, the cover on the old edition (1990) was better than the one shown here. It is a little dated now, but the guy on this cover isn't the way I saw the hero in my head.
Anyway, the most amazing thing about this book is that the heroine is 22, not 17 and three-quarters. True, the hero is 11 years older than her, but he’s been widowed once after a marriage of six or seven years, so it’s not like he’s been lone-wolfing it for the entirety of his great bachelorhood. In fact, he has an 18-month-old son. Which is why he’s in Chicago in the first place, putting an advertisement in the paper for a bride. Ohmigod, excitement! Mail-order bride! Baby romance? OK, baby romance. I can deal.
I did enjoy it. Compared to the pinching of the nipple through the cookie sheet (Silk and Steel), this was a very pleasant read. Practically Victor Hugo. Seriously, though, the writing was very readable. There wasn’t too much purple stuff, and the main characters weren't atrocious and stupid and brainless. Their conflict was an understandable one. They weren’t all fussed at each other because she was seen talking to his brother, the notorious man-whore. (In fact, there is not a single man-whore in the entire book.) Instead, they had troubles for reasons that made sense for the historical period and for their characters, and resolved them in a pretty mellow manner for a romance novel. Great work, dear author!
My favorite character was probably the hero’s brother’s wife, Cally. There’s this great scene where she basically tells the heroine that something the hero told her is a bunch of bullshit. If she cursed more, Cally would totally be LSG. Here, just let me quote it, with a little background.
The hero (that’d be Jared) tells the heroine (that’d be Glenna) that marriage is like a doubletree. A doubletree is something that harnesses two horses together, so that they can pull a load more evenly. A marriage is a doubletree, and a husband and wife have to share the load. Jared is quite serious about this, and Glenna is just a tad bit intimidated by it. So, she tells Cally about it, and Cally reacts.
Cally laughed suddenly. “The doubletree? Oh, these Stratton men. I’ll just be that’s what Jared told you he expected in wife, didn’t he? I know because that’s what Joseph told me all those years ago when he asked me to marry him. I said if he ever referred to me as a horse again I’d skin him alive.”
Keep on keeping on, Cally. These Stratton men don’t need a doubletree. They need a wife who will take the billow out of their sails when they get too puffed up. Start that rooster strut, and Cally will pluck your tail feathers out.
There were a couple things that bothered me:
1) The hero has a mustache, and the author spends a lot of time having the heroine admire it. How full and lush and shiny and wheat-colored it is. The first couple times it was just, “OK, so he has a cookie-duster,” but by the time she got around to be dumbstruck by his mustache being “flattened” by the water as he reared, whale-like, out of a pond as they were taking a bath, it was just kind of tired. (Note: “Whale-like” is my phrasing. There is a possibility he could have moved more like Flipper or Nessie.)
2) There’s this scene where everything goes wrong all at once. To wit: The hero’s infant son is sick with a fever and goes into convulsions, his brother’s wife goes into labor without the baby being positioned properly, and (the topper) the barn collapses in a blizzard, killing a shitload of horses and the oldest hired hand and breaking the brother’s oldest son’s legs and arm. He needed stitches as well, just so you know. EVERYBODY WAS IN GREAT PERIL. THE SITUATION WAS QUITE PERILOUS. IT PROVED THE HERO RIGHT THAT LIFE ON THE PRAIRIE INVOLVED MUCH PERIL. But the heroine came through. She saved the day – made pancakes while balancing a baby on her hip and everything, after helping birth a baby girl without killing the mother. What I’m saying is that it was a little over the top. It kind of felt like the author was told she needed to add a few thousand words and put more PERIL in the book.
Other than those two things, great book. If you like Western romance, I totes recommend it. It’s an older Harlequin Historical – published in 1990 – but you ought to be able to find it online. I just Googled, and it’s available on Amazon and Alibris and eBay.
Lastly, the cover on the old edition (1990) was better than the one shown here. It is a little dated now, but the guy on this cover isn't the way I saw the hero in my head.
October 25, 2013
I love this book! It helps that the cover so perfectly captures her. This is one cover where the artist did a bang-up job. But I love the book too. Glenna Ashe needs to get out of town. She has reported her stepfather after witnessing her mother's murder - and he is not a man to cross. Her life won't last long if she stays in Chicago.
I love the scene where they have the 'interview' for the 'position' of wife. Jared Stratton has gotten himself roaring drunk (not something he usually does, so don't worry) and he's suffering from a blinding hangover. Taking on a woman who is clearly lying about the source of her appalling bruises was well done. If not for that curly red hair . . .
Glenna's wonderful hair becomes almost its own character in this book, and it was nice to relish his attraction to her through it, even though it is the bane of her existance. Her irritation with him is also fun, as is her struggle to fit in on a farm when she knows nothing at all about farming, housework, or cooking. I love her plotting to get her blind sister to join them. Both sides of the issue were given equal weight.
It's hard to say why one book draws you and another of equal quality doesn't, but this one got me. I have 2 copies in paper, just to make sure I have one nearby.
I love the scene where they have the 'interview' for the 'position' of wife. Jared Stratton has gotten himself roaring drunk (not something he usually does, so don't worry) and he's suffering from a blinding hangover. Taking on a woman who is clearly lying about the source of her appalling bruises was well done. If not for that curly red hair . . .
Glenna's wonderful hair becomes almost its own character in this book, and it was nice to relish his attraction to her through it, even though it is the bane of her existance. Her irritation with him is also fun, as is her struggle to fit in on a farm when she knows nothing at all about farming, housework, or cooking. I love her plotting to get her blind sister to join them. Both sides of the issue were given equal weight.
It's hard to say why one book draws you and another of equal quality doesn't, but this one got me. I have 2 copies in paper, just to make sure I have one nearby.
October 24, 2017
4.5 stars
A very good story that highlights a time when married and unmarried women were subject to the whims of the men in their lives or even the lack of. To escape a mean abusive stepfather (who also caused the death of her mother), Glenna answered an advertisement to become a frontier wife looking for a home for herself and her blind sister Mary. James was Kansas rancher looking for someone to take care of his son and home who had no children. James was a "widower" whose wife died (as far as Glenna knows) giving birth to their son. Turns out there's a whole other story. This was a really good read and I will look for more Victoria Pade books as future reads.
A very good story that highlights a time when married and unmarried women were subject to the whims of the men in their lives or even the lack of. To escape a mean abusive stepfather (who also caused the death of her mother), Glenna answered an advertisement to become a frontier wife looking for a home for herself and her blind sister Mary. James was Kansas rancher looking for someone to take care of his son and home who had no children. James was a "widower" whose wife died (as far as Glenna knows) giving birth to their son. Turns out there's a whole other story. This was a really good read and I will look for more Victoria Pade books as future reads.
June 4, 2012
Okay, yeah this is a harlequin romance novel. I do not deny it. And yes, it has some vivid, graphically inclined scenes, some of which I still remember from the first time I read it (nervously, sneakily, when I was probably 14-16.) That said, however, the story line is actually really good. It is an interesting book for more reasons than one! This book made me cry and gasp and well... This is a great story. I recommend it to all females (that are not hard-core feminists, it probably wouldn't be good for them...) that are 18 years or older, because lets face it, it is harlequin.
February 27, 2023
The story started out strong, but got a bit boring midway through. I really dislike women characters who won't take sensible advice because they know more than everyone around them (insert heavy eye rolling), so they do stupid things. It's an easy way to move the story along, but it annoys me to no end.
July 12, 2016
Shades of Carolyn Davidson, Mary McBride and Cheryl Reavis.
June 24, 2011
One of my favorite books!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews