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MAIL-ORDER BRIDES OF THE WEST is a new series created in collaboration by USA Today Bestselling Authors Caroline Fyffe and Debra Holland. Well-bred socialite and bride-to-be Trudy Bauer arrives at the St. Louis based Mail-Order Brides of the West agency full of excitement for an adventure of a lifetime. She befriends the agency’s maid, Evie Davenport, and the two form a strong and lasting friendship. They vow to stay in contact through letters when Evie takes hold of her destiny and arranges a marriage on the sly. Each brave young woman is ready to face whatever an unknown groom and life in Montana can throw her way.

In Fyffe’s Novel, house servant Evie Davenport travels by stagecoach to Y Knot, Montana in a McCutcheon Family Novel. In Holland’s book, bride-to-be Trudy Bauer rides the train to Sweetwater Springs, in a Montana Sky Novel. Through their correspondence, the friends keep each other abreast of their hardships, trials and tribulations—some of heartbreak, some of love.

Books One and Two are only the beginning. Watch for more exciting Mail-Order Brides of the West books to come….

Mail-Order Brides of the West: Evie
Mail-Order Brides of the West: Trudy

246 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 22, 2013

1429 people are currently reading
405 people want to read

About the author

Caroline Fyffe

30 books628 followers
USA Today Bestselling Author Caroline Fyffe was born in Waco, Texas, the first of many towns she would call home during her father's career with the US Air Force. A horse aficionado from an early age, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in communications from California State University-Chico before launching what would become a twenty-year career as an equine photographer. She began writing fiction to pass the time during long days in the show arena, channeling her love of horses and the Old West into a series of Western historicals. Her debut novel, Where the Wind Blows, won the Romance Writers of America's prestigious Golden Heart Award as well as the Wisconsin RWA's Write Touch Readers' Award. She and her husband have two grown sons and live in the Pacific Northwest.

Visit Caroline at www.carolinefyffe.com
See her photographs at www.carolinefyffephoto.com
http://facebook.com/caroline.fyffe
Twitter @carolinefyffe
Write to her at caroline@carolinefyffe.com. She loves hearing from readers!

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5 stars
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 81 reviews
Profile Image for Ingie.
1,480 reviews167 followers
September 9, 2015
Written September 5, 2015

4 Stars - Sweet as sugar and still I enjoyed (a lot). Perfect adorable audio HR-Western

The other day I bought this Evie romance as a 6 hrs audiobook narrated by Lara Asmundson (new for me). I hadn't a clue if this was a good one or even a romance novel for me. I just wanted another "Wild West Historical".

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Evie is a m/f historical about the house servant at the "Mail-Order Brides of the West Agency", Evie Davenport, who take her future in her own hands, answer a request and a a time later travels far away by stagecoach to Y Knot, Montana as the bride-to-be to the farmer Chance Holcomb.
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“Cooking isn't hard. It just takes a little bit of imagination and determination.”

Evie's future husband Chance is a total stranger but Evie liked his nice letters and the thought of him. She just didn't want to be a "used" unmarried maid the rest of her life. She is a few years after her twenty years birthday and it is time to change life. — But...she can't even cook a meal or bake a cake...

Chance is also a quite innocent (27 years old) young man. He is nervous and a bit shy cowboy with big dreams about a future ranch, a family and a lovely wife to care about. — Though, he has not yet finished to building the promised house for her. There isn't even a roof on it yet....

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This is the sweetest mail order bride romance you can imagine. Absolutely adorable and so nicely narrated by Lara Asmundson. She did these two lovely main characters sounds even cuter.

Sometimes I get just nervous and annoyed when there are misunderstandings, unspoken truths and young (YA behaving) characters in my romances. But this time it worked....very well. In Evie was it just cute and heartbreakingly sweet. No baddies, no nasty intrigues, no evil moments and it was a relief. I simply enjoyed and smiled (my silly goofy romances reading way) most of the time. ...Oddly enough, haha!
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“Chance?” At the sweet sound, Chance swung around, relief flooding his heart. The voice and the sensibility of the letters he’d read so many times matched the young woman perched in the coach doorway, and he knew intuitively who she was. (...) He reached up, encircled her small waist with his hands, and set her gently on the ground. My wife.’

Evie is the kind of romance you can recommend your young teen daughter or niece and even your prude older auntie or grandma. It's amazing how good and nice it can be with just romantic thoughts, fragile innocent 'young' feelings and sweet tender first kisses. A true old fashioned goodfeel romance for moments when you just need "nice & touching sweet". I liked, it will be more of these books and this great narrator.
...‘He gathered her to him, and with the coyotes in the background serenading them from the hills, kissed her until her breath caught and her heart fluttered.’

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Awwww, so sweeeeet !!

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I LIKE - to smile goofy the "cute puppies" way
Profile Image for Seon Ji (Dawn).
1,051 reviews276 followers
Read
July 3, 2022
Looks like I found a new favorite safe romance author!

Chance decided after seeing an ad, to get a mail order bride. He wrote letters, and sent money to Evie to come from St. Louis to be his bride.

Evie has some secrets. She was an illegitimate child growing up with no father. Her mother was a maid for a mail order bride company and when she passed Evie became the new maid. Not being eligible to partake in the mail order process, to become a bride, she stole a letter she felt drawn to and began to correspond to Chance.

She left in the night to go away to Montana to be with Chance.

So we have a sweet romance whose main conflict is secrets. Chance has a few secrets too but all of these are minor.

Great read.

Content concerns


Profile Image for Kathy Heare Watts.
6,954 reviews175 followers
September 23, 2018
CHANCE GETS A MAIL-ORDERED BRIDE

The third story in the McCutcheon Family Series will have Chance Holcomb, formerly of the McCutcheon’s Heart of the Mountain, sending to St. Louis for a mail-ordered bride. The story will have a few of the people found in previous and following stories but will mostly concentrate on Chance, Evie, and a few other key characters. While this story is part of a series, it will easily read well as a stand-alone, and also with a couple mail-ordered bride books by Debra Holland.

Chance Holcomb is a man who works hard, and while he enjoyed his time he worked at the Heart of the Mountain for the McCutcheon family, he is even happier that he has his own ranch that he is starting up. What a man needs is a piece of land, a good living, and a wife and family. Because of his lifelong savings and an inheritance from an Aunt he didn’t even know about, he was able to buy a tract he had been eyeing for ages. Now that he has the start of his ranch, getting his cattle, Charolais, he takes the next step in sending a letter to a matrimonial agency in St. Louis.

Evie Davenport is grateful to Mrs. Seymour for allowing her to take over the duties previously held by her mother. She watches as young ladies come there and learn the skills to become a mail-order bride, and she is envious of them. But with her past, she may never qualify and never asks Mrs. Seymour about it. She longs to have a husband and children and maybe the way she goes about it isn’t on the up-and-up, but desperate times call for desperate actions.

The plot will have Chance Holcomb sending a request to St. Louis for a mail-order bride, and Evie Holcomb will start corresponding back with him. They will each share a little bit of information, and then Chance will send her money for transportation and Evie will quietly leave her employment and travel to Y Knot Montana. While the information they shared via correspondence wasn’t lies, it wasn’t complete truths either, and that will play major roles in the story from beginning to end.

Not because he wasn’t trying, but Chance can’t seem to get the nails, he desperately needs to complete the farmhouse for his bride to be. She will show up, and he must keep her in town at the motel and doesn’t want to tell her about the condition of the home he promised her. Evie will be more understanding than he gives her credit and proves she is a hard worker and asks for little. Evie has avoided the truth about knowing how to cook and must enlist the aid of one of the ladies in the area, but she wants to keep it a secret from Chance as to why. Secrets lead to doubt and confusion and misunderstandings. Lots of hurt feelings before the truth is revealed.

The story has a great cast of characters along with interaction between them. In the process of protecting secrets, when they are finally revealed, they will both realize that most of it was trivial. The story is a great addition to this series, and it was nice to see other characters in the McCutcheon series that wasn’t family finding their happily ever after story.
Profile Image for Julie Morales.
420 reviews1 follower
January 7, 2020
HIDDEN PASTS

We first meet Chance in Luke's story. When Luke comes back from the cattle drive with Faith, her son and newborn baby, Luke isn't the only one sweet on Faith, but Faith chose Luke, and that experience seems to have left Chance even more shy around women than before. He doesn't think there's any other way he'll find a woman. He can't even seem to find the sense to string two words together, so finding a mail-order bride seems like the best choice. At least most of their getting to know each
other could take place in letters, and Chance could handle that.
Evie is a maid working in a Victorian house in St. Louis. Her mother died eight years before, and the proprietress of the Mail Order Brides of the West agency had taken her in. Her mother had worked there, Evie had been born there and her mother had died there, so now, Evie held the position her mother had. But she had dreams, too. She didn't plan on spending her whole life as a maid. She wouldn't even mind if her whole life wasn't spent in St. Louis. She longed for adventure, but she wasn't a candidate for the mail order bride agency. The girls had to be from a morally strong background, and Evie didn't even know who her father was. She could keep a good, clean house, but she couldn't even really cook that much. What were her chances?
Evie takes things into her own hands, though, and comes into possession of one of the potential groom's letters, addressed to the agency, and she answers the letter. From there, she finds herself with Chance, a former ranch hand at the McCutcheon ranch. He now has his own ranch, but things aren't quite as Evie thought they'd be when she arrived. Then again, she wasn't exactly who Chance thought he'd be getting, either.
Neither one had intentionally lied, but both had secrets, and both thought their secrets would be the end of something they both wanted so much. How were they going to untangle this mess? Or could they? Would Chance be destined to live out his life on his ranch alone, or at least without the woman he'd come to love? And if Chance couldn't stand the type of person she really was, where would Evie go?
This was a pretty low-key story, but a good one, nonetheless. It's a well-deserved reminder of how honesty usually ends up being the best policy in the end, after all.
Profile Image for N.W. Moors.
Author 12 books159 followers
November 20, 2022
I love mail-order bride stories, so this third book in the McCutcheon series really worked for me. Evie is the maid in a building that houses a mail-order bride agency. She decides to take matters into her own hands and responds to Chance Holcomb, a Montana rancher and formerly a cowboy on the McCutcheon ranch.
There are the usual miscommunications and withholdings that occur in romance books between a couple that don't know each other well, but Evie is sweet and Chance is patient, so it all works out. It was interesting to read about the day-to-day life on a small cattle ranch.
Profile Image for Heather C.
494 reviews80 followers
December 8, 2016
This mail-order bride series is a different type of series in that it is being written by two different authors instead of just one author for the whole series. Each author has written their own books in the series, but their characters are interconnected. This is seeming to become more of a common occurrence these days with authors writing in each other’s series. The characters written about by Debra Holland will also appear in her Montana Sky series while the characters in Caroline Fyffe’s novels will appear in her McCutcheon Family series. So, it will be kinda cool to see how all of these characters interact, but I love the idea that they are loosely tied to one another. I would recommend reading Evie and Trudy at approximately the same time because the events in one bounce off of the other as the two women correspond with each other through letters interspersed throughout. After reading both books you get a complete idea of what they are discussing. It was even cute how at the end of the book, Evie is holding a conversation with her new husband about trying to find husbands for her friends at the bride agency – which we will see in coming books!

Evie’s significant issue throughout this book is getting over the fact that she “is only a maid” and therefore somehow not good enough for her husband. This is a fact that she keeps from everyone in her new life right from the start and becomes her central point of concern throughout. What will happen if people find out that she isn’t some well-born lady and was just a maid at the Mail Order Bride agency? She has to overcome this issue within her own head because she makes quite a mess of things by trying to keep it a secret. Also, being as she hasn’t had all of the comportment type training that the ladies who do come through the agency have, Evie has to learn how to do any of the housewife things that are expected of her. She certainly grows as a character throughout this book. I enjoyed her spunky personality and her willingness to learn what it takes to make a life out in the West and to take her destiny into her own hands.

Chance Holcomb, Evie’s new husband, is also keeping something from her – very early on, like in his first chapter or so, we find out that he isn’t anywhere near completing the house that he promised her. He goes to some extraordinary lengths to deal with all of the roadblocks that come up regarding this matter. Chance is somewhat of an insecure man and he is constantly worrying that he isn’t good enough for Evie and that she will leave him for another man from town who could offer her more. These qualities kept me from liking him as much as Seth from Debra Holland’s Trudy, be he is still a good man in the end. These misunderstandings and miscommunications between Evie and Chance provide the main turmoil between these two characters, but they are rectified eventually.

This was a very sweet, light, and simple romance. There wasn’t any crazy plot twists needed as this was simply a story of getting to know one another and also grow as both a couple and as individuals.

Lara Asmudson does a good job at narrating this series so far. I found her style of reading for Evie to really evoke her sweetness and also her questioning of every situation and how to handle it. There is a searching/inquiring tone to her. You could tell the characters apart from slight changes of voice, but it is not so obvious that it is distracting (which was a problem that I had with a prior narration from her). Her reading pace is unhurried and made a 200 page novel feel longer (in a good way).

This review was previously posted at The Maiden's Court blog; all thoughts and opinions are my own.
Profile Image for Jennette.
573 reviews
September 7, 2014
This was almost too predictable. It wasn't awful but not great either. Too much fretting over the lies and when to confess, too much second guessing of what the other might think, and too much insecurity and whining. I kept thinking if they are willing to take a chance like mail ordering a spouse where was that risk taking attitude when they meet? Evie wasn't adventurous or strong or brave. She was a sneaky child that ran away from home without considering the consequences. Chance is also childish with his longing for a woman he can't have. He wants a wife like his friend so he just sends for one of his own? Without thinking about what having a wife is like, he just expects she will fill the hole in his heart that another woman left. He is like a child who really wanted neighbor's cherished toy.
Profile Image for Linda.
1,128 reviews54 followers
May 28, 2014
*** This review is for the AUDIBLE edition of Evie ***

What a sweet romance! I really enjoyed it and didn't want it to end...

Mail-Order Brides of the West: Evie is a pure and sweet western romance primarily set in St. Louis and Y Knot, Montana. It's the first book I've ever read both by this author, Caroline Fyffe, and about a mail order bride.

My full review will be posted at Reading Between the Wines Book Club. Check it out here: http://www.readingbetweenthewinesbook...
Profile Image for C..
770 reviews119 followers
August 13, 2017
I can't stand romances full of ANGST, or where the H-or-h jumps to mistaken conclusions or one or both keeps secret(s) almost the entire book! All that aggravation takes any joy out of the romance and usually turns me against one or both of them. This book had too much of those negatives, so it does not make my Favorites shelf!
Profile Image for Jo Ann.
1,062 reviews5 followers
October 12, 2013
Sweet, romantic story. Nice to see characters from the earlier books. Would have liked an epilogue!!!! Hope we see more of Chance and Evie in the next book.
Profile Image for Pam.
4,625 reviews67 followers
July 15, 2019
Mail-Order Brides of the West: Evie: A McCutcheon Family Novel: Book 3 is by Caroline Fyffe. This is not a book about the McCutcheon family but about its extended family. It takes place in Y Knot, Montana with the McCutcheon former cowhand, Chance Holcomb. It is a cute little book that is quick and easy to read.
Chance Holcomb had received a small inheritance from an Aunt he didn’t even know. This inheritance allowed him to fulfill a dream which was to own his own cattle ranch. Of course, if wouldn’t be on the same scale as the McCutcheon’s but instead of quantity, he would rely on quality. He wanted to raise Charolais and possibly breed them with Holsteins. That was a long way in the future. Now he had the land and his first head of cattle. This summer would be getting settled and that meant getting his house finished and getting his mail-order bride here.
Evie Davenport was twenty-two and a maid in the house where she grew up. Mrs. Seymour ran the Mail-Order Brides of the West Agency and she had taken in Evie’s mother as well as Evie when she was born. When Evie’s Mother died Evie took her place as maid. She was tough; but fair to Evie; but she never considered her for a position with the other brides. Evie had intercepted Chance’s letter and answered him. Now, she was preparing to go to Montana and marry him. She just didn’t tell Mrs. Seymour about Chance or her going to Montana.
Now that Evie was in Montana, she had to tell Chance the truth about herself or risk losing him when he found out; but can she find the nerve to do so?
841 reviews7 followers
September 24, 2022
This is Evie's story. Evie worked at a marriage agency. She would have liked to placed by the agency with a man looking for a bride, but knew that this would never happen. She was not from a wealthy family. She really wanted to get married and one day answered a letter from a man seeking a mail order bride. She had begun falling in love with him when she read his letter to the agency. She felt this man was for her. She arrived in his hometown and fell in love immediately. They began to get to know one another and grew closer by the day.

Then Evie started having second thoughts because she had not told him the truth about her family-- that she did not know her father and her mother worked as a maid. She became so worried about his reaction that she almost left him. He listened to her story and wanted to marry her anyway. Read this book to see what happened. Did she get her "Happily ever after" ending?
700 reviews7 followers
May 11, 2020
Disappointing

This story was so different from the first two in the series that I began to think it was written by a different author. As it was the 'McCutcheon Series' I presumed it would be about a member of that family. I was disappointed. It did not hold my attention like the first two and I skipped huge chunks, just grabbing the main frame of the action.
Chance Holcomb was a ranch hand in the first story. Now he has begun his own ranch and sent for a mail order bride.
Evie was a maid at the mail order bride headquarters and intercepted a letter (from Chance) and wrote to him agreeing to be his wife.
No huge plot, no drama, just a plain mail order bride story. Disappointing.
Profile Image for Lydia E Winters.
233 reviews2 followers
October 15, 2020
Well, Evie's story was much better than the second book in the series, although not quite as good as the first. I'll probably end up reading some of the others at some point.

Chance was a wonderful guy, vulnerable and trying so hard to make Evie happy. It was easy to see why she fell in love with him so quickly.

The story seemed shorter than the others, maybe because it was also part of another series? I would have liked to read a bit more about Fancy Aubrey. Or at least find out what Evie thought when she realized what the woman did for a living. There were a few little things like that that could have used a little more time.

All in all, a cute story though.
Profile Image for Lynda.
1,224 reviews35 followers
January 11, 2021
So enjoyable to read.

I've seen four star ratings for this book and have to scratch my head wondering why.
Good characters, rich scenery descriptions (often missing in mail order bride books), believable reasons why both the bride and groom didn't share certain things (not telling, don't want to give too much away), and a sweet dog who reminds me of my farm dogs while growing up.

BTW, 10% of this book contains excerpt from two other books. Anyway, I laughed out loud once. Chuckled multiple times. What else would a reader want from a MOB?
1,161 reviews26 followers
June 29, 2023
Evie Davenport has grown up in the home of a woman who prepares women for marriage and sets up matches for them. Evie has worked in the house but was never given the opportunity to be a trained mail order bride. So she takes matters into her own hands and sets off for Y Knot, Montana to marry Chance who she has been corresponding with. All that she expects and hopes for seems to be coming true, then misunderstandings and secrets start getting in the way. Can Evie and Chance survive their problems and find the happiness they both are looking for?
Profile Image for Dixie-Lee Campbell.
331 reviews18 followers
May 8, 2017
A Sweet lovely mail-order bride story about Evie and Chance. I enjoyed this entertaining storyline very much ! It was a great touch to have the wonderful McCutcheon Family and their friends pay a visit too .

I am looking forward to hearing more of Evie's friend Trudy's, mail-order bride experience ...
Profile Image for thered_hairedreader.
185 reviews3 followers
February 9, 2019
Very sweet and wholesome. Sometimes I need a break from all of the worldwind drama and angst that a lot of novels bring. Caroline Fyffe's novels are just the ticket for me when I need to believe the world is so much better than it actually is. You don't necessarily need panty dropping novels to make you feel love with her characters. Chance and Evie were adorable.
123 reviews1 follower
November 7, 2022
Sweet and Special

Evie is such a lovely young woman, but so very tired of her life. Will it never change? Taking matters into her own hands, she travels 1,300 miles to the wilds of Montana territory to marry a man she's never met or seen.
Loved this story, will probably read it again down the road.
230 reviews1 follower
February 10, 2024
They Just Just Get Better and Better

Sweet story strong original plot. Handsome H and darling h make a go of it. Chance and Evie are so well developed and solve problems quickly. Fun wholesome read I couldn’t put down, great new author for me read book 1 now 2 and happy to read book 3… great entertainment…thank you CF a for your efforts and talent.
108 reviews
September 1, 2025
Bride fears being left when tells husband about past.

Such a fearful scared bride- a wonder made out West by herself. The characters of the past Mail order brides blend into this book so easily.Like that author keeps the storyline to blend together. Biggest fear of new bride is cooking ability- but sure can clean a house! Enjoyed reading this adventure.
Profile Image for Debbi.
1,010 reviews
July 26, 2017
The second in the series and just as entertaining as the first. In this one, Evie is a maid at the "Mail-Order Bride" Agency plus she is illegitimate so she could not become one of the brides. She wants to be one so badly though so .....
Profile Image for Kathy Brickert.
3,461 reviews18 followers
December 28, 2018
Lovely story

So glad to see Chance find his true love! We are back in YKnot for another bride story and this one is dead to !y heart because I hate spiders also! But who doesn't? Cute story, great read!
Profile Image for Tj Walker.
299 reviews5 followers
May 23, 2019
Great book

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Evie and Chance's story. They are a couple of great sounding young adults just getting going in life. Their and downs are so true to life. I loved this story!
Profile Image for Jennifer Hill.
514 reviews
August 20, 2019
I've always been interested in mail-order brides and how people made that work. This was an interesting story, I like how you got to see some of the McCutcheon Family in it, but you also got to learn more about other characters and the town.
830 reviews
November 15, 2019
Good read

This book is a good example of how people get mistaken ideas about a relationship when they don’t communicate, although it was understandable in light of the fact that they didn’t really know each other. Enjoy 💜
269 reviews
November 27, 2019
A good book. Three stars because I thought it dragged too much, with Evie and Chance not telling their not-so-serious secrets to each other. Had they done that, they wouldn't have had any problems. Of course, this book wouldn't have existed either. 😏
948 reviews2 followers
April 21, 2020
Enjoyable read

After reading one after another suspenseful and psychological books, it is a pleasure to pick up a Caroline Fyffe book. Mail order brides in the old west. Very well written and truly a good read.
Profile Image for Donna Duggins.
240 reviews
October 23, 2021
Romantic

I enjoyed this book. Love is hard especially not knowing your husband before you marry. I am sure during this time in history this was how alot of marriage began. Hopefully they became what this couple becomes.
Profile Image for Kathy.
1,699 reviews5 followers
March 30, 2022
Evie is a maid at the Mail order bride school. When she picked up the mail one day, one of the letters seemed to speak to her. She took it, read it, and wrote back. She left her employment and went to marry Chance.
A very nice book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 81 reviews

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