Ebenezer 'Eb' Livingston is plumb tired of being alone. Eight grueling months at a swing station for the Woodruff and Ennors Stage Company with nothing more than hard tack and the horses for company is more than a man can bear, especially with Indian hostilities closing in around him. When he's offered the keeper position at the nearest home station on the condition he find a wife, Eb doesn't take much convincing. A couple letters to a mail-order bride agency and the matter will be taken care of. When two women arrive in the nearest small Nevada town, however, Eb's life is complicated beyond imagination. To make matters worse, it seems both women have personal agendas involving him. How can he possibly know who will make the best voluptuous and educated Helen or quiet, kind Jess? It's double trouble!
Join Eb in the wilds of the Silver State where dreams are put to the test and love changes everything in this sweet historical mail-order bride western.
Reading has always been a passion of mine. I always wanted to become an author but it was a "someday" sort of goal. In 2017, I decided to make my dream a reality and began my first book. While I enjoy nearly all fiction, historical novels particularly fascinate me.
My family and I live in Southern Utah, USA. I grew up on horseback and treasured any time I could spend riding through the red sands and sagebrush. My husband Randon and I have four children - including a set of twins. Nothing makes me happier than being a wife and mother.... but reading is a very close second!
The new Double Trouble series are clean historical western-based books with mail-order brides but in each story, the groom will find himself faced with a dilemma of two women. Each book will also focus on how multiple potential brides came into the picture.
The story takes place in June 1879 and begins in Central Nevada. Ebenezer ‘Eb’ Livingston lives and works along one of the swing stations along the Nevada route. He has been here for years, living alone, only seeing and talking to people when the stagecoach comes through to change horses, and then they are gone. He learns that the Red Gulch station is becoming available, but to get it, he must be married.
“Eb would do just about anything to secure the nearest one, the Red Gulch station; anything at all. Including marrying a woman he’d never met.”
When the latest stage rolls in, it will have Mr. Lorin Shooke, a traveling salesman. When he asks Eb about leaving the swing station, knowing he must be married to gain a station like Red Gulch.
Lorin: Ain’t nothin’ smooths the prickly edges of a place such as this like a soft, curvy woman. Yes sir, that’s what you need, a woman. Someone to cook, keep house, and warm your bed each lonely, forsaken night. You’re a young man yet with plenty of good years left. No sense wasting them. Eb: We’ve had this conversation enough times, Mr. Shooke. You know I ain’t lookin’. It wouldn’t be fair to any woman, expecting her to come out here. It’s hard living. Lorin: I ain’t arguin’ that. Why, I know just what I’ll do. I’ll send you a woman myself, someone with bright eyes, a voice clear as crystal, and hands accustomed to work. Why haven’t I thought of it before? Eb: You’ll do no such thing. Promise me. Lorin: I won’t! You need to trust your old friend to do the right thing. Eb: The right thing would be to allow me to make such life-altering decisions on my own. Lorin: Ah, but you’ll never do it. Leave it to me, Ebenezer, leave it to me!
The story’s plot will have Eb sending off to Elko for a mail-order bride and knowing that Miss Jess Neuman has agreed to come and marry him and assume the Red Gulch station. The day before she is to arrive, he is shocked when Helen Gregory from Massachusetts shows up and learns that Lorin Shooke arranged it. The story will involve Eb pulled away from work to entertain her, and questions why Shooke did it. Helen is sophisticated, educated, and opinionated. She is out of place in the Nevada area when she comes from wealth and society. She informs him of her desire to write novels about the Wild West and Indians. Then on the day she is expected to arrive, Jess Neuman shows up. Now, Eb is tasked with escorting and getting to know two women and will need to make a decision soon.
Jess: Do you expect to work the stage line forever, Eb? Eb: I couldn’t handle another month at the swing station. I’m not cut out for it. Guess I’ll keep trying new things until I find what fits. Jess; You believe you’ll like the home station better? Enough to justify taking a wife? Eb: Definitely.
The story has the good, the bad, and the ugly. Secrets, mystery, and danger all play their roles. With trouble with the Paiute Natives, there are safety concerns. Eb chooses his bride, they marry, and before they even arrive at Red Gulch, he is summoned to help in a fight with the Paiute. His bride will be left with the elderly station master, and it will be weeks before he returns. But that doesn’t mean that trouble and danger don’t come to Red Gulch. Will the wise words from an unlikely source allow two people to heal a riff that could make or break them? The story shows the tenacity of people and their determination to survive and have a future.
This was an entertaining western romance. It takes place in the late 1800s in the Nevada desert. It is based on some true events, but many of the main characters are fictional. Ebeneezer was manning one of the smaller stagecoach stops, but wanted more out of life. The only way for him to move up to one of the main stations was to get married. He soon finds himself in a very unique situation. I thought the storyline was intriguing and in some ways, a little disturbing. But considering the timeframe and the expectations of men and women, it made sense. There was plenty of drama, but I loved how the community rallied around each other and the bonds that were formed. The romance is tender and sweet. I appreciate the authors notes at the end, explaining fact from fiction and the research that was done for this book.
Eb's Brides by Krystal M. Anderson is a sweet, quick read. It has mail-order brides, miscommunication, historical references, and romance. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story set in 1879 in Nevada. The plot and characters are well developed. I read this book in one sitting. I enjoyed to interaction between Eb, Jess and Helen. I received and advance copy of this book and I always review every book that I read. I highly recommend this book and this author especially is you enjoy clean, wholesome, historic romance stories. Enjoy.
A love story to top all love stories! Not without it’s share of challenges….from the hard choice in the decision of which woman to marry to whether the unveiling of a secret past would make or break his choice, could Eb trust that God would guide and direct? Exceptional work by an exceptional author!
I enjoyed reading about the stage stations and swing stations. Quite interesting. The characters were perfect for the storyline. Sweet story that left me wondering about Helen's adventures!