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The Wrong Widow: A Sapphic Western Mystery Romance
She came west to marry a stranger. She arrived to find him four days dead and his sister waiting with questions Eleanor Voss could not afford to answer.
Philadelphia is a long way from a working cattle ranch in New Mexico Territory. Eleanor knows nothing about horses, less about cattle, and everything about hiding the woman she used to be — the woman a powerful man back east ruined when she refused him. The mail-order marriage to Thomas Calloway was supposed to be a quiet ending. A name on a contract. A roof, a settlement, a place to disappear.
Then the train pulls into Morrow Creek, and Thomas Calloway is in the ground.
His sister Nora has been running Cielo Seco Ranch alone for years, and grieving alone for four days, and is not ready host a stranger. But the will has a clause. The neighbors have ambitions. And the lawyer in town has just placed a sixty-day clock on a house that two women, separately and silently, are starting to need.
What begins as a careful arrangement between strangers becomes something Eleanor did not come west to look for. Long evenings on the porch. A horse named Senator who tolerates her. A handful of words across a kitchen table that mean more than they say. And under all of it, a quiet, ugly question neither woman has asked out loud
What really happened to Thomas Calloway, and who profits if his widow can be persuaded to leave?
A slow-burn sapphic Western romance laced with mystery, The Wrong Widow is the story of two guarded women, one fragile pretense, and a piece of land that someone is willing to kill for.
Philadelphia is a long way from a working cattle ranch in New Mexico Territory. Eleanor knows nothing about horses, less about cattle, and everything about hiding the woman she used to be — the woman a powerful man back east ruined when she refused him. The mail-order marriage to Thomas Calloway was supposed to be a quiet ending. A name on a contract. A roof, a settlement, a place to disappear.
Then the train pulls into Morrow Creek, and Thomas Calloway is in the ground.
His sister Nora has been running Cielo Seco Ranch alone for years, and grieving alone for four days, and is not ready host a stranger. But the will has a clause. The neighbors have ambitions. And the lawyer in town has just placed a sixty-day clock on a house that two women, separately and silently, are starting to need.
What begins as a careful arrangement between strangers becomes something Eleanor did not come west to look for. Long evenings on the porch. A horse named Senator who tolerates her. A handful of words across a kitchen table that mean more than they say. And under all of it, a quiet, ugly question neither woman has asked out loud
What really happened to Thomas Calloway, and who profits if his widow can be persuaded to leave?
A slow-burn sapphic Western romance laced with mystery, The Wrong Widow is the story of two guarded women, one fragile pretense, and a piece of land that someone is willing to kill for.
274 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 2, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
July 1, 2026
The Wrong Widow had me hooked from the very first page, when Eleanor Voss introduced herself and began sharing her story. Ellie's sharp observations, paired with just the right amount of sarcasm and humor, made her an engaging and entertaining narrator. The mystery surrounding Thomas's death, along with the constant uncertainty over what would happen with Cielo Seco, kept me turning the pages long into the night.
I'm thrilled there's a second book on the way. While the major loose ends were tied up, I'm not ready to say goodbye to Ellie, Nora, Paz, Clem, and Domingo. I can't wait to spend more time with these characters and see what comes next.
I'm thrilled there's a second book on the way. While the major loose ends were tied up, I'm not ready to say goodbye to Ellie, Nora, Paz, Clem, and Domingo. I can't wait to spend more time with these characters and see what comes next.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review