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Wild West Weddings #2
Promised by Post
"CALIFORNIA RANCHER SEEKS AGREEABLE WOMAN FOR PURPOSES OF MATRIMONY"
Anna O'Malley is desperate to put her impoverished past behind her. Posing as a respectable lady, she becomes a mail-order bride, hoping to find security by marrying a wealthy ranch owner.
When her stagecoach is held up, Anna shoots one of the bandits. But the man she wounds is none other than her fiancé! His brother—sinfully attractive Daniel Werner—must conceal that fact by any means necessary, but how long can Daniel keep up the facade when he craves Anna for himself?
Wild West Weddings
Mail-order brides for three hardworking, hard-living men!
Anna O'Malley is desperate to put her impoverished past behind her. Posing as a respectable lady, she becomes a mail-order bride, hoping to find security by marrying a wealthy ranch owner.
When her stagecoach is held up, Anna shoots one of the bandits. But the man she wounds is none other than her fiancé! His brother—sinfully attractive Daniel Werner—must conceal that fact by any means necessary, but how long can Daniel keep up the facade when he craves Anna for himself?
Wild West Weddings
Mail-order brides for three hardworking, hard-living men!
281 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 17, 2015
9 people are currently reading
322 people want to read
About the author
Katy Madison
28 books62 followersKaty Madison has always loved stories. As a child she was always lugging a book around. At the age of eight, after
Katy Madison having gone through over a hundred Nancy Drew mysteries, all the Laura Ingalls Wilder books—at least twice—and many others including her full weekly allotment of library books, Katy went to her mother and begged for a new book to read. Her frustrated mother handed her a romance novel. Katy fell in love with the romance genre. She quickly found where her mother hid the rest and began sneaking them out to read. She cut her eye teeth on books by Georgette Heyer and Mary Stewart, not to mention dozens of Barbara Cartland’s. With a nod to great Gothic novels like Jane Eyre and Rebecca, Katy offers up her gothic romance Tainted by Temptation.
Katy Madison having gone through over a hundred Nancy Drew mysteries, all the Laura Ingalls Wilder books—at least twice—and many others including her full weekly allotment of library books, Katy went to her mother and begged for a new book to read. Her frustrated mother handed her a romance novel. Katy fell in love with the romance genre. She quickly found where her mother hid the rest and began sneaking them out to read. She cut her eye teeth on books by Georgette Heyer and Mary Stewart, not to mention dozens of Barbara Cartland’s. With a nod to great Gothic novels like Jane Eyre and Rebecca, Katy offers up her gothic romance Tainted by Temptation.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 2, 2015
Good mail order bride story. Anna is one member of an Irish immigrant family that came to America for a better life and instead found one that was even harder. After the mill she was working in shut down because of the war, Anna and two friends decided to become mail order brides. Olivia (Bride by Mail) has found her happy ending and now it is Anna's turn.
Anna feels that her past has put her at a disadvantage, so she wasn't very truthful when she wrote to her prospective groom Rafael, portraying herself as coming from a well-to-do family. She also looked carefully at her choices for husbands, wanting one who owned his land and was prosperous.
When the stage is nearly to its destination, it is stopped by two men. When the shooting starts, Anna wounds one of the men. What she doesn't know is that the wounded man is her fiancé, who had stopped the coach as a lark, in order to see her before her arrival. The other man is Rafael's brother Daniel, who had come along to try to stop him. Now Daniel has to find a way to protect Rafael from being discovered until he can heal, which means he's the one who has to entertain her. This is difficult for him, because he has discovered that he wants Anna himself.
Daniel is the younger brother, one who has been ignored by his mother for most of his life. His father died when he was young, and Rafael became his best friend and role model. That doesn't mean he can ignore when his brother is being and idiot, and the whole episode is one disaster after another.
There is some question about whether the family will be able to keep their land because of the way the Americans have been dealing with the Mexicans who own property in California. Rafael felt that having an Anglo bride would be an advantage. Once he picked Anna from the applicants, he couldn't be bothered with anything more, so Daniel took over writing to Anna. As soon as he saw her, he was smitten with her, but knew she was promised to his brother.
Anna had the feeling that there was something strange going on once she arrived at the ranch. Her fiancé was rarely around and when he was he didn't seem very interested in her. Her future mother-in-law was secretive and not very welcoming. Even Daniel seemed to be hiding something when they were together.
I thought Rafael was quite immature and was very lucky that Anna hadn't killed him during his stupid stunt, I also got the feeling that there was more going on with the land problems than he was telling Daniel, and I was right. At least he wasn't keeping the secret maliciously, he just didn't know what to do about it. The mother was creepy and downright nasty to everyone except Rafael. I didn't like her at all and as it turned out she was even worse than I thought she was.
I really liked Daniel. He had a mostly good relationship with his brother and was really a kind and honest man. The things he had to do went completely against everything he really was. He was caught between trying to protect his brother and wanting to be with Anna because of his own feelings for her. I loved seeing him finally stand up and go after her for himself. It looked good until a misunderstanding nearly drove them apart.
I mostly liked Anna, though there were times she really irritated me. First, I didn't like the way she lied about her background, though she confessed about that pretty quickly. I also didn't really care for the way she snooped. I know she was only trying to find out the truth, but there were a couple instances where she took it a little too far. At least it came out all right in the end. I did like that she really wanted to do the right thing by sticking to her promise to Rafael, but her feelings for Daniel got to be too strong.
The ending was intense with the mother pretty much losing it and what she tried to do to Anna. I liked seeing Rafael finally do the right thing for everyone and face up to the consequences of his actions. Anna and Daniel get the life they wanted and we even get to see Olivia and her husband again.
Anna feels that her past has put her at a disadvantage, so she wasn't very truthful when she wrote to her prospective groom Rafael, portraying herself as coming from a well-to-do family. She also looked carefully at her choices for husbands, wanting one who owned his land and was prosperous.
When the stage is nearly to its destination, it is stopped by two men. When the shooting starts, Anna wounds one of the men. What she doesn't know is that the wounded man is her fiancé, who had stopped the coach as a lark, in order to see her before her arrival. The other man is Rafael's brother Daniel, who had come along to try to stop him. Now Daniel has to find a way to protect Rafael from being discovered until he can heal, which means he's the one who has to entertain her. This is difficult for him, because he has discovered that he wants Anna himself.
Daniel is the younger brother, one who has been ignored by his mother for most of his life. His father died when he was young, and Rafael became his best friend and role model. That doesn't mean he can ignore when his brother is being and idiot, and the whole episode is one disaster after another.
There is some question about whether the family will be able to keep their land because of the way the Americans have been dealing with the Mexicans who own property in California. Rafael felt that having an Anglo bride would be an advantage. Once he picked Anna from the applicants, he couldn't be bothered with anything more, so Daniel took over writing to Anna. As soon as he saw her, he was smitten with her, but knew she was promised to his brother.
Anna had the feeling that there was something strange going on once she arrived at the ranch. Her fiancé was rarely around and when he was he didn't seem very interested in her. Her future mother-in-law was secretive and not very welcoming. Even Daniel seemed to be hiding something when they were together.
I thought Rafael was quite immature and was very lucky that Anna hadn't killed him during his stupid stunt, I also got the feeling that there was more going on with the land problems than he was telling Daniel, and I was right. At least he wasn't keeping the secret maliciously, he just didn't know what to do about it. The mother was creepy and downright nasty to everyone except Rafael. I didn't like her at all and as it turned out she was even worse than I thought she was.
I really liked Daniel. He had a mostly good relationship with his brother and was really a kind and honest man. The things he had to do went completely against everything he really was. He was caught between trying to protect his brother and wanting to be with Anna because of his own feelings for her. I loved seeing him finally stand up and go after her for himself. It looked good until a misunderstanding nearly drove them apart.
I mostly liked Anna, though there were times she really irritated me. First, I didn't like the way she lied about her background, though she confessed about that pretty quickly. I also didn't really care for the way she snooped. I know she was only trying to find out the truth, but there were a couple instances where she took it a little too far. At least it came out all right in the end. I did like that she really wanted to do the right thing by sticking to her promise to Rafael, but her feelings for Daniel got to be too strong.
The ending was intense with the mother pretty much losing it and what she tried to do to Anna. I liked seeing Rafael finally do the right thing for everyone and face up to the consequences of his actions. Anna and Daniel get the life they wanted and we even get to see Olivia and her husband again.
September 15, 2017
Another disappointment for today..... One thing I love about HR is mail order but this series is nothing but disappointment... No the writing is not the problem... It's the story and characters and makes me annoyed.... The first book's heroine was treated not so well by the hero and now in this book the heroine is a LIAR!
July 20, 2017
I did not like this heroine. She acted like a gold-digger and was too pushy and demanding to be a stranger in someone else's house. What a piece of baggage. And Daniel was so freaking weak. I would like a story about Rafael. Their mother was a gorgon! She should not have been allowed to get away at the end. What's to keep her from coming back and trying to kill Pushy Greedy Anna later. #IJS
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 10, 2023
Quite frankly I thought this plot was a hot mess. From a fake stagecoach hold-up which then leads to lie after lie after lie, etc. I kept reading this book just to see how the author was going to deal with and straighten out all the lies. Katy Madison did straighten out the lies but it felt very rushed.
April 23, 2015
**Actual rating: 3.5 stars**
Could you ever be a mail-order bride? Well, maybe not in modern times, but on the American frontier, life—and marriage—were a different ball game back then. I am endlessly fascinated with the subject to the point where I suspect I was one in a past life. Well, if not an actual mail-order bride, then surely I've lived in that era. Truly, though, I simply can't get enough of these. Fearful, desperate, or destitute, women who married strangers were often making a last ditch effort to staying alive and remaining respectable.
Happily, Madison used a fresh backdrop for the second book of her Wild West series—a California ranch during the time when the U.S. government validated Spanish land grants. The history lesson was absorbing, though the practice was often unfair to the Mexican families who owned these ranches. As romance novels tend to gloss over or completely overlook that integral part of U.S. history, I felt like I had a double treat.
As far as romances go, Promised by Post was a sweet tale with just a bit of spice. As a couple, Daniel and Anna both had appealing backgrounds; he, the resented and ignored son who forever lived in the shadow of his older half-sibling; and Anna, an Irish immigrant with a desperate need for security. Of course, their forbidden attraction created loads of sexual tension with Daniel barely being able to control himself, which was way fun. Moreover, the entire family subterfuge was amusing at first, but I did find myself somewhat irritated with them the longer they dragged it out. I could certainly feel Anna's frustration there.
Explanations and the tying of loose ends were a little choppy at the end with unexpected yet creative results. This is a solid romance, but the unusual setting and ethnic background nudged it slightly higher with my rating of 3.5 stars.
Happy reading!
Could you ever be a mail-order bride? Well, maybe not in modern times, but on the American frontier, life—and marriage—were a different ball game back then. I am endlessly fascinated with the subject to the point where I suspect I was one in a past life. Well, if not an actual mail-order bride, then surely I've lived in that era. Truly, though, I simply can't get enough of these. Fearful, desperate, or destitute, women who married strangers were often making a last ditch effort to staying alive and remaining respectable.
Happily, Madison used a fresh backdrop for the second book of her Wild West series—a California ranch during the time when the U.S. government validated Spanish land grants. The history lesson was absorbing, though the practice was often unfair to the Mexican families who owned these ranches. As romance novels tend to gloss over or completely overlook that integral part of U.S. history, I felt like I had a double treat.
As far as romances go, Promised by Post was a sweet tale with just a bit of spice. As a couple, Daniel and Anna both had appealing backgrounds; he, the resented and ignored son who forever lived in the shadow of his older half-sibling; and Anna, an Irish immigrant with a desperate need for security. Of course, their forbidden attraction created loads of sexual tension with Daniel barely being able to control himself, which was way fun. Moreover, the entire family subterfuge was amusing at first, but I did find myself somewhat irritated with them the longer they dragged it out. I could certainly feel Anna's frustration there.
Explanations and the tying of loose ends were a little choppy at the end with unexpected yet creative results. This is a solid romance, but the unusual setting and ethnic background nudged it slightly higher with my rating of 3.5 stars.
Happy reading!
April 27, 2015
First off, I did finish the book, but I feel I wasted my time doing so.
The blurb on the back was just my kind of book. I love historicals, westerns and mail order brides. I had even read the 1st book in this series and was fine with it.
Anna (the so-called heroine) was such a nosy, busy-body. Searching the house and nosing around in the mother's closet even. I know she had her suspicions something was going on behind her back and they were keeping secrets from her, BUT...In my opinion, the woman went way beyond what is acceptable. In fact, I don't understand why Anna wasn't a bit scared. She only knew these people through letters.
If I had been the brother in this story, I would have paid to have her settled into the hotel in town and left her there until everything settled down.
The entire story just borders on the absurd and I'm not sure what the point of it was. I wouldn't exactly say it had a happy ending either.
Because of this book, I'm skipping completely over the 3rd remaining book of the series.
Can't say I'll be reading this author again either.
The blurb on the back was just my kind of book. I love historicals, westerns and mail order brides. I had even read the 1st book in this series and was fine with it.
Anna (the so-called heroine) was such a nosy, busy-body. Searching the house and nosing around in the mother's closet even. I know she had her suspicions something was going on behind her back and they were keeping secrets from her, BUT...In my opinion, the woman went way beyond what is acceptable. In fact, I don't understand why Anna wasn't a bit scared. She only knew these people through letters.
If I had been the brother in this story, I would have paid to have her settled into the hotel in town and left her there until everything settled down.
The entire story just borders on the absurd and I'm not sure what the point of it was. I wouldn't exactly say it had a happy ending either.
Because of this book, I'm skipping completely over the 3rd remaining book of the series.
Can't say I'll be reading this author again either.
October 21, 2016
Irish immigrant, Anna O'Malley, answered an ad for a mail order bride by a California rancher when she lost her mill job in New England. She searched the ads for a man with land believing that lead to security. She misrepresented herself as a businessman's daughter who had fallen on hard times rather than as a mill worker. On the final leg of the journey her stagecoach is held up and in the ensuing fracas Anna uses a dropped rifle to wound one of the bandits. Turns out the 'bandits' were her fiance and his brother, trying to get a peek at his intended, but everything went wrong and a couple of passengers are also wounded. What follows is an attempt to keep Anna from realizing her fiance, Rafael is wounded. His half-brother, Daniel, runs the interference and so spends lots of time with Anna and is smitten. Anna asks lots of questions and does lots of snooping. The whole premise is a little more drawn out than it needed to be. Decent story.
May 4, 2015
3.5 stars
Nicely written, but I have to say I liked some of Katy's other books better. I also thought some of the language came off a little modern as well.
I liked that it was set in California and that the family were Mexican, but I didn't like all the continual lies as they got a bit dizzying.
I also had to wrap my head around the fact the hero was only 22, but back in those days, I suppose people grew up really fast.
However, Katy's books are still an auto buy for me, and I've a couple more left to read.
Nicely written, but I have to say I liked some of Katy's other books better. I also thought some of the language came off a little modern as well.
I liked that it was set in California and that the family were Mexican, but I didn't like all the continual lies as they got a bit dizzying.
I also had to wrap my head around the fact the hero was only 22, but back in those days, I suppose people grew up really fast.
However, Katy's books are still an auto buy for me, and I've a couple more left to read.
September 13, 2020
DNF. Could have been an interesting plot. However, story was stuck in the same gear for chapters. I couldn’t take the absolute boredom of it not moving forward. IMO- Heroine was annoying. No romantic sparks.
April 10, 2015
I won this book as part of a Goodreads giveaway. Very easy read. Writing is typical of this genre and publishing house. Boy mets girls, obstacles in way. Boy and girl find true love.
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May 6, 2015Miniseries: Wild West Weddings
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January 12, 2016Miniseries: Wild West Weddings
August 4, 2019
Irish mail order bride.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews