A Mail-Order Heart

Miners to Millionaires #1

by Janelle Daniels

Clara Stewart has every intention of marrying Ivan, her mail-order groom, but her plans fall apart when he dies before her arrival—leaving not one fiancée but nine! When the female-starved town offers them Ivan’s home and claim, Clara steps forward and promises to do whatever necessary to see to the women’s future, regardless of her own attraction to the town’s sheriff.

Sheriff Sawyer Morrison had one goal: to protect his town. But when nine women arrive, all claiming to be mail-order brides for the same man, his once quiet life is thrown into chaos. Safeguarding them from aggressive suitors is nothing compared to the inner battle he faces over Clara, a woman who heats his blood… but can never be his own.

But when Clara is kidnapped by the same person who’s sabotaging their mine, Sawyer must choose between the life he knew and the future he craves.

Genres: Historical Romance, Romance, Historical, Historical Fiction, Westerns, Fiction, Ebooks

178 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 19, 2016

Reviews

[Wendy'sThoughts · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Mail Order Twist Stars
* * * 1/2 Freebie and Spoiler Free
This is a quick story of a group of women from all over the country who thought they were one man's mail order bride. Surprise, Surprise... he had sent for 9 different women come to his town, each thinking he was marrying only them.

Additional Surprise - the Miner they intended to marry had died....leaving these shocked Mail-Order Bride Posse trying to figure out what next. Luckily the town needs women to marry so the community decides to allow all of the women to have the home and mine owned by the deceased miner with one condition; All 9 women must stay, agree to allow the men court them and then hopefully marry.

It takes the last arriving Bride, Clara, to see what needs to be done. She was from back East, one of 12 siblings. She understood someone had to calm these women down and get them focused. Clara had strength and the ability to show these women this was the right action.

Sheriff Sawyer Morrison took one look at Clara and was impressed with her demeanor... she was nothing like the other women... and he was surprised he had a curious feelings from the start.

This is the first entry to series. We get to meet the women and the development of Clara and Sawyer's romance. There is a bit of drama, some insight to many of the characters who will have books coming. This is not long and is just a sweet read of a time long gone where times cause women to risk everything and move West.

For more Reviews, Free E-books and Giveaways

[Kellyn Roth]

I decided it just wasn't for me. Not my genre, I guess!

[jahd · Rating 1 out of 5]

Stupid, careless heroine

This was a DNF because I grew tired of all the stupid stunts Clara pulled. The book was well written and the concept was unique but I dislike stupid heroines.

[Liz Willis · Rating 1 out of 5]

I liked the idea of the book, but unfortunately did not enjoy it. First, Clara was frustrating because she did things that I did not feel any woman in her right mind would do. Then, the connection between Carla and Sawyer I felt was purely physical. There was so much mention about their physical attraction that it was frustrating. I prefer books that show more depth in characters besides just the physical attraction.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised by how well this was written. It was a silly romance, it was not technically a mail order bride story, more of a western romance. The ending was a bit of a clishay, but it was fun to read. I do want to read the next one. These are novella length books. Not too long not too short. This is cleanish with no sexual content but a little innuendo.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Super cute story and a great start to a new series. Will definitely pick up and read other titles by this author.

4.5 Stars
Content: Mild language, mild innuendo, passionate kissing
Source: Kindle Unlimited

[Susannah Carleton · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 1/2 stars. Cute story with more plot than characterization. By the end of the book, the reader knows little more about the main characters than at the end of the first chapter.

[✨ Gramy ✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

.
This was a whole new twist on the mail-order bride experience, which I found very interesting.

The characters had time to blossom, it was clean, and the conclusion was nice and tidy.

[Pooja Peravali · Rating 2 out of 5]

Clara ships out West to marry a miner as a mail order bride - only to find out that not only is he dead, but that he had convinced eight other women to come and marry him as well. Now Clara finds herself drawn to Sawyer, the sheriff who is looking out for them.

Unfortunately I did not much enjoy this book. The writing was fine, but the romance was not developed and I did not understand why the characters were drawn to each other. The mystery plot-line also came out of nowhere.

[Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eccentric Ivan, who struck at rich with his gold mine, has ordered not one but NINE mail order brides for himself! The only problem is poor Ivan has died and his community is now stuck with all 8 ladies. Clara Stewart, being one of the unfortunate brides-to-be, takes the role of leadership, trying to keep the peace with 8 other competing brides as they are temporarily given Ivan's old residence and the deed to his mine. With great humor and some hazards, the ladies try their hand at mining in an effort to support themselves. Sheriff Sawyer Morrison is trying to keep the peace in his little town-full of women-starved men but cannot resist his attraction to lovely young Clara. The mine has yet to yield a mother-lode gold strike....or has it? It appears sinister elements want what is in the mine and they will do anything to get it. This puts Clara and the 8 other mail-order brides in jeopardy. Sheriff Morrison and a few of his buddies go all out to protect the ladies and especially Clara. The story has an outrageous, improbable premise but that is what a good yarn is all about. The author has set the table with this little gem on what appears to be a fun series of Western Mail-order bride romances. So, this incurable romantic must now check out the romances of the other 8 young ladies!

[Lori ◡̈]

What a silly story! First thing that I noticed was that the miner (that for some reason invited 9 different women to be his mail-order bride) was named Ivan Pavlova. I know that there is a famous dessert named Pavlova, named after a ballerina Anna Pavlova. Pavlova is a last name that indicates the person is a female. His name really should have been Ivan Pavlov. Not a big deal, but if you speak and know Russian, it sticks out to you as ....odd. Second, this heroine was a total take charge goody-goody, in a nauseating way. I guess that's better than being a screeching shrew like some of the other mail-order brides that showed up. And why would the brides be mad at each other? They were all unaware of the duplicity going on, they weren't at fault. The crazy miner that they were fighting over was. Lastly, the scene where the sheriff is driving the females out to their new home, and they are accosted by gun-wielding hooligans... that's where I gave up based on the silliness.

[Joann Herley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A Mail-Order Heart is a cute western romance. Several mail-order brides arrive all on the same day to find their betrothed, crazy Ivan, has passed away. No real drama and a little predictable but a fun read.

[Vikki Vaught · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Musings

Interesting premise. It grabbed my attention right away and kept me engaged to the end. Both MCs were intriguing and the secondary characters added to the overall enjoyment. I look forward to reading the next one in this series. Happy reading!

[Keisha Burdick · Rating 5 out of 5]

The cutest!

I loved this sweet western romance. I couldn’t put it down! Daniels is a gifted story teller. I felt so connected to the characters and invested in their futures. I will read the rest of the series!

[Elaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading this story. 3.5☆

[Tammy Ambrose · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. it had an interesting concept which was very different from any other mail order bride book I have read.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cute and clean romance that perfectly sets up a rather lengthy series. It is unfortunate that the books are primarily available only through Amazon, as it gets a bit expensive to purchase each e-book. Still, I enjoyed reading this western romance. Our MC, Clara, a mail-order bride, finds herself in a bit of a pickle when she arrives to meet her groom and discovers there are nine other women expecting to marry the same man. To make matters worse, the groom has recently passed away. But the women can't go back now, so they decide to stick around and see if they can't find a different husband among the female-starved, successful mining town. Clara is determined to look out for her new friends, but the local sheriff is making things difficult with his sensible yet over-protective suggestions. Fast-paced and with just the right amount of sappiness, as well as surprisingly well-developed characters, this novel is a fun escape.

[B.A. A. Mealer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining

I liked the book for the premise. It was well written with God characters which you can't help but like. I put it in the category of a good easy read when you want a light romance.

[Tonileg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Historical Mail-order bride plot with a twist, the groom dies days before his nine brides show up into town. The nine brides are given Ivan, the dead groom's home and mine so they have somewhere to stay as the many single bachelors in town can court and marry them off.
Clara Stewart is the last to arrive, and the boss of the other ladies as Clara is very organized, she is also the first to fall in lust/love with town’s sheriff. The girls are smart, but they are fish out of water in the male dominated mining town, so the sheriff's help is a good thing. Sheriff Sawyer Morrison is a good person.
Now, I have to complain about something. It is not the book's fault, but the last hundred-ish Historical romance books that I've read have ALL had kidnapping plot devices. I do not know any one that has been kidnapped, or even been in an attempted kidnapping situation, but these books would have us believe that it was a ubiquitous situation! Can we have something new as a plot device to bring these couples together? Like a road trip situation (without a kidnapping instigating the journey) or perhaps just surviving 'Man versus Nature' like in a Laura Ingalls Wilder style?
178 pages and kindle freebie
2 stars

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Novella length Western American romance. Clean, except for mild profanity. A freebie from Amazon.

It had an interesting premise. 9 mail order brides ordered by one eccentric old miner. Conveniently, he's dead when they all arrive, so the sheriff & mayor give them all his mine & house if they'll stay & look over the mainly male population.

The heroine is mostly intelligent & plucky. The hero is a good guy. This should have worked for me, but it just seemed a little too predictable after the first couple of chapters.
Tropes : THE BIG MISUNDERSTANDING, heroine saved from danger by the hero (twice).
Leaps of logic : Ivan had 9 women coming. Now he couldn't marry them all. Yet, he has 9 brand new dresses (in every woman's size) & 8 beds. Sounds like he was going to have a harem!
Also, I expected the women to have to live in a shack. Nope, a beautiful 2 story house with 5 bedrooms & flowers hanging from the porch. A maid & a cook. Sumptuously decorated inside.
Not bad for a man who has a mine not pulling out much gold!

[Tianna]

It's a cute, clean romance. It's short—you can finish it in a few hours, and because of the length, I'm willing to overlook the simplicity of the story. Sometimes a simple romance is what is needed. (Maybe I'm just too used to long books where it takes days to read through, giving room for a far more complex plot?)

I am intrigued to know what happens to the other brides, which is convenient, as that seems to be what the other books in the series are about.

[Bethany · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really 2.5 stars.

I got it because it was free and it sounded intriguing. Clara and Sawyer were kind of boring. The reason they couldn't be together was a non issue. It's also a clean romance, which I was not aware of. The story was really too short to develop the characters.

However, I was interested in the concept of the 9 brides and intrigued by some of the other characters introduced. When I learned I could read the whole series on Kindle Unlimited, I officially fell down the rabbit hole.

[Maryann Ns · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was put off by the first sentence with its grammatical error. There were more to come. The premise is cute but there was nothing else the least bit original. I quit about half way through, skimmed a bit here and there and the usual hackneyed plot twists turned up.

And surely I would not have to read eight more of these to find out about the other 'brides!'

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

A paint by number romance with nothing really interesting about it. The type of romance where characters feel stirring in their loins at first sight but no actual romantic tension. The hero acts like a possessive ass immediately without bothering to get to know the heroine. The heroine is a Mary Sue. It was free, but I couldn’t be bothered to finish.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick read, interesting premise. Unfortunately, there were a lot of editing mistakes that took me out of the story.

[Marsha Keeper Bookshelf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed at Historically Romantic

The concept of Miners to Millionaires fascinated me when I read the story description for A Mail-Order Heart. Very basically, a small town resident, affectionately or sarcastically known as Crazy Ivan has struck it rich in the gold mine he worked leaving him with enough money to build a grand home – and go shopping for mail order brides. Yes, brides. For on this day it seems that nine young women have arrived on various trains believing they were Ivan’s intended bride only to be completely shocked at several revelations. One Ivan was dead. And he went on a shopping spree by promising nine women that they would marry once they made the trip to Ivan. Nine very unhappy women who have been tricked – yeah, not a happy group of almost brides.

Clara was the last bride to arrive and it seems the only person willing to step in and bring some sanity to this chaos. Sawyer would rather face down a desperate outlaw than stay in this room with these women one minute longer. Thankfully one special woman arrived to bring some temporary calm to this craziness. Now the town and the women had to come up with some way to fix this situation. It seems a simple enough solution to let the women live in Ivan’s home – and convince them to stay and let other men court them. After all they did come West to marry.

As I mentioned, an interesting concept for a series. The world building in this first story is obvious and necessary. The women who made the trip out West to be Ivan’s bride are varied with few similarities. From one mean-spirited woman who is quickly nicknamed “Banshee” by Sawyer to the very quiet and timid women… all different, unique personalities that we only get a glimpse of in Clara and Sawyer’s story. For their attraction is evident from the start, and each will find reasons to not act on those feelings.

This is a very rough and tumble, even dangerous town. And I find that more realistic than many other stories I’ve read. The West was uncivilized, and that also means that people act as nice or as nasty as they naturally are. There is danger in A Mail-Order Heart and a romance brewing for Clara and Sawyer. It takes danger to Clara to finally make Sawyer realize that nothing else matters but finding her safe and keeping her at his side… forever.

I liked A Mail-Order Heart and now I’m curious to see what lies in store for these other women. It’s an interesting series that I’m going to continue with in the hope that the world building is now done and we can get more of the individuals stories to come. Time will tell, but I believe I’m going to enjoy that road to discovery with this series.

I own a Kindle edition of this story.

[Michele · Rating 5 out of 5]

Try to imagine agreeing to be a mail order bride--traveling across the country only to find out that the man you were supposed to marry died and not only that but there were 9 other women who also thought they were supposed to marry the same guy!! These women could not have been more different but really had no choice but to accept the mayor's proposal--They all had to move into the dead suitor's house and take over his claim. Well--since there were a lot of single men in this mining town they all eventually agreed.

Clara came from a very large family and was used to dealing with differing opinions--but never like this! Somehow she became like the leader of this mismatched band. Meanwhile she decided that she would wait until last to decide on the man she was to marry----

Now the sheriff of this town had his hands full trying to keep them all safe--he had his eye on Clara but figured he would not be allowed to pick one of the women for his own.

When Clara gets kidnapped the sheriff goes after her with two of the people he trusts. The kidnapper--well--you will figure it out--but can Clara be saved? And will the two who didn't think they would ever get the one they wanted forge a match made in heaven?

This is a clean novel that is quite enjoyable! I am pretty sure I will be getting at least one or two more of this series.
A Mail-Order Heart

[Suzanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting premise, very reminiscent of the 1960’s show The Brides. I love watching reruns of that show; I only wish I could say the same about this book.

The omniscient POV is great for stories like this, and I love how the women are anything but weak. By introducing all the female characters in the series there wasn’t character development. All I can really tell you about the two main characters in this book is that she came from a large family in New York City and he used to be a miner but is now the sheriff. Too often I found myself wondering why a character would behave the way he did.

The plot, as I said is okay; I haven’t read enough western romances to say for certain that it was solid or an overused premise. Daniels doesn’t trust her readers enough though, telling the story rather than showing. When I read something like this, I like to use my imagination to turn the book into a movie for my brain. You can’t do this with this book.

There is a fair amount of foreshadowing so you know who the main characters will be for the next book, but it’s rather clumsily done.

It’s a very quick read that doesn’t require a lot of brain work, making it perfect for reading on the train commute or waiting for your kid’s dance/gymnastics/sport practice.

[Timothy Hendricks · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a new Author to me. I really enjoyed reading this book. I felt it was well written and the pace of the book was very good with lots of twists and turns. I really liked the characters very much and thought they were very well developed. Clara and Sawyer are the main characters. Ivan Pavlova is a miner and had sent for not just one, but 9 mail-order brides and all of them arriving with the expectation of marrying him. The town’s people referred to him as crazy Ivan. When the mail order brides arrive each one finds about the others and that Ivan has died. Of course none of the brides are happy about the situation. However the Sheriff and the Mayor has promised to help them as there is a shortage marriageable women in their town. The brides are hurt with many of them angry about the situation. Clara assumed a leadership role over the brides as she came from large family where she is the oldest and experience in being in such role of leadership. The Author is really a very good storyteller. There isn’t any profanity or graphic sexual dialogue. The Author is just so good at telling a story there is just no need for it. I highly recommend the book and I hope to read more from the Author.

[Lillian Cummings · Rating 4 out of 5]

How can fate be so evil? Clara had no choice really but to accept the offer to be a mil order bride as her family never had enough money to feed everyone. But there is a problem as there is another eight brides waiting for their groom unfortunately Ivan is dead and there is no where for them all to go unless they stay in his house together and accept marriage from the men of the town. They all know that the town won't keep on helping them so they will need to mine the mine for good but no one has any idea on what to do. So Clara ask Sawyer the sheriff to help them find someone but he isn't too sure about who he can trust to help them and to keep them safe. As he really likes Clara and he is hoping that they could get to know each other better.
There is someone out there who wants to make sure that the women don't find the gold and if that means somoen has to die then so be it. When Sawyer almost loses Clara he knows that he has to keep her safe and of that means marrying then he will do that in a heart beatbut someone is about to beat him to it. Can Sawyer find Clara before it is too late? A great read