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Montana Mail-Order Bride: A Mail-Order Bride Romance
Can a marriage in name only
give her the new life she needs?
There’s no future in Chicago for Eleanor Fitzpatrick and her sister—but out West, she can have a fresh start as a sheriff’s mail-order match. She’ll be a good mother to Matt Baynes’s orphaned niece and nephew…but will she be a good wife? She’s never known an honorable man, and trusting Matt is a daily struggle. Yet as the children bond—and begin matchmaking—her resolve is tested. Can this kind, brave man teach her to trust her heart and his love?
New York Times bestselling author Janet Tronstad
give her the new life she needs?
There’s no future in Chicago for Eleanor Fitzpatrick and her sister—but out West, she can have a fresh start as a sheriff’s mail-order match. She’ll be a good mother to Matt Baynes’s orphaned niece and nephew…but will she be a good wife? She’s never known an honorable man, and trusting Matt is a daily struggle. Yet as the children bond—and begin matchmaking—her resolve is tested. Can this kind, brave man teach her to trust her heart and his love?
New York Times bestselling author Janet Tronstad
- GenresHistorical Fiction
288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published February 1, 2022
About the author
Janet Tronstad
85 books304 followersJanet grew up in the wide open spaces of rural Montana and now lives in the urban spaces of Pasadena, California. She's used both of these locations in her books. Her Dry Creek, Montana series numbers over twenty novels now and her Pasadena books, The Sisterhood of the Dropped Stitches, number four.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
October 8, 2022
I can't begin to imagine the challenges that would bring someone to the point of requesting a mail order bride or the near desperation of agreeing to be one. Janet Tronstad, once again has developed a story that feels real.
I love this story. The author has a great talent for adding bits and pieces of humor, realistic scenarios, heart touching moments and sweet romance to her books. I'm always drawn into her stories and find myself smiling, laughing out loud, or being caught up in tension or emotions that the characters situations bring out.
I love that Matt automatically decided he was dying and had to find a mother for his niece and nephew. He is a great male character. Eleanor is a brave, strong and wonderful woman, totally dedicated to caring for and protecting her younger sister. They have had a tough life and she doesn't give up. She goes out facing the unknown to hopefully secure a good life for her sister and to take on two more children.
I love the characters. Eleanor and Matt are an excellent combination of past hurts, present needs and future possibilities. Two good, caring people. I received a copy of this book from the author and this is my own personal and unsolicited opinion about it. It's excellent!
I love this story. The author has a great talent for adding bits and pieces of humor, realistic scenarios, heart touching moments and sweet romance to her books. I'm always drawn into her stories and find myself smiling, laughing out loud, or being caught up in tension or emotions that the characters situations bring out.
I love that Matt automatically decided he was dying and had to find a mother for his niece and nephew. He is a great male character. Eleanor is a brave, strong and wonderful woman, totally dedicated to caring for and protecting her younger sister. They have had a tough life and she doesn't give up. She goes out facing the unknown to hopefully secure a good life for her sister and to take on two more children.
I love the characters. Eleanor and Matt are an excellent combination of past hurts, present needs and future possibilities. Two good, caring people. I received a copy of this book from the author and this is my own personal and unsolicited opinion about it. It's excellent!
September 24, 2022
Montana Mail-Order Bride by Janet Tronstad
Matt Baynes let his friend Jacob talk him into writing for a mail-order bride for Matt. After all, he now had the care of his niece and nephew after their parents were murdered. They needed a caring woman to be their new mother. As for the wife, Matt didn’t figure he’d be alive that long. Not when he was going after the Blackwood brothers for the murder. Matt didn’t plan on such a beautiful and young mail-order bride. He almost wished he wouldn’t be getting himself killed soon.
Eleanor Fitzpatrick’s friend, Mrs. Gunni, shocked her. The lady, along with Eleanor’s seven-year-old sister, had answered an ad for a mail-order bride. And she was that bride! They had been facing some problems in Chicago, and with Lily’s problems, Eleanor decided it was best. So she headed on the train to Dillan, Montana, with Lily.
I could hardly set the book down until it was finished. I loved the story and the characters. An old cat named Whiskey added quite a bit of humor.
**I did receive this copy of the book from the author
https://justjudysjumbles.blogspot.com...
Matt Baynes let his friend Jacob talk him into writing for a mail-order bride for Matt. After all, he now had the care of his niece and nephew after their parents were murdered. They needed a caring woman to be their new mother. As for the wife, Matt didn’t figure he’d be alive that long. Not when he was going after the Blackwood brothers for the murder. Matt didn’t plan on such a beautiful and young mail-order bride. He almost wished he wouldn’t be getting himself killed soon.
Eleanor Fitzpatrick’s friend, Mrs. Gunni, shocked her. The lady, along with Eleanor’s seven-year-old sister, had answered an ad for a mail-order bride. And she was that bride! They had been facing some problems in Chicago, and with Lily’s problems, Eleanor decided it was best. So she headed on the train to Dillan, Montana, with Lily.
I could hardly set the book down until it was finished. I loved the story and the characters. An old cat named Whiskey added quite a bit of humor.
**I did receive this copy of the book from the author
https://justjudysjumbles.blogspot.com...
June 29, 2022
Beautiful historical written with very enticing characters. Highly recommended
April 25, 2023
Tronstad can't write a contemporary romance to save her soul, but usually her historicals are AMAZING, and I look forward to them when I come upon them.
This one...? Well, it wasn't horrific, but it definitely wasn't her best, either. You have to suspend a *LOT* of reality for this one to even work.
First, we're shown a 'mail-order bride ad' for a 'dying' sheriff. At no point in the book is Matt ever dying, so that was kind of misleading to the nth. It's blamed on his deputy writing the ad, as if that makes everything better. How about 'no'?
Then we have penniless and destitute Eleanor, who can't get a job at any of the factories in Chicago, even though they're all hiring. Because... reasons. It. Makes. No. Sense. She's unemployed because Tronstad says so. That's shoddy writing.
There's an older man who's not right in the head who is so simple that he can't comprehend Eleanor as Lily's sister (he thinks she's an evil, abusive aunt - with NO evidence to back it up)... but he's not so stupid as to not be able to follow them from Chicago to Montana and find them?
He steals Lily's specialized shoe (for a misshapen foot)... and we're supposed to believe that three weeks after the theft, Matt sends a description of the shoe to a police officer in Chicago, who then tracks it down? WH.... NO!!!!!! That's not even possible, hello.
Meanwhile, Eleanor and Lily, Matt and his deputy, and Henri and his sister are all living in jail cells for half of the book. Say what?! Yeah. No kidding. In the middle of winter, with newspaper shoved in the chinks of the logs, and snow blowing thru the cracks. (((sigh.)))
But it's okay, because two weeks before Matt's brother was shot, the brother bought a four-bedroom house/bakery in town, perfect for ALL of them, fully furnished, and ready to move in. Because believable.
Also, how *IRONIC* that Eleanor happens to be a top-notch pastry chef who opens the cabinets, and EVERYTHING she needs - from flour to sugar to spices are magically all right there and ready for her to use?! Wowzers. Even the hard-to-get specialized yeast is in tins at Matt's ranch house, just outside of town.
Who carves gold into the shape of an apple, by the way? The shavings would diminish the worth of the gold nugget, hello. That makes NO sense, at all. And the gold thing isn't clearly explained in the book, either. In fact, Matt's brother and his wife's plans/dealings with the bakery, the gold, the ranch... not ever. It's just a hot mess we're supposed to roll with.
And of COURSE Matt's mom would never run off with another man! She was just driving another man to another city and nursing him for A MONTH SOLID whilst he died... which, btdubs, is running off with another man, no matter how you paint it. I. Can't. Even.
What I want to know is how Mabel is capable of coming up with a full-course, fancy dinner for TEN just after a Sunday church service in which nobody knew there was going to be a wedding to have a wedding dinner FOR. These are small-town, Western folk. They're not wealthy... and having a larder THAT full and having cooked THAT much, just on her own whim, for such a time as that...? Really...??
WHY does Matt spend his wedding night in the saloon under a borrowed blanket while bad-mouthing womenfolk, again? Because that's COMPLETELY out of character for him. I... can't even.
And the whole thing with the lawyer being jilted is never resolved/fleshed out. The whole thing with her legal document is supposed to be a major point of the story, but Tronstad just chucks it out the window as irrelevant to her plot, halfway thru the story...
Matt is too verbose, too. He's a boy raised by a no-count, grunting father who turned cow-hand and then sheriff, and he talks like... well Janet Tronstad. Like a 40-something woman. He's not well-written, as a character. One minute he sees people with difficulties as weak and refuses to give them an inch, the next he's going out of his way to help.
CONSISTENCY would not be out of the question...
It wasn't bad storytelling. It was just a completely unbelievable plot with sketchy characterization and some problems that can't be ignored. Not one of Tronstad's best Historicals. I recommend any of her 'bride' series over this.
This one...? Well, it wasn't horrific, but it definitely wasn't her best, either. You have to suspend a *LOT* of reality for this one to even work.
First, we're shown a 'mail-order bride ad' for a 'dying' sheriff. At no point in the book is Matt ever dying, so that was kind of misleading to the nth. It's blamed on his deputy writing the ad, as if that makes everything better. How about 'no'?
Then we have penniless and destitute Eleanor, who can't get a job at any of the factories in Chicago, even though they're all hiring. Because... reasons. It. Makes. No. Sense. She's unemployed because Tronstad says so. That's shoddy writing.
There's an older man who's not right in the head who is so simple that he can't comprehend Eleanor as Lily's sister (he thinks she's an evil, abusive aunt - with NO evidence to back it up)... but he's not so stupid as to not be able to follow them from Chicago to Montana and find them?
He steals Lily's specialized shoe (for a misshapen foot)... and we're supposed to believe that three weeks after the theft, Matt sends a description of the shoe to a police officer in Chicago, who then tracks it down? WH.... NO!!!!!! That's not even possible, hello.
Meanwhile, Eleanor and Lily, Matt and his deputy, and Henri and his sister are all living in jail cells for half of the book. Say what?! Yeah. No kidding. In the middle of winter, with newspaper shoved in the chinks of the logs, and snow blowing thru the cracks. (((sigh.)))
But it's okay, because two weeks before Matt's brother was shot, the brother bought a four-bedroom house/bakery in town, perfect for ALL of them, fully furnished, and ready to move in. Because believable.
Also, how *IRONIC* that Eleanor happens to be a top-notch pastry chef who opens the cabinets, and EVERYTHING she needs - from flour to sugar to spices are magically all right there and ready for her to use?! Wowzers. Even the hard-to-get specialized yeast is in tins at Matt's ranch house, just outside of town.
Who carves gold into the shape of an apple, by the way? The shavings would diminish the worth of the gold nugget, hello. That makes NO sense, at all. And the gold thing isn't clearly explained in the book, either. In fact, Matt's brother and his wife's plans/dealings with the bakery, the gold, the ranch... not ever. It's just a hot mess we're supposed to roll with.
And of COURSE Matt's mom would never run off with another man! She was just driving another man to another city and nursing him for A MONTH SOLID whilst he died... which, btdubs, is running off with another man, no matter how you paint it. I. Can't. Even.
What I want to know is how Mabel is capable of coming up with a full-course, fancy dinner for TEN just after a Sunday church service in which nobody knew there was going to be a wedding to have a wedding dinner FOR. These are small-town, Western folk. They're not wealthy... and having a larder THAT full and having cooked THAT much, just on her own whim, for such a time as that...? Really...??
WHY does Matt spend his wedding night in the saloon under a borrowed blanket while bad-mouthing womenfolk, again? Because that's COMPLETELY out of character for him. I... can't even.
And the whole thing with the lawyer being jilted is never resolved/fleshed out. The whole thing with her legal document is supposed to be a major point of the story, but Tronstad just chucks it out the window as irrelevant to her plot, halfway thru the story...
Matt is too verbose, too. He's a boy raised by a no-count, grunting father who turned cow-hand and then sheriff, and he talks like... well Janet Tronstad. Like a 40-something woman. He's not well-written, as a character. One minute he sees people with difficulties as weak and refuses to give them an inch, the next he's going out of his way to help.
CONSISTENCY would not be out of the question...
It wasn't bad storytelling. It was just a completely unbelievable plot with sketchy characterization and some problems that can't be ignored. Not one of Tronstad's best Historicals. I recommend any of her 'bride' series over this.
March 14, 2023
Janet is one of my favorite authors. This book was so good. You will fall in love with the characters.... They feel like friends. I was hooked from the first sentence. I hope she will continue the story because I didn't want it to end. I would recommend this book to anyone.
Eleanor is a really sweet girl who doesn't trust anyone. She has lost everyone in her family except her sister Lily. Trust doesn't come easy for her because everyone has disappointed her. We all have been disappointed before but there's one person who will never let us down. God is always there for us.
Lily, her sister, has a physical challenge and Eleanor is a bit over protective of her. Sometimes we all are over protective of someone who may be a little "different..... but if we shield them too much, we may do more damage than good. We must learn when to help and when to let them do things.
Mrs. Gunni, Eleanor and Lily's friend, answered a Mail Order Bride Ad without her knowing about it. A lot of times we do things for other people with good intentions......but they don't always work out.
Matt put the ad in the newspaper under "Partly False Pretenses, but with good intentions." He's trying to find Justice and protection for his niece and nephew. It's always best to let God protect us, but sometimes we have to find justice for our own peace of mind.
To find out if Eleanor learns to fully trust Matt and to see if she gives Lily space to do things she's capable of doing.... To see if Mrs. Gunni's intentions work out.....To see if Matt finds the justice he's looking for..... you have to read the book. Happy Reading!
Eleanor is a really sweet girl who doesn't trust anyone. She has lost everyone in her family except her sister Lily. Trust doesn't come easy for her because everyone has disappointed her. We all have been disappointed before but there's one person who will never let us down. God is always there for us.
Lily, her sister, has a physical challenge and Eleanor is a bit over protective of her. Sometimes we all are over protective of someone who may be a little "different..... but if we shield them too much, we may do more damage than good. We must learn when to help and when to let them do things.
Mrs. Gunni, Eleanor and Lily's friend, answered a Mail Order Bride Ad without her knowing about it. A lot of times we do things for other people with good intentions......but they don't always work out.
Matt put the ad in the newspaper under "Partly False Pretenses, but with good intentions." He's trying to find Justice and protection for his niece and nephew. It's always best to let God protect us, but sometimes we have to find justice for our own peace of mind.
To find out if Eleanor learns to fully trust Matt and to see if she gives Lily space to do things she's capable of doing.... To see if Mrs. Gunni's intentions work out.....To see if Matt finds the justice he's looking for..... you have to read the book. Happy Reading!
March 15, 2022
My Rating: 4 STARS ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Themes/Tropes: Mail order bride, marriage of convenience, inspirational (faith based)
Format Read: Mass market Paperback
My Review:
This is the third book I’ve read by Janet Tronstad and I can’t help but be swept right up with the stories she creates. The premise of this one was what really drew me in and the plot kept me hooked from beginning to end. This book had so much packed into it’s 282 pages.
I have to say that I was not a big fan of lack of communication between Matt and Eleanore. I found it to be annoying and extremely frustrating as the book went on. But the children were really sweet and I liked the small town setting. Montana is one of my favourite setting for these Historical romance’s to take place. (Not sure if it’s because I have such fond memories of visiting Montana with my Grandparents or because of the overall welcoming feeling the authors are able to create within these stories.) The friendship that Mrs. Gunni, Eleanore and Lily had was so special. I was happy with the way everything wrapped up. Would definitely recommend this if you are looking for an inspirational historical romance.
Themes/Tropes: Mail order bride, marriage of convenience, inspirational (faith based)
Format Read: Mass market Paperback
My Review:
This is the third book I’ve read by Janet Tronstad and I can’t help but be swept right up with the stories she creates. The premise of this one was what really drew me in and the plot kept me hooked from beginning to end. This book had so much packed into it’s 282 pages.
I have to say that I was not a big fan of lack of communication between Matt and Eleanore. I found it to be annoying and extremely frustrating as the book went on. But the children were really sweet and I liked the small town setting. Montana is one of my favourite setting for these Historical romance’s to take place. (Not sure if it’s because I have such fond memories of visiting Montana with my Grandparents or because of the overall welcoming feeling the authors are able to create within these stories.) The friendship that Mrs. Gunni, Eleanore and Lily had was so special. I was happy with the way everything wrapped up. Would definitely recommend this if you are looking for an inspirational historical romance.
May 31, 2022
I enjoyed this latest book from Janet Tronstad. I love her characters and her stories. The two main characters were well-developed but their lack of communication about things was a little frustrating! Eleanor was always looking out for her younger sister who had a disability and she was afraid, by getting married, that she wouldn't have control over Lily anymore. She wanted to make sure Lily was taken care of. Matt, the sheriff, was abandoned as a youngster and it still haunts him. He doesn't always know how to relate to Eleanor or the children. He wants to but he hasn't had a good role model. I love the mail-order bride trope and this one was interesting! The young children were fantastic and added a lot to the story. I liked the suspense/mystery part of the story too! A wonderful and touching story about making a family.
June 23, 2023
This was a pretty great read! I couldn’t put it down and I appreciated the Christian inspired narrative. The primary reason I didn’t give the book a full 5 starts is because I hate the miscommunication trope…I enjoy a good trope when well done, but miscommunication just irritates me. Like half the conflict in the book would be resolved if the characters just used their words…
That aside, it was a sweet story, well paced for its premise, I liked the characters, I thought that Lilly’s character was a bit odd in that her whole role in the book was to serve as part of the reason why Eleanor didn’t trust men (all because of a club foot? Seemed off to me), but that aside, cute story!
That aside, it was a sweet story, well paced for its premise, I liked the characters, I thought that Lilly’s character was a bit odd in that her whole role in the book was to serve as part of the reason why Eleanor didn’t trust men (all because of a club foot? Seemed off to me), but that aside, cute story!
March 8, 2022
This is a great mail order bride story. The setting is Montana, and there are great characters to get to know. Janet Tronstad is one of my favorite authors because you get to know her characters and the community they live in very well. This plot also has a great mix of tension and tenderness.
March 25, 2022
An enjoyable, quick read by Janet Tronstad. My fingers are crossed that Lily's story will eventually be told!
June 7, 2022
A very enjoyable read.
Fast moving with many twists and turns, interesting characters and, of course, a happy ending! I feel many will appreciate this book.
Fast moving with many twists and turns, interesting characters and, of course, a happy ending! I feel many will appreciate this book.
September 23, 2022
I loved this mail order bride story. Sometimes we have to look outside the box when looking at things. Eleanor and Matt were so special and made the town seam so much better.
January 15, 2023
Another fantastic book by Janet! I can see the possibility of so many sequels from this book!!
July 30, 2023
Good story. Would recommend this to everyone. HEA.
October 28, 2023
Fabulous book. I really enjoyed it.
September 24, 2022
I enjoyed this book. It is a must read!
January 3, 2024
A well developed story with good flow of characters.There some tension parts and a few twists and turns. The story gets better with each chapter. There are lots of learning and trusting ,& forgiveness too.
Well done
Well done
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews