Friday, October 15, 2010

Book Review - Mail Order Cowboy by Laurie Kingery

I'm not usually drawn to historicals, but Laurie Kingery is one of my favorite authors in the inspirational historical romance genre. I adored Hill Country Christmas and The Outlaw's Lady, so when I had the opportunity to pick up her latest book at a conference, I couldn't pass it up. Mail Order Cowboy is the first in a series called "Brides of Simpson Creek."

In Mail Order Cowboy, Laurie takes an old theme of mail order brides and gives it a twist. The small Texas town of Simpson Creek is left with no single young men after the Civil War. So, enterprising Milly Matthews comes up with an idea to run an ad in the Houston Telegraph, a larger city newspaper for which her uncle is the editor. She gathers the young unmarried ladies of the town together and they form The Simpson Creek Society for Promotion of Marriage.

When aristocratic British cavalry officer Nicholas Brookfield rides into town to check out the society, he is quite taken by Miss Milly Matthews. However, Nicholas isn't exactly Milly's idea of a cowboy. She's looking for a nice southern gentleman who knows his way around a ranch, since she and her sister Sarah have been struggling to keep their ranch going after their father's death. Only moments after meeting Nicholas at a meeting of the newly formed spinster's society, Milly is summoned back to the ranch. A band of raiding comanches has burned their barn and most likely killed her ranch manager.

Milly soon learns Nick is much more than he appears to be. Although he isn't privy to how a ranch is run, he offers to stay and help until her ranch hand recuperates from his near-fatal injuries inflicted by the comanches. The story of how Nick sets about to win Milly's heart amidst distrust of his foreign roots, small-town bigotry, comanche threats, and a secret he must hide, is a joy to read. Both must face dangers and search for a faith deep enough to overcome their doubts to find the answers to their prayers.

I loved this book and am anxiously awaiting the next release in the series.

1 comment:

Dene Brock said...

Thanks for a great review.