Rebecca Brides of the Oregon Trail Book 5
Historical Western Romance
Firehouse Publishing
September 23, 2019
198
Rebecca Taylor traveled the Oregon Trail for one reason, to provide for and protect her younger siblings. Having lost her mother years ago, the care and raising of the younger children fell to her and her brother. Oregon was supposed to be a new beginning, a fresh start. But the house they acquire needs more work than it's worth, and a wealthy and powerful man has taken more than a passing interest in having Rebecca for his wife. Add to her confusion a simmering attraction to Ian Stanford, the carpenter hired to repair their home, and Rebecca is in way over her head.
After losing his wife--in a still unsolved murder--Ian Stanford has been raising his twin boys alone. Work fixing up the Taylor's old home is exactly what he and his boys need, but the enchanting young woman in charge of the household is driving him to distraction. His two boys want a new mother, but the only thing Ian is interested in is catching his dead wife's killer. When a new discovery leads him to a startling truth, everyone is in danger…his boys, the family he's grown to care too much about, and the beautiful Rebecca, who had can't stop thinking about.
When the truth about his wife's killer is revealed, he's shocked to discover his first need is not vengeance but to protect his new family. But the stubborn Rebecca isn't the type to sit idly by when her family is in danger. Ian has no choice but to work with Rebecca to lure the killer into a trap. The real trap, he soon discovers, is the one Rebecca placed around his heart.
Reviewed by: Linda Tonis
Member of the Paranormal Romance Review Team
Twenty-three year old Rebecca Taylor is on her way to the Oregon Territory to start a new life. With the death of both parents she and her siblings, her twin brother Ben, 21 year old sister Charlotte, six year old Carrie Ann and fourteen year old Peter have sold everything they had to find a house and property. The trip is six months travelling around ten miles a day, thank god I didn’t live in the 1850’s. Rebecca and Ben raised Carrie Ann since their mother died giving birth and their father drank himself to death.
When they finally arrive and after spending six months on top of each other they came out of it alive and well and Rebecca makes her first stop the bank hoping that she can find a house sooner rather than later, a roof over head and a floor under their feet after their long travel is all she wants right now and thankfully she gets it. It is a large three story house with a lot of land but the house is in need of major repair so Rebecca hires Ian Stanford a local carpenter.
Ian is the father of twin boys the same age as Carrie Ann but fifteen months ago his wife was killed and the money for their property stolen. Now he and the boys live in a run down shack and he makes a deal with Rebecca, he will work for her if he and the boys can live at the house while the work is being done, a deal she readily agrees to since she finds herself very attracted to her new employee.
When Silas Fletcher the owner of a lumber mill and one of the richest men in town comes courting Rebecca agrees to go out with him in spite of Ian’s insistence that she stays away from him. It was Silas who took his property from him and Ian is not the only one that he has destroyed. Rebecca decides to take a chance but it doesn’t take long before she realizes that Silas is a monster and everything that Ian described. She also has fallen in love with Ian and refuses to marry anyone she doesn’t love.
If like me you are a fan of Ms. Woolf’s books then you know that the men in her stories swear they can never love and the women in the stories only want love. There is a lot at stake for Ian finding his wife’s killer and providing for his two boys and Rebecca dreaming of having a husband and children of her own. Another beautiful love story filled with suspense and amazing characters.
