Carter Bachelors & Babies Book 3
Historical Western Romance
Firehouse Publishing
August 1, 2019
210
Carter Monroe woke on a normal day or so he thought. Then he found a baby in a basket on his front porch with a note stating he was the father. That was impossible and yet the baby’s mama had been sure. With no way to find the mother, he takes the responsibility of raising the little girl, Lanie, as his daughter.
Lanie needed everything. While at the mercantile he meets beautiful Samantha Wallace who informs him she is his mail-order bride, a bride he knows nothing about. When he sees her, mistake or not, he knows he can never let her go.
What is going on? A baby and a bride all on the same day? Was someone playing tricks on him or was he just having a really strange day?
Reviewed by: Linda Tonis
Member of the Paranormal Romance Review Team
Carter Monroe woke up like every morning only this morning would change his life forever. A basket containing a small baby with a note claiming the baby is his daughter, her name is Elaine (Lanie) and she is four months old. Carter knew that the baby wasn’t his since he hadn’t been with anyone for a long time but one look at her beautiful face and he was in love. Having no clue how to care for a baby and needing all kinds of supplies he headed to the mercantile where he discovered a woman claiming to be his mail-order bride. Now he has a baby and a possible bride.
Ann-Marie Sanderson aka Samantha Wallace ran from St. Louis and her fiancé Thurston who continuously beat her. Her parents were no help; her father didn’t believe her and her mother who apparently was also a whipping board just believed that was how men were. So off she went to meet her mail-order husband without advising him she was on her way. When Carter saw how she instantly loved Lanie and how well she took care of her he decided that marrying her was the right thing to do. He knew he could never love another woman after the death of his wife but Lanie needed a mother and he wanted more children.
The arrangement between Samantha and Carter was working out, she loved her new daughter as much as Carter did and the men who worked on the ranch loved the baby just as much, not to mention they finally had someone who could cook. All at the ranch were getting along and appeared happy until Thurston arrived demanding his fiancé back. Carter had no intention to letting Samantha go and Samantha would not leave Lanie for anything she loved her with all her heart and she loved Carter even though he couldn’t return the feeling.
Like all of Ms. Woolf’s books this was a sweet love story, another man refusing to admit he could love, a woman waiting and hoping that he would change his mind and in this case a beautiful little baby girl. There were no secrets between Carter and Samantha only a vicious man who wanted what he believed was his. I love these books because they take place in the eighteen hundreds, a time I am very thankful I did not live in although I am sure my great-grandchildren ten or twenty years down the line will think the same thing about us. A simple story about love with just enough suspense to make the story exciting.