The Stolen Bride Hope's Crossing Book 3
Historical Western Romance
Firehouse Publishing
April 29, 2016
ebook and print
288
Isabella "Bella" Latham's callous father sold her into marriage to settle a gambling debt. Rather than face life with a cruel man more than twice her age, she runs from New York and becomes a mail-order bride. Bella's dreams are simple. All she needs to be happy is a home, children and an honorable man to love her.
Alex Hastings lost his wife in a riding accident two years before. Left with two adorable but mischievous twin four-year-old daughters, he's convinced they need a mother to take care of them. Alex knows he must marry, but vows he'll never love another woman.
Bella's tenderness and fire melts Alex's stone cold heart. But when her jilted fiancé from New York sends men to capture Bella, will Alex be able to get back his Stolen Bride?
Steam Heat Level - Semi-sweet
Reviewed by: Linda Tonis
Member of the Paranormal Romance Review Team
Isabella Latham (Bella) is part of New York society but the night of her parent’s party her life changed. Her father announced her engagement to a vile, evil old man something that Bella could not understand. She learned that her father owed Sidney Rockwell money and he sold his daughter to him. It wasn’t until later in her room that her mother came to her rescue. Her mother had an advertisement from Matchmaker and Co. for mail-order brides out West. Bella would go and pick the husband she wanted and hopefully would be far enough away from her father and Sidney that they wouldn’t find her.
In Hope’s Crossing in the Montana Territory, Alex Hastings needs to find a wife so that his four year old twin daughters can have someone to teach them to behave. His wife died two years ago and since then he has done very little to reign his daughters in. It was Alex that Bella had picked with help from Matchmaker and Co.’s owner Maggie Black. So far Maggie has been very successful with the mail-order brides she has sent to Hope’s Crossing
Bella is very impressed when she sees her future husband and is determined to have their marriage consummated that evening. If her marriage is consummated then Rockwell and her father can do nothing about it. Her only problem is that Alex wants a mother for his children and not a wife for himself. He is determined not to sleep with his new wife who he is unaware is planning on seducing him. Alex is convinced that he was the cause of his wife’s death and is not ready to let another woman into his life only the woman he picked for his wife is a very strong woman who will do whatever is necessary to get what she wants.
It doesn’t take long before Bella falls in love with Alex and the girls but the girls are the only ones who seem to feel the same way. In time Alex accepts that he will have sex with his new wife but he will never let her into his heart. Bella’s life is totally different than the one she lived in New York but she learns to love it and never once considered the danger she was putting her new family in if Rockwell ever found her. Rockwell is the kind of man that will stop at nothing to get his stolen bride and she has no idea what his plans are.
I loved this book every bit as much as the first two and hopefully there will be more coming. There are secrets, sex, surprises and suspense.