The Replacement Bride Hope's Crossing #2
Historical Romance
Firehouse Publishing
March 3, 2016
278
Reviewed by: Linda Tonis
Member of the Paranormal Romance Review Team
3rd Place 2016 PRG Reviewer’s Choice Awards – Historical Romance Novels & Novellas
2nd Place 2016 PRG Reviewer’s Choice Awards – Historical Romance Novels & Novellas – Series
It is 1873 in the Montana Territory when Jesse Donovan receives a letter from his fiancé Rebecca telling him that she will no longer marry him. For years Jesse worked in the stock market in New York and did so well that he decided he wanted to go to Hope’s Crossing and mine. He was well off but wanted more so that he could care for his family.
Jesse looked forward to the day that Rebecca would join him and in spite of the fact that he was very rich she decided to stay in New York and marry another man. Rebecca could not see herself in some small town and her parting advice to him was a newspaper ad from Matchmaker & Co. telling him to find a replacement.
Jesse asked advice from Jo and Sam who we met in book number one. Noone would know more about getting a mail-order bride than Jo who was one herself. Deciding to take a chance and hoping that he is as successful finding a wife as Sam was he agrees to marry Clarissa (Clare) Griggs.
When Clare arrives in Hope’s Crossing she is met by Jesse and they are immediately married only she gets Jesse to wait until the marriage is consummated. Everything is going well until Jesse tells Clare that he has been threatened by Harry Smith a man who worked for him but came in drunk causing an accident in the mine injuring several men. Everything is more than Clare could ever have hoped for except for Harry Smith and his desire for revenge.
Clare settles into her new life with her new husband and they even consummate their marriage. The only problem is that Jesse was hurt by a woman and refuses to allow himself to love again even though he is quite happy with his new replacement bride.
Jesse and Clare care for each other but can he ever love again? Things are going so well that when Harry Smith begins causing trouble it is a constant effort to keep one step ahead of him but unfortunately they are not always successful. Clare is such a wonderful character willing to do anything she can to be a good wife. Jesse is willing to give Clare anything she needs or wants but the one thing she craves and that is love.
Another wonderful book by Ms. Woolf, a simple story filled with love, betrayal and surprises. Whenever I get a Cynthia Woolf book I know I will have exactly what I want, a love story with some suspense and a taste of life in the 1800’s.