Seven women seek husbands to help them rebuild a Kansas town.
Meet seven of Turtle Springs, Kansasโ, finest women who are determined to revive their small town after the War Between the States took most of its men. . .and didnโt return them. The ladies decide to advertise for husbands and devise a plan for weeding out the riff raff. But how can they make the best practical choices when their hearts cry out to be loved?
Abigailโs Proposal by Cynthia Hickey When her father never returned from the war, Abigail Melton stepped into his role as town mayor. The town needs men, and she needs a husbandโand she has a big idea how to find bothโbut her first duty is to hire a sheriff. And drifter Josiah Ingram will do just fine.
The Kidnapped Groom by Susan Page Davis Riding through the Flint Hills on his way to Dodge City, cowboy Sam Cayford finds himself the kidnapping victim of two children. When he meets their lovely mother, Maggie Pinerโwhom the kids insist he should marryโSam starts to question Godโs plans versus his own.
A Clean Slate by Susanne Dietze Schoolmarm Roberta โBirdyโ Green wonโt marry any of the prospective grooms flocking to town. After losing her fiancรฉ in the war, the only love her broken heart can bear is for her students. But then she takes on a new pupilโDrew Cooper, one of the gentlemen drawn to Kansas by the advertisement for grooms.
Sunshine of My Heart by Darlene Franklin Debbie Barker longs to bring beauty to her new home on the prairie, where her family moved after the war, and seeks a husband to help her father run the ranch. Zack Gage returned home from the war to a life in ruinsโfamily dead and business bankrupted. He answers the mail-order husband ad to seek a fresh start. But neither Debbie nor Zeke know what they are doing when it comes to ranching. . .or love.
Come What May by Patty Smith Hall Chardy Stevens is at the end of her rope. Between running her late fatherโs store and tending to her four younger brothers, she barely has time to breathe, much less look for a husband to help her. The boys scare off most of her prospects and throw Chardy together with her childhood friend Luke, a disabled veteran who seeks her happiness above his own.
Dime Novel Suitor by Carrie Fancett Pagels Widow Caroline Kane is the proprietor of a restaurant and innโand responsible for her five teenaged siblings. But she has no plans of finding a mail-order groom. Britisher Barden Granville IV is on a โcowboy holidayโ when he finds himself flat broke in Kansas. When he answers an old โhelp wantedโ ad, Caroline misconstrues Barden is there as a potential husband. Will the beautiful and fiesty widow cause the new vicar to make Kansas his home?
Louder than Words by Gina Welborn After years of writing abolitionist pamphlets and chronicling soldier life during the war, J.R. Lockhart is bored and jumps at the opportunity to investigate an advertisement for husbands for an article in Godeyโs Ladyโs Book. Jane Ransome would like to help the charming-but-oblivious-to-life-out-West man chronicle the courtships developing in town, but she has her own husband to findโone who will fit perfectly in her picket-fenced Kansas home.
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