Book Title: MARRYING OFF MORGAN MCBRIDE
Character Name: Morgan McBride
- How would you describe your family or your childhood?
The McBrides are chaos. Uncontainable and uncontrollable – each and every one of them is a force of nature. It’s like living with a cabin full of hurricanes. I love them but, hell, they make my life a hardship. It’s just my three younger brothers and my kid sister since Pa ran off and Ma died, leaving me to raise the pack of kids by myself. And what do I know about parenting? The only role model for a father I had was a drunk. But I did it. I raised them up. Well, all except for Junebug, who may yet be the death of me.
- What was your greatest talent?
Planning. There was no time for fun when I was dragging myself up to manhood – I can’t play a fiddle like my brother Jonah, or work an anvil like Kit, who’s a first-rate blacksmith. But I can lay in supplies enough for the hardest winter, and make sure the horses are shod and the cabin is leak-proof. I can take care of business. And that’s no small thing.
- Significant other?
I never wanted one. And I certainly didn’t order one up via a mail order bride advertisement. You can blame Junebug for that. And I got no plans to marry that redhead she ordered. Even if she does distract the living hell out of me.
- Biggest challenge in relationships?
People. They never do what you tell them to. It’s infuriating.
- Where do you live?
Buck’s Creek, Montana. Population: six. And all of them McBrides.
- Do you have any enemies?
Can I count Junebug? That kid drives me to distraction. She never does what she’s supposed to – in fact, she goes out of her way to do the flat out opposite of what she’s supposed to. I spend half my life cleaning up after her messes.
- How do you feel about the place where you are now? Is there something you are particularly attached to, or particularly repelled by, in this place?
I never wanted to stay in Buck’s Creek – I only came back for a visit. But then Ma died, and Pa ran off, and here I was, stuck, in the one place I hated most in the world. There’s nothing but hard memories here. And I can’t wait to leave, to head back to running cattle in Texas, to get away from all the infernal responsibility. But there’s two catches with that plan: Junebug, and the redhead ‘wife’ she ordered up.
- Do you have children, pets, both, or neither?
I got kids, but they ain’t mine. I’m just stuck with them.
- What do you do for a living?
I still think of myself as a cowboy, but there ain’t been no cows for a long stretch. Unless you count Junebug’s milk cow. My job now is keeping my family alive. And that’s some labor.
- Greatest disappointment?
Not being able to save Ma. Leaving her to the old man. Not coming back sooner. There are too many regrets to count; they’re stocked up like supplies in a root cellar.
- Greatest source of joy?
Junebug. But don’t tell her.
- What do you do to entertain yourself or have fun?
There ain’t much in the way of fun around here. But sometimes, on a summer night, when the cookfire is spitting sparks at the purple sky, and we’ve eaten our fill and I’ve got a mug of whiskey in my hand; when I can hear Junebug complaining as she does a poor job with the dishes down by the creek; and the boys are talking lazily; sometimes then I get a feeling like things are fine as fine can be.
- What is your greatest personal failing, in your view?
People tell me I don’t listen. I expect they’re right. And that I have a temper. And I expect that’s right too.
- What keeps you awake at night?
Memories. None of them good. Worries about how to feed everyone in lean times. Fear that I’ll never get out of here, that I’ll always be responsible.
- What is the most pressing problem you have at the moment?
Epiphany Hopgood: the mail order bride Junebug’s ordered up and seems to expect me to marry. I ain’t marrying her – of course I ain’t – but she’s damned hard to resist.
- Is there something that you need or want that you don’t have? For yourself or for someone important to you?
Just once I wish I didn’t have to feel so alone and didn’t have to bear all the burdens by myself.
- Why don’t you have it? What is in the way?
I got left with the responsibility and I take it seriously. And until now there hasn’t been anyone to share it with. And maybe… maybe I haven’t known how to let anyone share it. Maybe until this infernal mail order redhead turned up, I hadn’t realized how much I missed being cared for myself.
The McBride brothers are in for a matrimonial surprise when an enterprising woman answers their little sister's mail order bride advertisement in this laugh-out-loud historical romance.
As the oldest of the McBride siblings, Morgan had to be protector and shepherd since Ma died and Pa ran off. It hasn't always been easy, especially when his heart longs to roam on the trail. But now that his brother Kit is married and settled, the time is right for Morgan to leave Buck's Creek. Little does he know that his hellcat of a little sister Junebug is dead set on keeping him at home and getting more help around the house – all with one honest advertisement in The Matrimonial News.
Epiphany Hopgood has always had a gift for doing the exact wrong thing. She’s too tall, too loud, too opinionated, and too contrary for her family and community. Staring down the barrel of spinsterhood, she and her grandmother answer a seemingly straightforward ad for a bride.
But when Pip shows up to Buck’s Creek, she finds that Morgan McBride is not the husband she expected. In fact, he doesn’t even want to be a husband. But maybe there’s a way to make everyone happy out on the Montana frontier…
Romance Historical [Berkley, On Sale: May 30, 2023, Trade Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9780593335598 / eISBN: 9780593335604]
Amy Barry writes sweeping historical stories about love. She’s fascinated with the landscapes of the American West and their complex long history, and she’s even more fascinated with people in all their weird tangled glory. Amy also writes under the names Amy T Matthews and Tess LeSue, and is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Flinders University in Australia.
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