MAIL ORDER HUSBAND

Author: Lauri Robinson ISBN: 1601540620 5/2007 HISTORICAL Publisher: WILD ROSE PRESS
Time Period: 1800's Old West

Penny Jordan doesn't want a husband- she needs one. It's the only way she can save her ranch. Her pickings are slim, so she asks her friend from back east to find one and send him to the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory, ASAP. Penny soon discovers that her mail ordered husband is the last thing she needed—he's nothing more than a mail order problem! Jace Owens doesn't want a wife—again. When his meddling sister-in-law drugs and ships him to the middle of nowhere as a mail order husband, all he can focus on is getting back to Pennsylvania to wring her scrawny neck. Then he meets his new wife, and soon discovers he's going to have to convince her to let him stay—for a lifetime.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

MAIL ORDER HUSBAND by Lauri Robinson, is a touching Western mixed with adventure and romance. Set in the Dakota Territory, MAIL ORDER HUSBAND is about a woman struggling to maintain her ranch after her father passes away. Succumbing to the fact that she indeed does need a husband to help get her voice heard with the other male ranchers, she decides to take her friend up on the offer of "sending" her a husband.

Penny's husband is none other than her best friend's brother-in-law, Jace. Jace lost his wife and baby during childbirth and has slowly been self-destructing ever since. The only way he is going to go to Penny is over his dead body... er, drugged body. That is exactly how Penny meets her mail order husband, while her best friend drugs him beyond comprehension!

Of course, Penny isn't too thrilled knowing how he made his way from Pennsylvania to the Dakota territory, and her best friend surely isn't going to stay around while he recovers from his stupor, either. When Jace finally recovers, well, you can pretty much guess that he's not going to be too happy at finding out what just happened to him. Thanks to his brother, who is a lawyer, and his former father-in-law, who is a judge, Jace and Penny are married by proxy—all they have to do now is sign on the dotted line.

After a huge fight between Jace and Penny, Jace takes off and decides to go back to Pennsylvania, but he has a nagging feeling that the death of Penny's father wasn't an accident and that perhaps Penny may be in danger herself. To make a long story short, he stays, she accepts that she really does need him, and they both agree that they like the way each other kisses.

Jace and Penny don't hit it off very well—a lot of times, actually. Some of the bickering gets a bit tiresome after awhile. However, it's understandable that Penny feels that Jace is stepping on toes a lot of times at the ranch. However, Jace and Penny must work together to ensure the livelihood of the ranch.

There's more to this story than just the romance between Jace and Penny. There's someone who is out to destroy the other ranches. Throw in some Indians and your run-of-the-mill bad guy, and MAIL ORDER HUSBAND turns out to be quite the entertaining western.

I would recommend reading MAIL ORDER HUSBAND by Lauri Robinson.

Julie Kornhausl