Courting Not Allowed in Morals Clause

Emma decides to go west and become a Gilbert girl to support her family; her father has recently passed, and her mother is ill, so she cannot work. Gilbert girls work in the dining rooms of the Gilbert hotels. The Gilbert family employees well-brought-up young ladies for these jobs, and there is a strict moral code for the term of the contract: the girls cannot be courted until their contract is up. While Emma will miss her family, she is looking forward to the adventure. Hartley is a builder who has only worked on smaller projects previously but has managed to talk his way into working on one of the bigger Gilbert hotel complexes in Colorado. He and Emma have an almost instant attraction, even though that first interaction has a measure of embarrassment for Emma.

What an enjoyable book! Emma’s kindness and compassion in her desire to help her family pulled me right in. She is plucky and adventurous as well. The writing is easy to follow, and the characters the author has created—especially all the Gilbert girls themselves—are uniquely individual. By making them so three dimensional and distinct, the author has set up the basis for a good series as we follow the life and experience of each of the girls. I like that this book gave a glimpse into what was probably similar to endeavors that actually happened across the west in those early days.

If you enjoy western romance, you will most likely appreciate this well-crafted, clean story.

Female Scout on the Oregon Trail

While I adore historical romance, old west romances are not my typical ones to read. I tend to read more Regency and Victorian novels. For whatever reason, this week I have been drawn to reading old west romances. This one is the best I have read so far. The author pulls you in right away with this terrifying image of a young girl fleeing for her life as she watches her home burn and her parents murdered by white men. Alone now in the world, she figures her end is near when Osage warriors surround her. But an Indian woman emerges and takes her into her family. The story then fasts forward to 10 years later as this young woman, fleeing for her life again, seeks a position as a scout on a wagon train headed for the Oregon Trail. She has a hard time convincing the wagonmaster to hire her; he doesn’t believe a woman is fit for the job despite her display of good riding and shooting skills. After it becomes clear that she has been in danger and is perhaps in more danger after the skill competition between her and his previous scout, he agrees that she should come along.

Paden has quite a backstory himself, but I’ll let you discover that for yourself if you decide to read this fantastic novel. The book has a variety of secondary characters. Both the primary characters and secondary characters are well drawn and feel three dimensional. Hannah is it a challenging position as a white woman who was mostly raised by the Osage. At times, she has a hard time fitting in with the others on their journey to Oregon. Paden struggles with his conflicting feelings about this strong and resilient woman.

I loved this author’s ability to weave in words and phrases that are evocative of the old west but don’t feel stilted or out of place both in dialogue and in the narrative portions. That’s not an easy skill for an author of historical fiction to maintain. Her descriptions of the various settings as well are very visual, and I could imagine seeing them.

The author did an excellent job putting me in Hannah’s mind right from the start, feelings her terror as a child and understanding her desperation—even if I didn’t know the full reasons at the beginning–to get that job that she hopes will take her farther away from danger. The skill competition between her and the former scout is surprisingly a page-turner, compelling me to want to keep reading to see how it would turn out. The rest of the book is much the same. As an Oregonian myself, I enjoyed seeing the Oregon Trail as a backdrop for this. It is so hard to imagine what it was honestly like for people who use that harrowing trail to get to the West, but the author does a good job of making me feel like I’m right alongside the characters as they experience the beauty and hazards of it. It was actually a book I had a hard time putting down to do other things, which I wasn’t expecting when I opened it. As I said, I’m not usually a fan of old west romances, but something initially drew me to this story, and I am glad because it is an awesome read.

Will She Be Able to Stop Running?

Birdie has been on the run for a long time, sister to notorious thieves. People threaten her because they believe she knows where her brothers’ gold is. After closing down a shop that makes use of her dressmaking skills, she decides to become a part of a group of women going to a remote town in Colorado to become mail-order brides. Jack is her intended, and he runs a freight business in town with his grandpa, Gus. Jack lost his leg during the Civil War and has a complicated past with women. As Birdie is still on the run, she isn’t pleased that an infamous lawman is a part of this town, so she considers leaving, not marrying Jack.

Birdie spends much of the book trying to figure out if she’s going to stay or run. I like Gus as a character. He is a good-hearted older man who is starting to have troubles with dementia. Jack is doing his best to keep his business together and his grandfather in line. He has a lot of insecurities about himself as a man and marrying again. Much of the story is about these three people who are more vulnerable than they like or would appear. Will they be able to find strength together that they lack apart?

I felt like this book needed more conflict. The author set up the possibility of conflict with the troubles from Birdie’s past, but that didn’t really come into play until much later in the novel. The pacing felt slow; I felt like I was just waiting for something to happen.