This is four short stories with a slight twist. As the back cover says, "First comes marriage. . . But will love follow when four American settlers become husbands in the most unusual of circumstances." I enjoyed reading each one of these stories.

In 'Mail Order Husband' you have Gabe Hunters leaving Philadelphia in answer to an ad for a husband/father on a Nebraska farm. Lena Walker needs help to keep her farm going so she sends for someone she thought was very capable. She begins to wonder if God made a mistake though, when she meets Gabe, who has never done anything on a farm, just read lots of books. This will be a learning experience for everyone and a joy to watch how love blossoms between these two unlikely people.

In 'Temporary Husband' I had to chuckle a little when I realized what was going to happen in this story. Netty Franklin, an outspoken temperance lady, finds herself in jail when she gets the saloon owner mad (who is also the judge in town). Riley O'Conner, a previously well known ramble rouser, has come back to town after getting his life straightened out, but because of a misunderstanding also finds himself in jail. The only way the judge will let Netty out is if she finds a husband that will keep her under control. So. . . . Riley and Netty get married in jail to get out of jail and then hopefully get the marriage annulled. But it doesn't work that way, as Riley realizes the sacredness of the marriage vows and wants to stay married. It will be a learning experience for them both as they learn how to get along.

In 'Kiowa Husband' the wagon train scout Painted Hands will marry Sarah Benson for propriety's sake on the Oregon Trail when Sarah's parents die (after the wagon train left them behind so they wouldn't catch the typhoid fever her parents had). Sarah must learn to trust this man who grew up among the Indians and Painted Hands must learn to love again. This was an endearing story of watching love blossom in the heart of both these characters.

Finally, in 'Renegade Husband' you have Audra Lenders arriving on stagecoach (after being robbed along the way) to marry Christopher Winslow, the pastor in town, who she has never met. She realizes when she arrives that Caleb Winslow, Christopher's twin, was the man who supposedly robbed her stage and is an outlaw. Can Caleb convince her that she is wrong and that his pastor brother, who she came to marry, is really the outlaw and deceiving everyone in town.

A new twist to the "mail order brides" stories I have read and I enjoyed myself watching these "restless men find peace within marriages that have been arranged by the hand of God". ( )

I picked this up because I am from Nebraska...and well, I am a sucker for books about Nebraska. The author starts off by inviting the reader to visit her city, Houston, and enjoy its many splendors. I invite her to visit Nebraska before she writes about it next time. The first book was okay. She named the town in the second one Mesquite. It was by Lincoln. Mesquite does not grow anywhere in Nebraska, and if it did, it would be a couple hundred miles west of Lincoln. That is why we name things Cottonwood and Elm and Pine. Then she had the guy taking the scenic route home from Montana, through South Dakota then Wyoming then Nebraska. She lost some credibility there. I lost it in the third book when she could not get her landmarks on the Oregon Trail straight. If she had been here she would know you can see Scotts Bluff from Chimney Rock, and that you go past Chimney Rock first unless you are headed back east. Then she had a wall around Fort Laramie. None of the prairie forts had walls around them. I left them somewhere in the desert. I presume they lived to see Oregon, but I quit caring.

Clearly I should avoid romance books. It doesn't seem like the authors I have read do much research, and in their defense, maybe the target audience doesn't care. I like a book with a good plot and if I happen learn something in the proces of reading it I expect my new knowledge to be accurate.
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I enjoyed this book of Christian fiction even though the circumstances of the marriages are rather unlikely.

Mail Order Husband- A Nebraska widow with two sons advertizes for a husband. When the two meet neither is what the other expected.

Temporary Husband- A spinster is thrown in jail due to her work in the temperance field. In the cell next hers is a man, who used to be a drunk, but now is Christian. The judge does not want to release either party without a relative to vouch for them. The two decide to marry to get out of jail, thinking they can "undo" the marriage after they are out. When the judge refuses their divorce they are stuck with each other.

Kiowa Husband- A young woman is on the wagon train to Oregon with her parents. Her parents become ill and die of Typhoid. The wagon train does not want to allow her to continue as she might be a carrier of Typhoid. They leave her on the prairie only after the preacher insists a young Indian, who has volunteered to stay with her, marry her.

Renegade Husband- A young woman travels to Colorado to marry a minister, a marriage arranged for her, before her arrival. Upon her arrival she finds out the minister is not a Godly man at all, he is an outlaw. The outlaw-minister is blaming all of his acts on his twin brother. The woman must help the twin brother prove he is innocent and the outlaw is the guilty party. ( )

As a no-thinking-involved trashy romance that is the chocolate truffle of my literary diet, this book was actually pretty good. The first story was great. It really tickled me that the mail order husband was described as 'stout' and 'corpulent'. I see lots of people with this body type everyday (heck, I'm marrying one) but this type of man does not ususally appear in the pages of my romance novels. The second story lost me. The marriage senario seemed very contrived, and honestly Nettie the Temperence Martyr was down right annoying. ( )

Mail Order Husband*
Temporary Husband*
Kiowa Husband*
Renegade Husband* ( )