About this item
Love sneaks up on eight couples in the Old West. The Old West comes to life under the talented pen of bestselling author Mary Connealy. Enjoy a lighthearted ride alongside seven historical and one contemporary cowboys and the women who tame their hearts. The Advent Bride Melanie Douglas is alone on the Nebraska plains, teaching school to get by. She finds a unique box with hidden drawers to use over the advent season to engage a young boy in his schooling. When Henry O'Keeffe sees a positive change in his son, he has to see for himself what this new teacher is doing. A Bride Rides Herd Matt Reeves arrives at his brother's ranch to find Betsy Harden alone with the little girls during a cattle drive. Will the ladies be too much to handle when Matt steps in for the missing ranch hand? His Surprise Family A lonely young rancher orders a mail-order bride and after the vows are spoken, she "surprises" him with her three little brothers. No amount of apologies Meghan McCray gives are going to make Silas Harden, Jr. believe a word she says. Should Silas just build himself another house and let his mail-order family take over the one he's got? Homestead on the Range Widow Elle Winter meets new homesteader Colin Samuelson on the Nebraska prairie, but the attraction between them is soon dampened by the discovery that they have seven children between them. Soon their children are working against them to bring the two families together. Sophie's Other Daughter Dr. Ike Reeves comes home to visit his family only to bring trouble in the form of outlaws who believe he witnessed their latest crime. When the gang traps Ike and his old nemesis, Lauren McClellen, in a cave, they must work together to outsmart the thugs. But will their time together put them in a compromising situation that will threaten both of their good reputations? The Sweetwater Bride Debba McClain takes offense at being offered a wedding in exchange for valuable water rights. But she doesn't like to see a good man's cattle die of thirst--and the rancher Tanner Harden is rather handsome. Texas Tea Luke Reeves has gotten wealthy in the oil business and goes to visit his uncle to convince him to sign over the oil rights to his land. But when he meets his grown up adopted cousin Libby Cooper, he may be forced to give up one dream to win another. Hope for Christmas It might be 2016, but Montana is still a mighty rough place to survive the winter. When Silas Harden finds the very pregnant Kelsey Black in a wrecked car surrounded by a pack of wolves in the heart of a blizzard he takes her to his remote home. What will Silas do when the baby decides to come and Kelsey confesses why she was out in such a terrible storm?
About the Author
I wrote my first book when I was about twelve. A romance novel. I shudder to think what a twelve year old could know about romance. I have no idea what happened to the manuscript. I suppose my mother found it, and burned it while screaming in horror, but I've always been afraid to ask. Was it a hundred pages? Two? I have no idea, but I seem to remember just writing FOREVER! So I'm guessing two pages long at least. As a new bride I marched straight out of journalism school and into the kitchen, I did a lot of scribbling. I still have those heartbreaking works of staggering genius, Ode to Roast Beef, things like that, all born out of the 'Write What You Know' school of literature. I began writing more seriously when my baby went to kindergarten. Not writing well of course, but just putting words on paper. No one does anything well the first time. I'm sure Babe Ruth missed the first ball pitched to him. I'm sure Picasso smeared pages with paint-y fingers when he was a kid - as I remember he went back to that later in life. I'm sure Beethoven played the eighteenth century version of Chopsticks before went for the sonatas. My writing journey is similar to a lot of others. Boil it down to persistence, oh, go ahead and call it stubbornness. I just kept typing away. I think the reason I did it was because I'm more or less a dunce around people - prone to sit silently when I really ought to speak up(or far worse, speak up when I ought to sit silently) .So, I have all these things, I want to say, in my head; the perfect zinger to the rude cashier, which you think of an hour after you've left the store, the perfect bit of wisdom when someone needs help, which doesn't occur to you until they solve their problems themselves, the perfect guilt trip for the kids, which you don't say because you're not an idiot. I keep all this wit to myself, much to the relief of all who know me, and then I write all my great ideas into books. It's therapeutic if nothing else, and more affordable than a psychiatrist.So then a very nice, oh so nice publishing company like Barbour Heartsong comes along and says, "Hey, we'll pay you money for this 45,000 word therapy session." That's as sweet as it gets.My journey to publication is the same as everyone's except for a few geniuses out there who make it hard for all of us. And even they probably have an Ode to Roast Beef or two in their past.
