High Country Bride

The females in Linda Lael Miller's pleasantly provoking frontier romance, High Country Bride, often insist that the McKettrick men are thick-headed, and Rafe McKettrick, the eldest of the three brothers, proves them right. Forced to take a wife in order to inherit the family ranch, Rafe decides to send for a mail-order bride. He expects to be able to wed and bed her in short order, but strong-willed Emmeline Harding doesn't succumb to his rough-edged charm so readily. Though the two eventually grow to care for one another, secrets from Emmeline's past and Rafe's sheer stupidity threaten to tear them apart. Like the old hand that she is, Miller (The Last Chance Cafe, etc.) ably portrays the hardscrabble life of the American west and weaves a winding, winsome romance full of likable, if occasionally pigheaded, characters.