The Cowboy’s Mail Order Bride

In Brown’s third Cowboys and Brides romance (after The Cowboy’s Christmas Baby), Emily Cooper’s dying grandfather instructs her to deliver a box of 60-year-old letters to his old flame, Clarice Adams, and take a month to consider whether to take on the hard life of ranching in West Texas. Clarice wants to talk about Emily’s grandpa, so Emily accepts an offer to stay at Clarice’s ranch north of Dallas and teach her computer bookkeeping. Clarice’s grandson, Greg Adams, really runs the ranch, and he and Emily immediately hit it off. They learn more about each other through working cattle, mucking horse stalls, playing dominoes with Clarice and her elderly friends, helping each other through the grief of losing their grandpas, and writing letters they slip under each other’s bedroom doors. The plot is sparse and the padding repetitious, but Brown’s love for all things cowboy shines through. Agent: Erin Niumata, Folio Literary Management. (Feb.)