Series: Wild West Weddings (Book 3)"Owner of general store looking for a wife to start a family."
Abandoned as a child, John Bench has always craved a
family of his own. Even if it means advertising for a wife from back East.
Selina Montgomery must keep her new husband at a
distance. Because if John discovers the truth about the secret she once
carried, their mail-order marriage could crumble before it's even begun!
They've promised to love, honor and obey, but can the spark that flares between
them transform Selina and John's wedding vows into a passion that will last
forever?
Good conclusion to the series. Selina was in dire straits
when she answered John's ad for a wife. Now, several months later, she has
arrived and found herself immediately in front of the preacher getting married.
Though they corresponded for several months, she and John don't know each other
very well, so Selina is a bit wary. That wariness seems justified when her
inquiries about his family and past set off an angry tirade.
John couldn't believe his luck. Selina is even more
beautiful than her photograph, and he hurried to marry her before another man
could snatch her away. He's so happy that she's there that he's nervous and
stumbling over his words. He also hasn't thought much about what it means to
have a wife, so he was pretty awkward when they arrived at his store and home.
The development of the relationship between John and
Selina was a rocky one. Selina had become a mail-order bride for security. She gave
birth to an illegitimate child after she was essentially raped and the father
declined to marry her. Desperate to give her son a better life, she gave him to
a childless couple to raise. Fearful of what John's reaction would be if he
knew, her attempt to find out more about him reinforced those fears. John
desperately wanted a family of his own. He had been abandoned as a baby, adopted
by a man who treated him cruelly and has harsh words about the mother who left
him to such a life. Because of this, Selina went to great lengths to hide the
fact that she'd had a child.
It was both heartwarming and painful to see John and
Selina adjust to married life. John wasn't quite sure how to deal with Selina's
desire to help him in his store when he was expecting that she'd want to do
"wife stuff" in their apartment above the store. Selina just wants to
do whatever she can to make him happy that he chose her. Neither expected the
strength of the attraction that flared between them. Because of her previous
experience, Selina was extremely nervous about the intimate side of their
marriage, plus she had her fears about revealing her past. I liked John's
patience with her, and his desire to show her the possibilities. While this
part of their marriage progressed quite well, there were other challenges to
overcome.
Trust was another issue that they had to overcome.
Besides John's harsh attitude about his mother, he also had trouble trusting
anyone else with the store. The last time he had done so, the man nearly ruined
him. Selina's had secrets that she believed could destroy her marriage, but her
attempts to protect those secrets put her on a collision course with John. There
were times when I wanted to shake her and tell her to come clean about it all,
but for those times her fears were understandable. When everything finally came
out, I also had ambivalent feelings about John. I understood his feelings of
betrayal because of Selina's actions and lies, but I also thought that some of
his behavior was callous and cruel. I hurt for Selina as she had to make some
difficult decisions, and I ached for John when he believed he had lost her. I
loved Selina's big moment at the end as she showed John that her love for him
would always be there. There was also a heartwarming twist at the end, and an
epilogue that reunited all three women and their husbands.
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