Böcker av Susannah Calloway

What is Valerie Mayfield to do? Her stepfather sold her into marriage with a shady saloon owner in a small town in Texas. But her husband-to-be has no intention of marrying her. He wants her as a saloon wench. Risking her life, Valerie flees during a blizzard, finding the only person in Texas she can trust... The young man she met on the train - Noah Daugherty. Valerie lands in his life and makes him question everything he's ever wanted. Valerie knows her former fiancé will do anything to get her back, for he paid good money for her. Unwilling to let Noah's family, who took her in, risk their lives on her behalf, Valerie flees once again. Noah finds her missing and goes after her; the saloon keeper has already captured her. But he misjudges Noah, and Noah's love for Valerie. He also misjudges Valerie's new-found Texas toughness.

Born into wealth, Elizabeth Hudson never dares resist her harsh parents' demands. One day, her father Gerald orders her into marriage. Forced into a carriage with her fiancé, she is involved in a terrible accident that leaves her crippled for life. Her fiancé rejects her, and Gerald quickly finds her a new, even nastier fiancé. Elizabeth plans her escape by writing a marriage agency. Brett Dawson isn't sure if he wants to get married. Pressured into writing to the Mail Order Bride Agency, he's astounded when Elizabeth Hudson agrees to marry him. Elizabeth escapes her home, but when her train stops in Rapid City, she is horrified to learn Gerald has posted a bounty on her. Elizabeth is attacked by two people intent on that reward. After she turns the tables on them, she frantically writes to Brett in Montana. She fears her father is on his way to drag her home. Brett, astonished that Elizabeth is on her way, rides to Rapid City. When he meets her, he's enchanted by her beauty, but stunned to discover she's crippled. Can she handle life in the Wild West? Gerald sends men to bring Elizabeth back. Brett is determined that Elizabeth not be forced back to New York against her will, and enlists the help of his friends and the sheriff. Elizabeth and Brett begin falling in love. Will Gerald crush their hopes by successfully kidnapping his daughter, and returning her to the cruel fiancé? How can Brett protect the woman he loves? Can Elizabeth find the strength to defy her own father?

Nellie Williams is tired of the mundane, everyday sort of life she leads in Middleburg, Virginia. She longs for adventure, excitement, and true love - but she stands little chance of finding any of it if she stays put at home. When her cousin tells her about matrimonial agencies, her imagination takes flight at once. She can just see it now - being matched with a handsome cowboy in the Wild West, raising children, fighting off outlaws. It's exactly the sort of life she's always wanted... But as she starts her journey toward the future, the fulfillment of her dreams is far more than she bargained for. From train to stagecoach to getting lost in the wilderness, every move forward seems to grow harder and harder. With danger and death dogging her steps, she relies on hope, faith, and the promise of love from her unknown fiancé to rescue her.

Nancy Grant's stepfather bets her hand in marriage during a poker game- and loses. Now she is supposed to marry the repugnant Carl Kingsford. Nancy has no choice but to flee. When she hears about a Mail Order Bride agency, she takes a leap of faith and applies. Now she is to marry a man she has never met-Jesse Cartwright, a rancher from Mine's Place, Colorado. He is a stranger, but hopefully, with him she will find a home of her own and be able to celebrate a Merry Christmas. When Nancy steps off the train, she soon discovers Jesse Cartwright is kind and thoughtful and someone she thinks she can love. His ranch only needs a woman's touch to make it a home. But Jesse is hiding something. Nancy doesn't understand what it is, but when her new home goes up in flames due to his past, her dreams turn to cinders as well. Will Jesse be able to break free in time to give Nancy a Merry Christmas?

Fearful and frightened, Lacey Harper must learn to save herself. When her father plans to marry her off to enrich himself, she answers an advert for a Mail Order Bride. She boards a train to Colorado Territory to marry a man named Neil Thompson. But Neil doesn't want or need a wife. He'd buried his beloved Maggie four years earlier and cannot move on from her death. His daughter, Darcy, now six, needs the mother Neil refuses to provide. Lacey arrives in Miner's Gulch, Colorado, and learns that Neil's family had asked for a Mail Order Bride for him; Neil has no knowledge of the arrangement. Lacey agrees to stay on only until she finds a new husband. Except Lacey is attracted to Neil, and Neil to Lacey. But Neil declares he'll never marry again. Lacey writes the Mail Order Bride Agency to find a man who truly wants her, but Darcy's sudden illness prevents Lacey from leaving. Neil realizes he's fallen for Lacey, but has he lost her? When Lacey's father arrives to take her home to marry another, Neil fights for her. Then a mysterious event binds Lacey and Neil together for all time. Enjoy this romantic tale of love and adventure in the Wild West.

What can a girl do when everyone turns against her? Mallory Stewart's father arranges a marriage between her and the town's mayor. The mayor is an odious man, and Mallory wants nothing to do with him. She escapes the marriage when he is arrested for stealing from the town's treasury. Frank Griffin needs a wife. But in Spring Valley, Texas, potential wives are hard to come by. Frank learns of a Mail Order Bride Agency, and thinking himself a fool, he sends an application. A month later, he receives a letter from a lady back East who agrees to marry him. Mallory and Frank are married soon after. However, Frank is stiff and awkward, and Mallory fears he doesn't like her. When Frank is injured by a fall from his horse, she cares for him. To her delight, her husband becomes attentive and affectionate, leading her to believe they might find love in this strange marriage after all. Events quickly turn south when outlaws attack Frank and kidnap Mallory. How can she escape these hoodlums before they harm her? How can Frank find Mallory in the desolate wasteland of Texas?

While all her childhood friends are getting married and having children, Thelma Taylor can't seem to find a beau in all of Hartford, Vermont. When she loses her employment and is swamped with frustration, her mother agrees: it's time she started over, somewhere new. The Mail Order Bride agency in town is the answer. Before a month goes by, she's engaged to James McCoy, a widower in Colorado with two children. Despite her apprehension, Thelma sets out for her new home, hoping to be happy and settled by Christmas. But from the moment she steps off the train, she's taken aback. James insists they marry at once. His two children avoid her and play mean pranks on her. How can she be happy with her new family when she feels like an unwanted outsider? Thelma knows these things take time. But as tensions mount with her new stepchildren and her relationship with her husband changes by the day, she can't help but think her goal of "happy and settled by Christmas" will never be reached. Will a secret of her own be the key to it all?

Edie Kendall lives a busy life in Boston, Massachusetts, doing her best to care for her widowed father. But when he tells her he's marrying her off to a wealthy, but unethical, businessman twice her age, she is forced to flee. There's nothing left but to start over somewhere new. When she answers an advert for a Mail Order Bride in Fort Riggins, Montana, she allows herself to hope she's about to meet the man of her dreams. But Curtis Emerson, the man she's agreed to marry, has no intention of marrying; indeed, he has no idea Edie exists. Thirteen-year-old Sophia Emerson has written the advert on behalf of her widowed father. With Sophia's scheme cartwheeling out of control, Edie's left to pick up the pieces of her shattered plans. Meanwhile, it's all she can do to fight off her strong attraction for Curtis. Does Sophia's outrageous plan have any chance of working out, or is it too much to hope for?

With a broken heart, James Clyde's swears he's done with love. His marriage will be one of convenience, only to ensure an heir to the family ranch. But when Alisha Smith shows up in Culver's Creek, it's clear all bets are off. Alisha is smart, stubborn, compassionate, good with horses - and the most beautiful girl he's ever seen. On top of that, she's the kind of girl who believes in love at first sight. And her first sight of James might be enough to prove her theory true. But Alisha's got her own sad story, the kind of past all too familiar to James. Can James overcome his fear of being hurt long enough to open his heart again? Will Alisha's past catch up to her before she and James can be married? Will true love win out after all?

Ruth McCann has a plan for her future. She'll marry, settle down in her hometown of Stowe, Vermont, and raise a family with the man her father picked out for her. Though she doesn't love Peter Stillarch, she's resigned to the life laid out in front of her. Some people, she knows, never find true love. Everything changes when her husband-to-be dies in an accident. Suddenly, Ruth finds herself without any prospects and with no future at all. At her father's urging, she signs up to be a Mail Order Bride and is matched with Noah Walker in Mine's Place, Colorado. But not everything at Walker Ranch is as it seems. The family welcomes her with open arms, but Noah is taciturn and silent. Is he keeping a secret from her? If only Noah were as open and affectionate as his younger brother Liam... With her wedding approaching, Ruth finds herself faced with a choice: pour her heart into the marriage of convenience she's agreed to...or hold out for a love that may never be.

Grace Montgomery is the oldest of five sisters...and the only one who isn't married. At twenty-four, she's tired of pitying looks and being called a spinster. Desperate, she accepts the proposal of a much older man. As the date for the wedding draws near, she realizes she's made a terrible mistake. She cannot marry this man. It would be like marrying her father. She flees and boards a train with no destination in mind. By the time she gets to Mine's Place, Colorado, she's come to her senses. She's in the middle of nowhere, doesn't know a soul, and has no job prospects. When a handsome man named Jack Sinclair mistakes her for his Mail Order Bride, Grace gives in to her fear and takes the place of the missing bride without telling him who she really is. Grace falls in love with her new home and her new husband and plans a warm, happy Christmas. But what will happen if his real Mail Order Bride shows up, and he finds out the truth?

When Lily Jones is left by her betrothed, she fears her heart will never fully recover. With no family, Lily decides to follow through on a match made by a matrimonial agency - a match with a wealthy rancher in Mountain Pass, Oregon. Daniel Brown is in his early thirties, a life-long bachelor, and the only inheritor of the beautiful, sprawling acreage of Delia Ranch. But there's a secret or two that didn't quite make it into his letter of application for a Mail Order Bride: Daniel has a past that left him broken. When Lily arrives in Mountain Pass, she's met with a conundrum: insist on the dissolution of the engagement due to Daniel's apparent deceit or look past it and try to help him heal. She's never met a man so wounded and saving him from himself will test all her strength - and all her awakening love.

Society belle Sybil Webb is certain she is destined for something better than the social scene of Boston. Desperate to find a way out from under the thumb of her upwardly mobile father, she answers a newspaper advert for a Mail Order Bride - and a month later takes the long, exhausting journey to Fielder's Union, Arkansas. But escaping Boston was the easy part of Sybil's adventure. Her intended groom, Dr. Henry Miller, is not what he appeared to be. Alone in a strange town, Sybil takes shelter with the friendly Frost family, where she finds herself challenged by - and undeniably drawn to - the Frost's cousin, Brian Smith, a handsome, forthright man embittered by lost love. Can Sybil solve the mystery of her missing husband-to-be? Is she destined to be a society belle again, the wife of a small-town doctor, or the wife of the captivating cousin on the Frost ranch?

As a servant in a wealthy household, Emelia Brandon is subject to hard work, little food, and great hardship. She has no choice but to become a Mail Order Bride, flee west to Arizona, and marry a man she's never seen. Christmas is coming, and she prays she'll celebrate it with someone she loves. On the train, Harley Willard meets a pair of young, beautiful ladies. One, he's astonished to find out, is promised to marry his own ranch manager. The other, Emelia, fascinates him, but he's vowed to never marry again. When the train is stranded in Spring Valley, Texas, Emelia seeks refuge at Harley's ranch. She likes him, but she must leave soon for Arizona. She fears her true happiness and true love are not in Arizona, but in Texas. What happens next is a tale of bad guys, adventure, love unexpected, and hope renewed.

Laura Willard has a problem. Her father is marrying her off to the highest bidder for his personal gain, and she detests the man he has selected. Edgar Cochran is pompous, cold-hearted, and a snob. She cannot let her father sentence her for life with such a man even if it means getting cast out penniless. Then she hears of a possible solution - a Mail Order Bride agency matching men from the wild west with women from the east. Can this be how she escapes her father's dictatorship? Ryan Bastion has a problem. He owns a large ranch requiring his attention, and he is a young widower with a six-month-old son. He still loves his late wife and doesn't want a relationship with any other woman. How could he care for a baby and keep his ranch running at the same time? Impossible. Then he hears about a Mail Order Bride agency. Maybe this is his answer. She is a pampered socialite from Boston who doesn't even know how to make coffee. He is a grieving widower who doesn't see any other solution to his problem. Can this possibly be a good solution for either one of them?

Laura Bailey doesn't know where to turn. With her trust in her family crushed by betrayal, she throws herself on the mercy of a matrimonial agency. Before she knows it, she's on her way to Mine's Place, Colorado, seeking only a marriage of convenience - and a new start. But her husband to be, an odd man named Francis Rogers, is full of surprises from the beginning. For one thing, Laura finds she will soon be a stepmother to five rowdy children. For another, Francis' past is shrouded in mystery. Laura finds herself plagued with curiosity over what happened to the mother of his children. Did she pass away? Did she simply disappear? And how does Laura know that what happened to Julia Rogers might not happen to Laura herself? When a handsome deputy sheriff comes into the mix, Laura takes the opportunity to investigate the strange goings-on in the Rogers household. After all, it isn't just her prospective marriage at stake - it is her life.

Lonely, heartbroken, and determined to leave tragedy behind, Clarabelle Demont packs up her belongings and travels west to Montana. There, she stays with her brother, Stuart, her only living relative, who works as foreman on Circle Moss Ranch in Fort Riggins, Montana. All Clara wants is to feel loved, accepted, and like she belongs to a family again. The attraction she feels to Stuart's boss, Adrian Moss, is completely unexpected, and it appears to be mutual. She begins to hope her dreams will come true. But then Linda Emmerson shows up - Adrian's Mail Order Bride. Suddenly, Clara's attachment to Adrian seems not only hopeless, but morally wrong. Was she mistaken about Adrian's interest? Can she fight against her feelings for him? Or are her dreams once more impossible?