The Mail Order Groom

May 27, 2002
Cursed with irresistible beauty—irresistible, at least, to the female-starved, gold-mining men of the 19th-century town of Silver Wind, Colo.—schoolteacher Melissa Grayson is forced by outraged citizens to choose between being jailed, run out of town or married. So she sends for a mail-order husband, a frail intellectual with whom she's corresponded but never met. Within minutes of his arrival, she marries him. Problem solved. Except that Melissa's new spouse is not pen-pal James Harold Pickney IV but roving gambler and rescuer-of-damsels-in-distress Lucky Lawrence, who's fleeing from a Mexican evildoer named Cerqueda. A cowboy comedy of errors ensues as Lucky shakes up the town and Melissa's life. Chastain's (The Outlaw Bride) straightforward writing style drifts from simple to simplistic more than once. There are interminable rehashings of the plot every time a new character shows up, for instance, and Cerqueda is virtually a south-of-the-border cartoon. Still, the exuberance of Chastain's writing matches the wild west setting perfectly; it's easy to imagine this book adapted as an "Oklahoma!"-type musical comedy—albeit with considerably more premarital sex than is usually found on Broadway (or in the average romance novel).

June 1, 2002
When the stunningly gorgeous schoolmarm, Melissa Grayson, accidentally shoots one of her students in the arm and brings down the church bell, the authorities in Silver Wind, Colorado, decree that she must either marry or go to jail. Wanting to save Grayson Academy, a boarding school sans boarding students started by her late father, Melissa asks her sickly pen pal, James Harold Pickney IV, to come out West and join her in a platonic marriage. Surrounded by townsfolk, she meets the train right before the wedding and is surprised when the only man to disembark is handsome and healthy. Back at the ranch--oops! school--it turns out that the groom is actually Lucky Lawrence, a gambler and rescuer of damsels in distress who is being pursued by a murderous man from whom he rescued a young girl. Chastain's likable characters, adventure-filled plot, and the romances between members of the supporting cast make this latest title by the prolific award-winning romance author an entertaining and enjoyable read.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)