Texas Mail Order Bride

November 3, 2014
Broday’s first Bachelors of Battle Creek historical, set in 1878 Texas, is packed with TV western clichés. Cooper Thorne and his two buddies formed a brotherhood bond during their childhood years at an orphanage. Now someone’s played Cooper for a fool and ordered him a bride. He quickly tells Delta Dandridge it’s all a mistake, but she’s escaping her own past and refuses to return to it. After she lands a job at the mercantile, she charms everyone in Battle Creek—including Cooper. The episodic story jolts from one melodramatic scenario to the next: someone infects Cooper’s cattle with a deadly disease, a man beats his pregnant wife, and Cooper and Delta abruptly go from standoffish to smoochy. There’s little real history underpinning the story, and much of the sparse character development goes toward setting up Cooper’s brothers to be protagonists of future installments.

Starred review from December 1, 2014
Delta Dandridge's prospects are bleak at best. Her mother has died, and she has no means of support. Desperate, she answers an ad for a mail-order bride, and after receiving a few romantic letters, she leaves Atlanta for the tiny town of Battle Creek, Texas. Rancher Cooper Thorne, owner of the Long Odds Ranch, is being targeted by an unknown enemy who is deliberately exposing his healthy cattle to hoof-and-mouth disease. That's bad enough. Now this woman shows up in town, claiming to be his fianc'e. Cooper has plenty of problems without adding a woman to the equation. After all, he is the cofounder of the Battle Creek Bachelor's Club, and he doesn't intend to lose his membership. Readers will enjoy the witty banter, the colorful descriptions, the mystery of the villain's identity, and, most of all, the obstinate hero and heroine. This entertaining war of the sexes seems mighty large in a town so small there's only one of everything. Broday (Redemption, 2012) will appeal to fans of such authors as Georgina Gentry, Leigh Greenwood, and Jodi Thomas.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)