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Chautona Havig

Chautona Havig

Using story to connect YOU to the Master Storyteller

What Is So Great about this Popular Mail-Order Bride Series?

by Chautona Havig · 1 Comment

In today's episode, I tell about Westward Home and Hearts Mail-Order Bride series featuring mail-order brides with a twist of suspense.  via @chautonahavig

I suppose you could say that mail-order brides have been a thing since the Garden of Eden–if you change the spelling just a smidge.

In today’s episode, I tell about a large, multi-author series featuring mail-order brides with a twist of suspense.  The Westward Home and Hearts Mail-Order Bride series offers stories of men and women who are broken, under threat, or hiding for reasons only the story will tell.

Westward Home

Note: links may be affiliate links that provide me with a small commission at no extra expense to you.

What Is So Great about this Popular Mail-Order Bride Series?

In a world that romanticizes the mail-order brides of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, I always have trouble ignoring the ugly side. Just like every child who was sent from London to the English countryside as part of Operation Pied Piper during WWII didn’t get an idyllic experience with “The Professor, every bride didn’t have a happily-ever-after. Enter the Westward Home and Hearts Mail-Order Bride Series.

As of the recording of this episode, there are twenty-one books available (either to read or on preorder) by eleven different authors.  They are also available in Kindle Unlimited, so for those with that subscription, we’re talking a lot of books for no extra expense!

The brain-child of author Elaine Manders whose book Lacy’s Legacy kicks off the series, all the books are stand-alone novels or novellas but… there’s one thread that ties them together.  Mildred Crenshaw, the owner and genius behind the Westward Home and Hearts Matrimonial Agency.

What can you expect from this series?

Oh, so much. Lost loves mistaken identities bad experiences with the process, and love.  Lots of happily-ever-afters despite the suspense, danger, and more.

This is the element that convinced me to join a couple of years ago, and this is finally the year for my book.  I had planned to publish in February, but life gets ugly sometimes and refuses to cooperate. So, I didn’t do it. Another author, Margaret Tanner, stepped up and released her book early just so the series could continue to have a new book releasing every month! I haven’t read that book, Saffron’s Savior, but I intend to.  I did read her June release Harriet’s Heartache, and it has a unique premise involving a strange cult.

Penelope's PursuitMy book Penelope’s Pursuit releases June 29 and I’m so excited!

I’ve long dreamed of writing three different mail-order bride stories, and now I have the perfect opportunity.

Penelope’s Pursuit covers the difficult topic of human and sex trafficking with the mail-order bride being the means of doing it. The book tackles three particularly difficult topics, prostitution, opium dependence, and suicide, but despite these heavy topics, the book isn’t heavy itself. And of course, as historical romance, it definitely has its happily-ever-after.

I have two more planned, as I said. Verity’s Valley takes place in the same fictional world as Penelope and involves a farmer who would be considered on the Autism spectrum today.  Felicia’s Foibles examines what might have happened if young ladies of a small town back east got “westward fever” and created a dearth of marriageable women in their town.

After reading all the synopses of all the books, I do want to read them all, but I believe i’ll start with:

  • Lacy’s Legacy
  • Ruby’s Risk
  • Lydia’s Lot
  • Rose’s Rescue
  • Sarah’s Surrender

You can find out more about the books, the authors, and even fun giveaways in the Westward Home and Hearts Reader Group on Facebook.

I know this episode was a bit of a plug for a series I’m a part of, but even if I wasn’t, I’d have wanted to chat about it. I do hope you’ll give some of the books a read and let me know which were your favorites!

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If you’d like to be on the Because Fiction Podcast, please go HERE and submit your topic idea! I’d love to hear about it.

 

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Comments

  1. Catherine G says

    June 28, 2021 at 12:28 pm

    This series sounds interesting and an upgraded version of the traditional mail order brides. I’m looking forward to reading them.

    Reply

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The Because Fiction Podcast

The Because Fiction Podcast
The Because Fiction Podcast

Taking the pulse of Christian fiction

Episode 265: A Chat with Karen Witemeyer
byChautona Havig

Nothing says fairy tale like a sweet western romance by an author like Karen Witemeyer… unless it’s a fairytale retelling set in Texas in the late 19th century, right?  Fairest of Heart takes the familiar “Snow White” and turns it on its head with retired cowboys, a self-absorbed actress, a Texas Ranger, and a sweet girl who knows the true Source of her beauty.  Listen in to see all the genius Easter eggs Witemeyer planted in this book.

Note: links may be affiliate links that provide me with a small commission at no extra expense to you.

Sometimes All a Girl Needs Is a True Change of Heart

I fell in love with the cover of Karen Witemeyer’s Head Over Heels a few years back (only to learn it’s much older than that, even), and meant to read that book.  I didn’t.  #BecauseIdiot. Well, that’ll be rectified just as soon as I’m done listening to her first book in a trilogy of fairytale retellings. I loaded it up on my Audible app tonight and wheeeeeeee. Here I go! So much for no new books until October. HA! 

Karen talks about her heart for young women today and how they’re taught by every bit of media blasting at them that they need to use their bodies to get what they need or want when the Lord has a better plan. And I can’t guarantee it, but I strongly suspect she does it without preaching. SQUEE!

Fairest of Heart by Karen Witemeyer

Once upon a time in Texas . . .

Beauty has been nothing but a curse to Penelope Snow. When she becomes a personal maid for a famous actress whose troupe is leaving Chicago to tour the West, she hides her figure beneath shapeless dresses and keeps her head down. But she still manages to attract the wrong attention, leaving her prospects in tatters–and her jealous mistress plotting her demise.

After his brother lost his life over a woman, Texas Ranger Titus Kingsley has learned to expect the worst from women and is rarely disappointed. So when a young lady found in suspicious circumstances takes up residence with the seven old drovers living at his grandfather’s ranch, Titus is determined to keep a close eye on her.

With a promotion hanging in the balance, Titus is assigned to investigate a robbery case tied to Penelope’s acting troupe, and all evidence points to Penelope’s guilt. But Titus might just be convinced that the fairest woman of all has a heart as pure as her last name . . . if only he can prove it.

You can learn more about Karen Witemeyer and her books on her WEBSITE. Don’t forget the book is 30% off on BakerBookHouse.com.  

Follow Karen on BookBub and GoodReads.

And don’t forget her Posse Group on Facebook.

Like to listen on the go? You can find Because Fiction Podcast at:

  • Apple 
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  • Spotify
  • Amazon
  • and more!
Episode 265: A Chat with Karen Witemeyer
Episode 265: A Chat with Karen Witemeyer
September 29, 2023
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September 26, 2023
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Episode 262: Chatting about The Legacy of Longdale Manor with Carrie Turansky
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Episode 261: Chatting with Christian Youth Fiction Author, Candice Yamnitz
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Episode 260: A Chat with Rachel Hauck
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