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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 215: A Chat with Henry O. Arnold
byChautona Havig

I had a chat with actor and author Henry O. Arnold a while back, and boy did we have a lot of fun. His Song of Prophets and Kings series features the advent of Israel’s kings from Samuel’s birth through David hiding from Saul (so far) and onward. Listen in as we chat about his most recent release, The Singer of Israel.

 

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

What Made David Such a Man after God’s Heart?

I think this series will show us. I love that Henry O. Arnold started back at Samuel’s story to prepare us for the story of arguably the most influential king of Israel. Yes, Solomon was the wisest and richest, but David offered something that Solomon didn’t have. He was an average guy—a shepherd, no less—chosen by God to lead his country.

In a sense, it’s kind of the ancient Jewish version of a poor, everyday guy growing up to become President of the United States. If you know what I mean.

This five-book series is available as an eBook, in print, and as an audiobook, too! Henry read a snippet of it to us, and boy you get a feel for his love of Scripture and God’s people as he reads.

And if that wasn’t enough, he even gave us a hint of his upcoming Christian suspense/thriller “series. He says he has two books planned for sure, so… at least a duology, but maybe we can talk him into a trilogy at least? Get those odd numbers and everything?

The Singer of Israel by Henry O. Arnold

A singer’s voice inspires a troubled nation…A shepherd’s courage vanquishes a giant

The last official act of the prophet of Yahweh was to secretly anoint a replacement for the king of Israel who has been brought low by an unbalanced mind. The great prophet of Israel lives in fear of the wrath of the king. Then out of the hills of Bethlehem emerges the last-born son of a family of shepherds to become the unforeseen hero of Israel.

When David sings of the glory of Yahweh, this shepherd wins the hearts of the royal family and restores King Saul’s troubled mind. But when the singer/shepherd defeats the champion of the Philistines in single combat, David becomes forever known as “the giant slayer.” Saul quickly sees that David is now a threat to his kingdom and secretly plots to have him killed.

David may be the champion of the people of Israel, but he must live under the constant threat of Saul’s wrath until he is finally forced to flee for his life.

The Singer of Israel is a tale of triumph and tribulation, deepest love, and burning rivalries; the new epoch is given a voice…and it is The Song of Prophets and Kings.

You can learn more about Henry on this WEBSITE.

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

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Episode 215: A Chat with Henry O. Arnold
Episode 215: A Chat with Henry O. Arnold
March 24, 2023
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Episode 206: A Chat with Lisa Phillips about Her New Spin-off Series
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