Cheryl St. John

This is the first of Cheryl St. John's historical romances for the inspirational Love Inspired line that I've read, but having read and enjoyed her regular HR before, it was more or less everything I expected it to be.

It's just as it says on the tin, although I'd consider "rambunctious" a bit strong as a way to describe the perfectly sweet Radnor boys. The trio are traveling to meet their parents' good friend Seth Halloway after their mother's death, and they meet Marigold Brewster on the show more train to Kansas. Marigold has been hired as the new schoolteacher in town, and she feels a lot of compassion for the orphaned Radnor boys, especially given that they are so young - seven, five, and two - and travelling alone.

Unfortunately, their train is derailed close to town, so they have to be rescued from the wreckage. As luck would have it, it's Seth himself who pulls them to safety. It's only when he goes back for Marigold's cat, Peony, that he's hurt due to some falling debris. Marigold feels guilty that he was hurt saving her cat, and readily agrees to stay with Seth and his mother at their ranch, and help out while Seth recovers.

The boys have been through a lot, but show very little trauma, quickly adapting to ranch life. As is usually true of small town/inspie romances, everyone is perfectly nice and polite and easygoing and successful, and there's very little interpersonal drama. Even what's here is swept aside pretty easily. It's unbelievable, but at the same time, the author has created a lovely little western outpost and it feels like a peaceful escape to spend time with this cast of characters.

Marigold and Seth are slowly but surely falling in love with each other, but are fighting themselves about it. Marigold has endured a lot of loss in her life, and she's fearful of reaching out, only to lose again. Seth has responsibilities up to his eyeballs, including now 3 very young boys, and he is fairly quick to come around to the idea of having a wife, as a partner, to assist him with his goals and dreams.

As an inspie, this is of course a kisses-only book, but boy can Ms. St. John write a kiss! The perfect amount of emotional gut punch and sweet love. Kisses are so often the first in a series of physical encounters in a romance novel, so for them to truly feel like something authentic and real as an expression of love in and of themselves truly takes talent. Even in her non-LI romances, this author writes beautiful kisses, so it was a joy to have them sprinkled throughout this story. The romance is very quiet, very sweet, and very mature.

As far as the "God stuff" goes, it never really feels out of place in the narrative. I have an easier time with historically-set inspirational romances, just because there was a much stronger tradition of attending church in the past, even if only to pay lip service as a non-believer. These days, if you don't want to go to church, you just don't go, but in centuries past it was just as much of a social expectation as a truly religious/spiritual one.

There is a lot of explicit praying (especially in stressful times), with a prominent minister character/family, and plenty of Biblical references, but it never feels preachy. My sense is that these are characters who take their religion seriously and treat it with due reverence and respect. It fills the nooks and crannies, but is never the center of attention. It's a nice balance, IMO.

This is the first book in a series about the Halloway brothers, which I'm curious to read about. This is also a sequel series to the original Cowboy Creek miniseries, of which, amusingly enough, I also have the first book. I'm diving right into that one (it contains my favorite trope!) and I'll definitely keep an eye out for the other books in this series. show less

*sigh* What a perfectly lovely story - very sweet, gentle, and tender. Sometimes you just want a story that gets you right in the gut, and that's what this is ♥

Will Tucker has worked his entire life to own his own land, hustling for almost two decades to raise the money to buy himself a ranch out in Colorado. His best friend, Roy, is his foreman and right-hand man, and together they have gathered up a found family of ranch hands. His elderly stepmother, Agnes, also lives with him, though show more the two of them have never gotten along, and she is too old and wizened to be of any help around the ranch. Will asks his sister Corinne in St. Louis to find him a widow woman to be a housekeeper and cook for him and the hands. He's not looking for a wife, just another pair of hands.

Corinne sends Linnea McConaughy to her brother. Linnea is a little wisp of a woman, and at first Will doesn't think she'll be able to meet the requirements of the physical labor he needs help with. He's so determined of this first impression, in fact, that he insists on returning her to Denver himself the moment he meets her. She surprises him, though, when she greets him the next morning in a super-clean kitchen with breakfast for twenty.

Linnea is desperate to impress because she needs this job more than Will can ever know. She is indeed widowed, and carrying a baby, and she has nowhere else to go. She suffered through a horrible childhood and an even worse marriage, but something about this little life growing inside her makes her want a second chance.

Will insists on returning her, but they only make it halfway before he realizes that, little mouse she may be, she's stronger than she appears, and he senses her desperation. He agrees to hire her for a month to see if she can handle the work and his cackling stepmother Agnes.

Linnea is grateful for the chance and she pours herself into her tasks. She and Aggie become friends, of a sort, and the ranch hands come to absolutely adore her. She feels safe for the first time in her life, but also confused, because men have never treated her as anything other than an object - but these men are different.

Will is very much a grumpy, cantankerous alpha male, which is generally not my cup of tea, but we see from the start that he is also a fair and compassionate man. He didn't have to bring his stepmother to live with him after his father's death, after all. He didn't have to give any of his motley crew more than the tiniest chance to work for him. He didn't have to let Linnea stay, especially not after hearing her crying in her blankets during that fateful trip to Denver. He's not exactly the bosom of his found family, but everyone likes and respects him. He looks after everything he is responsible for, man and beast alike.

Will finds himself very confused by his feelings for Linnea, and its amusing to watch his opinion of her change - first grudgingly, then rather swiftly as he gets to know her better. He's very upset when he learns that she's pregnant, but he also admires her for working as hard as she does, now that he knows the reason why. He doesn't push her or dominate her: he gives her space, and her own choice regarding whether she stays or leaves.

Their story is very gentle and sweet. There is a secondary romance between Roy and Corinne that pushes Linnea to realize exactly what Will could offer her if she could find it within herself to stay and marry him. It all ties together very nicely, and we see not only Will change and grow, but watch as Linnea overcomes her deep-seated insecurities and realizes that she does indeed have a second chance to live a happy life.

This is an entirely character-driven story; there are no external forces pushing and pulling these characters, which was an extremely refreshing change of pace. They learn and grow and adapt to their situation with no guarantees, and it is masterfully written and portrayed. I knocked a star off because I didn't quite love it as much as The Doctor's Wife, but its an awfully close second. show less

The January 2024 #TBRChallenge is "Once More with Feeling." I chose to interpret this as a second chance romance prompt, and dug into my Harlequin Historicals for a tried-and-true favorite author. I tend to hoard their backlists for when I especially need a strong read, and what better way to start this year's reading challenge than with a Cheryl St John title?

As the blurb implies, our leads have baggage galore. Tye Hatcher has returned to Aspen Grove, Colorado, after the Civil War. He's show more not sure why he returned to the town, given the fact that he's been ostracized practically since birth. His mother was a saloon girl and his father didn't even acknowledge his existence. He's always been on the outside looking in, and I guess he figured one place was as good as any to return after war. He's trying to save up some money to buy some land to start a rendering plant, but thus far has had no luck seeking gainful employment. The only place that will have him is the local saloon, where he plays the piano in the evenings.

Meg Telford is a beautiful young woman who was a town favorite even before marrying into the prosperous Telford family. Her husband, Joe, did not return alive from the war, and she's been in mourning ever since. She's at a crossroads: she and Joe bought a plot of land and a bunch of cattle before the war, trying to make it on their own as ranchers. Joe barely had time to build a house before being called for the war effort, and now Meg is down to her last dimes trying to keep hold of her land. Her husband's family is pressuring her to sell and move in with her mother-in-law, Edwina. Edwina has made mourning a Way of Life: first she donned the black for her own husband, and then for her beloved son, Joe. She wants Meg to move in with her and basically serve as a companion, but Meg wants desperately to hold onto Joe's dream of the ranch.

To that end, she comes to a conclusion: she needs a man to work the land and coax a profit. She can't afford to pay him, so she decides to offer a marriage of convenience instead. The only eligible man in town is Tye Hatcher, whom Meg knew as a child. Meg is perhaps the only respectable person in town willing to give Tye a chance, aside from the Reverend. She thinks long and hard and decides to offer marriage - and her property - to him. It will save her from having to sell the rest of her furniture to pay the mortgage and will get Edwina & co off her back about selling.

Meanwhile, Tye has been approached by an old friend, Lottie, who is dying and wants him to take guardianship of her young daughter, Eve. Lottie plays on Tye's emotions to achieve this end, knowing how strongly he feels about being a fatherless child, and wanting to shield an innocent from such a fate. He agrees to take Eve, even though he can barely support himself, much less a child.

Meg's proposal comes just in time. Tye is shocked, and warns her that if he marries her, she will also be ostracized by the town. Meg is desperate enough to not care. They agree to marry, and Tye will move onto Meg's ranch. With her land and her stock, the rendering plant will be even more successful, even sooner - if they can make it through the season and keep the cattle alive long enough to be sold.

Meg doesn't quite believe Tye about the town turning their backs on her, but she gets a taste of it firsthand at their wedding, when nobody attends except her farm hands (her sister-in-law sneaks in, too, behind her husband's back, but only for a very short period). Meg is shocked, but swallows her pride and moves forward. She's struck her bargain and she's going to stick with it.

The dead husband, Joe, is a huge wedge between them. Meg loved him dearly and is not quite ready to let his memory go. Tye is jealous of this, and because Joe kept providing for her even beyond the grave: he sent home a pair of exquisite horses that Tye decides to stud out, covering some of their immediate monetary needs. Joe also built Meg a house and started the ranch, and Tye wonders how he could ever take his "rightful" place on the ranch that's now his.

Lottie dies soon after Tye and Meg wed, and Tye is forced to tell Meg about Eve. Meg balks at taking in a whore's illegitimate daughter, but Tye insists and brings Eve to the ranch. Meg softens towards the child, but becomes jealous of the bond that Tye and Eve forge. She fights with herself about her feelings, her memories, and her own pride, especially when she sees how shabbily the rest of the townspeople treat Eve.

There's a LOT of baggage to go around, and a lot of things that could've been solved if Tye and Meg had bothered talking to each other instead of making assumptions. Once they do being talking, tensions ease, at least between them. They decide to adopt Eve, legitimizing her and taking away the stigma that Tye labored under as a kid. They have a successful breeding season with the cattle and the horses. Tye even manages to buy back the ring that Meg had to sell at the beginning of their marriage to cover a mortgage payment, even though he does it in secret by returning to town to play nights in the saloon, leaving Meg to think the worst.

There's a lot to sink your teeth into, and a lot to mull over. Tye and Meg both deal with feelings of insecurity, jealousy, pride, shame, and humiliation. The author pulls no punches at how awfully the town (and Meg's family, led by Edwina) treat them all, even little Eve. There is an excellent moment of catharsis when Meg confronts her former mother-in-law about the terrible things she's saying about Meg and how Joe WOULD NEVER if he was still alive.

For all the awesome, there is some "meh" as well. Meg's absolute lack of knowledge of the marriage bed was unbelievable, considering she was happily married. She didn't know sex was supposed to be fun?! WTF?? Their own pleasure was basically the only thing women in 1865 had to call their own and no one else's, but Meg spends most of the book feeling ashamed for how lusty she feels over Tye, her own husband. (Yeah, okay.) She also apparently didn't know anything about the signs and symptoms of pregnancy. I just can't buy that a woman who is otherwise intelligent has absolutely no knowledge of her own body.

It is also disappointing that Tye has to make a Grand Gesture at the end to be accepted by the town, much less Edwina and the rest of the Telfords. Grand Gestures are some of my least favorite plot devices, and I kinda wanted them to keep forging their own way and to hell with those who were prejudiced against them. But, that's me. Obviously Tye proves his worth to the town, and to his wife, and they all live happily ever after.

It's another strong showing by Ms St John, and another great, meaty Western historical that hits all the feels. It was a great book to start this challenge with, and gives me hope for the rest of the prompts! show less

I was rather amused when I read Cheryl St. John’s bio at the end of this book. It says: “A peacemaker, a romantic, an idealist, and a discouraged perfectionist are the words that Cheryl uses to describe herself.” It also goes on to mention: “… she’s been told that she is painfully honest.” Since these are all words and phrases I would use to describe myself, I suspect that’s why the first two of her stories I’ve read have resonated with me so strongly. His Secondhand Wife show more is a sweet, tender historical romance that follows on the heels of its predecessor in the Copper Creek Brides series, Sweet Annie. In this one, we have a scarred, brooding hero who can’t stand people’s stares, so he prefers to keep to himself, rarely ever leaving his ranch. But when his flighty, philandering younger brother gets himself killed, leaving a young pregnant wife behind, he takes it upon himself to look after her, never expecting to end up marrying her and falling in love. It was a really wonderful story that was a near-perfect read for me.

After being badly scarred in an accident during childhood, Noah has basically lived the life of a recluse. His father and stepmother couldn’t stand the sight of him, and his stepmother, in particular, was pretty cruel toward him. The townspeople tend to stare as well, so Noah simply stays on his ranch, never leaving unless it’s something that one of his hands can’t take care of. Only his brother, Levi, genuinely accepted Noah, but Levi has been gone for years. When Noah gets word that Levi was shot and killed by a cuckolded husband, he isn’t really surprised given Levi’s history with the ladies, but it’s a hard blow for him anyway. What does surprise him is that Levi left behind a pregnant wife, although she hasn’t seen him in months. Noah views the woman and her unborn child as his responsibility and insists on taking her back to his ranch and providing for her. After tongues start wagging in town and his stepmother gets involved, Noah also offers to marry her, but he plans for it to be a marriage in name only. Noah may have a lot of visible scars, but he harbors many deep psychological ones that cannot be seen, as well. Because of the way his father and stepmother reacted to his appearance after the accident, he believes he is ugly and unlovable, so he hides behind a beard, long hair, a hat, and clothing as much as possible. But little by little, his new wife starts to change his mind. Noah is such a sweet man to take on his brother’s wife and child, even though they disrupt his solitary, well-ordered life, and I very much admired him for it. Although he’s a bit more brooding, he’s a definite beta hero, as well as one of those rare virgin heroes in romance that I adore. I also think it’s cute the way he marvels over Kate in his own mind and although he doesn’t think he knows what to do with a woman, he figures it all out pretty well. He’s definitely the type of kind, gentle man I could totally fall in love with.

Katherine experienced a whirlwind relationship with Levi that only lasted a few weeks before he headed out for parts unknown, claiming that he was looking for a job and a place for them to live, but he never came back. Then a dark, mysterious stranger who says he’s Levi’s brother, arrives at her door, telling Kate that her husband cheated on her, is now dead, and that she’s coming with him to live on his ranch. While this might be a lot for some women to handle all at once, Kate is a pretty easy-going person who takes it all in stride. After growing up with no father, a critical single mother with whom she still lives, and working every day at the laundry just to make enough money for food and living quarters that are little more than a shack, she doesn’t want that kind of life for her baby. Even though she doesn’t know Noah, she figures that he’s at least offering her a home and his protection, so it can’t be any worse than what she’s got now. As a matter of fact, it turns out to be a whole lot better than Kate ever could have hoped for, except that she’s so pampered, there isn’t really anything for her to do, which leaves her feeling like there’s no place for her in Noah’s life. She can’t help thinking that he mainly only wants Levi’s child and not her. Kate is a really sweet heroine, almost a tad too sweet at times, because she kind of allows Estelle, Levi’s mother (and Noah’s stepmother), to run roughshod over her. However, she doesn’t like the way Estelle treats Noah, and I have to give Kate credit for finally putting the woman in her place near the end of the story. I also liked that she is accepting of Noah, scars and all, and isn’t the least bit afraid of him.

His Secondhand Wife ties into the Copper Creek Brides series in part by being set in the little Colorado town of Copper Creek, but it also shares some common characters with Sweet Annie. Of course, Annie and Luke from that story play a pretty important role, particularly Annie, who becomes one of Kate’s first friends. It was nice to see her and Luke so happy and expecting a second child while being such great parents to their first. Annie also now owns a successful dress shop, where Estelle insists upon buying new clothes to lavish upon Kate. Annie’s cousin, Charmaine, also becomes a friend to Kate. In this one, she’s eagerly – and impatiently – awaiting a proposal from her beau, and we get to see the outcome of that when she becomes the heroine of the final novella of the series, Almost a Bride from the Wed Under Western Skies anthology.

Overall, I very much enjoyed His Secondhand Wife. Just like the first book of the series, it’s the type of story I could see being turned into a Hallmark movie. I waffled mightily between rating it 4.5 and 5 stars. It’s truly my kind of book with characters I could definitely relate to, but I did get just a tad antsy at times with the way in which both Noah and Kate tend to misconstrue the other’s words or actions rather than attacking the problem head-on and getting it out in the open. However, when I looked at each of their backgrounds and respective hang-ups, I did understand why they think some of the things they do. Even though he cares for Kate and can’t believe his brother didn’t treat her better, Noah still tends to keep her at arms length, because of his scars, thinking that she’s only being nice to him out of a sense of obligation for what he’s providing for her. Even after she’s seen some of his scars, he still tends to hide himself, both physically and emotionally, but considering it’s what he’s been doing for years, I’m sure that would be a hard habit to break. For her part, Kate can’t seem to let go of the notion that Noah only married her out of a sense of responsibility, and that he really wants her baby more than he wants her. However, given that she’s worked hard all her life and was basically not being given anything to do to make her feel like she’s contributing to the ranch or Noah’s life, I suppose I could understand her feeling that way, too. I have to admit as well that the author does a good job of bringing things back around each time one of them veers off into their wrongheaded thinking. I’d no sooner be annoyed by it than something sweet or romantic was happening to help make it all better. But in the end, I decided it was just enough to knock off the half-star. Not to mention, I was a teensy bit disappointed that we, the readers, are the only ones who are privy to Noah’s virginal status. I don’t think I’ve read a romance before where that was the case. Hero or heroine, if one of them is a virgin, the other always tends to find out or be let in on it somehow. But otherwise, I thought His Secondhand Wife was a great story for fans of sweeter, gentler romances, and it, along with its predecessor, also earned Cheryl St. John a place on my favorite authors list. show less