The Mistaken Widow

When Sarah is befriended by Steven on the train west, and then is presumed to be Steven's pregnant widow after the crash, Sarah just keeps quiet, letting Steven's family care for her and her newborn while she recovers from a broken leg & childbirth. She doesn't count on falling in love with Steven's brother Nicholas at all.

I liked this book but I didn't love it.

Somehow I felt like her emotions weren't exactly right. She has left the east to find work out west since she is pregnant and unwed and she has heard that people aren't as condemning out west. I don't know why she would have thought that in 1869. I don't think unless you were a 'sporting woman' that it was accepted anywhere. Her father was keeping her from getting work in Boston. I don't see how he had that much power. I don't see how even Bill Gates could keep someone from getting a waitress job even today when he could find her easily. Still why go west? Why not some other big eastern city? She could pretend to be a widow any where. She gets in the train wreck and they think she is the hero's show more sister-in-law. She means to tell them she isn't but doesn't because, well I'm not real sure. Is it that at first it is that she is scared of him and is going to tell the mother but then the mother is all sad and she can't bear to tell her? Or is it that she has been in this accident had her baby as a result and plus has a broken leg and can't take care of her or the baby? Both are given as reasons. I think it might have been stronger if she had just gone with the second reason and then suffered guilt from that. The being too scared or too touchy feelie to tell was weak motivation. A heroine should have more gumption than that. I guess I can forgive her for being a desparate new mother trying to take care of her infant more than I can forgive her for being a weinie.

The hero was kind of all over the place. He was an ass, he liked her, he was an ass. Not really neailed down.

So I liked it and fans of CSJ will like it, but I didn't love it. show less

Cute story, but not what I expected. One thing really bothered me though, the heroine's continuing the lie without thinking about the real Claire, and if she could be alive somehow, maybe with amnesia or finding out for sure that she was dead? She keeps lying and does not think about finding the body until after the halfway point in the book. 3.5 rounded up to 4 stars.