A Chance at Love

Exactly what it says on the tin: Miss Loreli Winters traveled on a wagon train bringing mail order brides to the tiny town on Henks, Kansas. Loreli has no intention of staying, but as she's leaving the celebrations, a pair of twins waylay her and ask her to be their new mama. The two are eight years old and have traveled to the brides celebration on their own, so Loreli decides she will at least get them back home. On the way, she learns that the girls' mother recently died, and they are living with their bachelor uncle, Jake Reed. Jake's idea of a good woman is the sour-faced pastor's daughter Rebecca Appleby, who subscribes to the notion that children should be seen and not heard. The twins, Bebe and Dede, do not care for Rebecca, and show more they have decided that if their uncle won't look for a wife, they will do so on his behalf.

Jake runs into the group on their way back to his farm and he is thunderstruck by Loreli's beauty. Once he manages to get over himself, he notes how well the girls get along with Loreli, in contrast to Rebecca, who usually keeps them when he's away on business. He wants what is best for his nieces, and has already decided against marrying Rebecca, but wants to take his own time and find the ideal wife and mother, which the beautiful and confident Loreli very obviously is not.

Loreli has no notion of being a mother; she's been on her own since she was 14, supporting herself with her daddy's trade (high stakes gambling). She's independently wealthy and definitely knows how to look after #1. She's looking for adventure, but deep down, a little piece of her wants a family to call her own. The twins charm her, and Jake is rather enticing himself. He's her complete opposite - straitlaced, stuffed shirt, dutiful son of a preacher himself, and very content to stay on the same plot of land he was born on.

The twins contrive to bring their reluctant uncle and Miss Loreli together, and eventually he does ask for her hand in marriage - a temporary marriage, that is, so that the girls have a feminine hand in their raising while he's off looking for this ideal woman to be his helpmeet. The idea of Loreli settling down in Henks is pretty shocking to everyone, including Loreli herself, but why not?

The town is divided between those who welcome the new brides and those who shun them. Loreli, the Gambling Queen, is given an especially hostile 'welcome'. She pays them no mind; she takes care of her business and makes plans for her wedding, looking forward to bringing joy into the twins' lives after the trauma of losing their mother.

It's not just the town biddies who are against the marriage (watch as they all line up behind the "scorned" Rebecca), but a few dark secrets from Loreli's past also surface to put her future with Jake and the girls in peril.

I like to think that every ode to, or celebration of, independent women is written for the bevy of Ms Bev's fabulous heroines, who are feisty, confident, and competent in spades. Loreli teaches the twins that they need to know how to do things like open a bank account or order items they need, because they may not have a husband to fall back on. She models a lot of strong ideals for the girls, and the girls and Jake pretty much can't help but fall in love with her. She's right up there with Regan and Billie as one of my favorites heroines, and I'm thrilled to learn that she makes appearances in at least two other novels!

Jake is an excellent stuffed shirt hero. He does not have the worldly experience that Loreli does, but he does not hide behind manly pride (too much) - he is willing to learn what she can teach him, especially when it comes to pleasuring a woman! These two have chemistry out the wazoo and scorch a path through the second half of the book.

I knocked off half a star because the end kinda gets away from the author a little bit; the wedding is disrupted and things just go way off the rails in a myriad of unexpected ways, leading to a third act breakup that really didn't have to happen. This makes the ending feel a bit rushed; some of the strands of secondary stories are dropped (like Bebe racing in The Circle race). But this is a romance novel, and all's well that ends well.

Ms Bev is also known for weaving real history into her novels, and here she touches on not only the mail order bride situation, but also union organizing (extremely prescient to read about in 2025) - not only Pullman porters, but farmers and wage workers who need to make money from their crops in order to support themselves. This was also dropped a bit at the end, but what's here is fascinating!

I would 1000% recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys quieter stories. The drama is all internal - no mystery to solve or fate to overcome or anything like that. Sometimes, in the midst of chaos, it's exactly the sort of escapism that we need. show less