Wild Western Bride by Rosalyn Alsobrook features an unconventional couple who form an unconventional family. It’s not a great romance, but Alsobrook fans should find it enjoyable.
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Rating:
Published: 1990
Illustrator: Diane Sivavec
Imprint or Line: Zebra Lovegram Romance
Published by: Kensington
Genres: Historical Romance, Western Romance
Pages: 415
Format: Paperback
Buy on: Amazon, AbeBooks
Reviewed by: Blue Falcon
TOTAL SPOILER ALERT ⚠
The Book
This is a review of Wild Western Bride by Rosalyn Alsobrook, a standalone Zebra Lovegram Western historical romance from 1990.
The Plot
Part 1
Wild Western Bride begins in 1890 in the town of Plainfield, Texas, where a train has arrived. This train is the Orphan Train, a train run by the New York Children’s Aid Society. The goal of the train is to bring children from their New York orphanage and place them hopefully with forever families in other cities and states.
Helping find homes for the children on the train is the book’s heroine, Anna Thomas, who works for the Children’s Aid Society.
This story focuses on two brothers, Jamie Wilkins, 8, and his brother, Abel, 5. The Wilkins brothers hope the Children’s Aid Society will place them with the same family. The train arrives in Plainfield, and a couple takes in the boys, who later decide they only want to adopt Jamie.
The brothers don’t wish to be separated. When they are, they run away and hide on the farm of Mark Gates, the book’s hero.
Mark finds the boys hiding on his farm and takes a liking to them. He decides to hide the boys from Annato to ensure that they remain together.
Later, Mark decides to adopt the boys himself; however, his request is initially rejected.
Part 2
When Anna sees how much Mark cares about the boys, she and Mark agree to a marriage of convenience to gain custody of them. Despite their platonic intentions, they eventually consummate their marriage. Anna, Mark, and the boys are a happy family unit for a while.
Their happiness is somewhat short-lived. Clara, Jamie and Abel’s mother, arrives in town and wants to regain custody of her sons. As time passes, it is revealed that Clara is not the caring, concerned mother she portrays herself as.
After failing to get the boys from Anna and Mark, Clara and her boyfriend kidnap them.
Anna and Mark rescue them, and the family has their Happily Ever After.
The Upside
I don’t usually praise Mrs. Alsobrook, but I give her a lot of credit for writing Anna and Mark as a non-traditional romance novel heroine and hero. I won’t say what makes them non-traditional—you’ll have to read the book—but it’s nice to see people in romance novels who aren’t perfect in every way.
Downside
Like all of Mrs. Alsobrook’s books, there is no juice between Anna and Mark from a romantic point of view. I didn’t particularly find them or any of the characters in the book interesting.
Sex
If one has read Mrs. Alsobrook’s books, one pretty much knows what her love scenes are like; boring, unimaginative, and using the EXACT SAME PHRASES!
Heat Level
The Steam factor here is set at room temperature, warm-ish but not sensual.
Violence
The violence in this book occurs at the end when Mark and Anna stage their rescue. Guns are drawn, and people are hurt on broken glass, but beyond that, no violence.
Bottom Line on Wild Western Bride
If one is already conditioned to be a fan of books by Rosalyn Alsobrook, one will like Wild Western Bride. It won’t make anyone a new fan of hers, however.
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| Overall: | 2.4 |
Synopsis
SHE NEEDED A HUSBAND
Anna Thomas loved riding the Orphan Train and finding decent families for her charges. But when a Texas judge tried to separate two young brother, the dedicated beauty went beyond the call of duty. She proposed to handsome, blue-eyed Mark Gates, planning to adopt the boys herself! Although Anna told herself the marriage would only be a charade, soon she dreamed to lie in her husband’s strong embrace, yearned to know the heat of his most intimate caress, and longed to sample a taste of wedded bliss!
HE WANTED A LOVER
Mark was astounded when Anna told him her plan. Sure, he wanted to give the boys a home, but he’d never bargained on wedding bells! Then he took a closer look at his businesslike bride-to-be and the deal began to look sweeter. He imagined her dark hair cascading over his pillow as she lay in his bed, her emerald eyes shimmering with desire as he stroked her silken flesh and knew that he would make her his in every way, and savor a lifetime of loving with his Wild Western Bride.
Wild Western Bride by Rosalyn Alsobrook