This was a nice sweet read. It was fairly short. I would have enjoyed a book twice as long that went into a lot more detail but what there was was nice. Because this is a Harlequin historical, the heroine's background as a high priced prostitute was pretty clean so she could be almost a good girl. The story is pretty sweet and she tries so hard in her new life that she is very appealing. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop and you knew all along it was going to. The ending was improbable but hey it's fiction and Harley fiction at that. Ms. St. John writes a good yarn. ( )

the heroine is a prostitute in the old west. She has run away from the brothel and agrees to be a mail order bride without informing her bridegroom Nathan Lantry of her past.

I get that this kind of heroine isn’t for everyone and I can respect that. But for any on the fence on this kind of heroine, or those contemplating trying one, they don’t come much better than Ella. Ms. St. John, as she has with so many of her heroines, writes Ella in such a way that she will break your heart. She makes her past so tragic, and she is still so vulnerable. But never does the reader sit in judgment on her. It’s a case of it was what it was and now she has an opportunity to make a new life for herself. She feels bad about not telling Nathan about her past and doesn’t really consider the consequences she’s so desperate to escape her past.

And Nathan makes for quite an endearing hero. He didn’t stand out for me as much as Ella, but I really did enjoy how considerate he was of Ella and how concerned he was that he not make the same mistakes with Ella.

There’s nothing big or showy about this story. It’s a gentle book about how a young woman struggles to overcome her past with the help of a gentle and loving man. ( )