I really loved Alice Carter and Dr. Jeremiah Killarney. It would be hard enough to be a mail order bride, but to have a child also would be near impossible. I hope to read the first three books in the series because I enjoyed this one so much. I loved that Alice was a doctor also. It was nice that Jeremiah could see her as a doctor once he saw her work. I received a copy of this as an ebook from the author for a fair and honest opinion. ( )

This is my first read by author Cynthia Woolf and won’t be my last. I loved this book and so glad it was a Sunday so I could let myself get lost in it and not have to put it down. The author did a great job of describing the characters and their surroundings as if you were living there with them in the Montana Territory in the late 1800’s. Great job of character development. It was also refreshing reading about a strong women doctor who knew who she was, what she had to do and yet still couldn’t control everything such as her emotions.

The story is about Dr. Alice Carter who 6 months ago lost her doctor husband to a murdered who thought she and her husband were responsible for his wife’s death. She needed money to keep her and her 3 year old daughter, Melly, alive. Unable to find employment as a doctor in New York City so close in morning, she decides to be a mail order bride to start anew. Meanwhile, Dr. Jeremiah Kilarney has a busy practice and needs a wife and nurse to help him out in the small town of Hope’s Crossing. Though a matchmaking service the two are brought together.

Alice starts to fall in love with Dr. Kilarney but is afraid to let herself go and feels guilty about not loving her dead husband. Dr. Kilarney loves being with Alice but is too afraid to love again since he past love left him. The two must live as husband and wife and yet both are afraid of their own feelings. Then the man who murdered her husband comes to Hope’s Crossing to finish what he believes is necessary by murdering Alice. What a delightful story line and it is intertwined with Alice’s young daughter,an older man who becomes a part of the family, and the fear of someone out to murder her.

I highly recommend this book as it is a truly moving family story with a lot of different things going on. I especially enjoyed the interaction between Alice and Jeremiah. ( )