This is a Beauty and the Beast retelling in the old American West. Noah Cutter fetches the widow of his shiftless brother when he finds out about her and that she's pregnant. Kate was dazzled by Levi, but she's grateful for Noah's help as she has nowhere else to turn. Noah is scarred because of a childhood accident, but Kate doesn't mind, and eventually, they marry and fall in love. They still have to overcome some heartache, but it's a sweet story and well-told. ( )

The January 2021 #TBRChallenge theme is “comfort read.” Cheryl St. John is one of my go-to authors when I’m looking for a comfort read, or a way to ease back into romance reading, and luckily for me, I have quite a few of her books on Mount TBR.

This book is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. Noah Cutter is a man who’s shut himself off from the world by choice. He was disfigured after a horrible accident as a child, and the shame he feels about his appearance runs very, very deep. The only person who ever seemed to love and accept him was his younger brother, Levi, so what a disappointment that he grew up to be a philandering, useless jackass. Its hard enough when Noah learns that his brother has been killed by a cuckholded husband; it’s worse still when he learns that said brother had a wife that no one even knew existed. When he finds her to tell her the news of Levi’s death, he discovers that she’s pregnant, and she’s living a horrible life with her haranguing mother, so he decides that he’ll take her back to his ranch and give her a chance at a better life, especially as she’s carrying his brother’s child.

Kate Cutter jumps at the chance to leave Boulder and her awful mother behind, but she has a hard time settling into her new life – because nobody will let her do anything. She’s antsy to earn her keep and secure her unborn child’s future, but is at a loss to do so. When Noah offers a marriage of convenience, she agrees to it without a second thought.

Though I’m usually here for low-angst second chance romances, this one just didn’t quite do it for me. There’s Estelle, Noah’s stepmother, who’s just as bad as Kate’s mother about meddling and trying to tell Kate how to live her life and how to raise her child. Estelle manipulates both Noah and Kate into marriage and consummating the marriage, dangling the security of her beloved Levi’s child as the bait.

There’s Kate, who’s relentlessly happy (until she’s not). I appreciate her feeling trapped and unhappy, but not the way she goes about trying to change her situation. She spends a lot of this book talking, but its useless chitchat about nothing important. She doesn’t broach serious subjects until far too late in the novel, and thus spends a great deal of time feeling unhappy.

Perhaps my biggest problem is with Noah, however. Ms. St. John leans hard into the Beauty-and-the-Beast trope here, to the point where Noah doesn’t like himself and spends a lot of inner monologue time ruminating on this point. He is a perfect example of a character who’s so busy feeling sorry for himself that he forgets to actually like himself, and is thus confounded when nobody else can really like him, either. His past is horrific, but he could’ve used some of Kate’s innate self-worth to get over it before he does.

Noah and Kate both loved Levi to varying degrees, and thus the squick of a man sleeping with his sister-in-law is always in the background. That’s not really my thing, and I didn’t care for being reminded of their previous relationship as in-laws as often as it pops up in the text. Its hard to write an explicit romance when there’s a blood sibling ghost as the third party of the relationship and expect it to fly in the mainstream. Ms. St. John is talented, but unfortunately not quite that talented.

I’ll definitely keep reading her books, but this one falls into the “clunker” pile for me. ( )

Such a sweet story.
Sort of a beauty and the beast troupe.
Hero is scarred physically and emotionally.
HEA and epilogue. ( )

I was rather amused when I read Cheryl St. John’s bio at the end of this book. It says: “A peacemaker, a romantic, an idealist, and a discouraged perfectionist are the words that Cheryl uses to describe herself.” It also goes on to mention: “… she’s been told that she is painfully honest.” Since these are all words and phrases I would use to describe myself, I suspect that’s why the first two of her stories I’ve read have resonated with me so strongly. His Secondhand Wife is a sweet, tender historical romance that follows on the heels of its predecessor in the Copper Creek Brides series, Sweet Annie. In this one, we have a scarred, brooding hero who can’t stand people’s stares, so he prefers to keep to himself, rarely ever leaving his ranch. But when his flighty, philandering younger brother gets himself killed, leaving a young pregnant wife behind, he takes it upon himself to look after her, never expecting to end up marrying her and falling in love. It was a really wonderful story that was a near-perfect read for me.

After being badly scarred in an accident during childhood, Noah has basically lived the life of a recluse. His father and stepmother couldn’t stand the sight of him, and his stepmother, in particular, was pretty cruel toward him. The townspeople tend to stare as well, so Noah simply stays on his ranch, never leaving unless it’s something that one of his hands can’t take care of. Only his brother, Levi, genuinely accepted Noah, but Levi has been gone for years. When Noah gets word that Levi was shot and killed by a cuckolded husband, he isn’t really surprised given Levi’s history with the ladies, but it’s a hard blow for him anyway. What does surprise him is that Levi left behind a pregnant wife, although she hasn’t seen him in months. Noah views the woman and her unborn child as his responsibility and insists on taking her back to his ranch and providing for her. After tongues start wagging in town and his stepmother gets involved, Noah also offers to marry her, but he plans for it to be a marriage in name only. Noah may have a lot of visible scars, but he harbors many deep psychological ones that cannot be seen, as well. Because of the way his father and stepmother reacted to his appearance after the accident, he believes he is ugly and unlovable, so he hides behind a beard, long hair, a hat, and clothing as much as possible. But little by little, his new wife starts to change his mind. Noah is such a sweet man to take on his brother’s wife and child, even though they disrupt his solitary, well-ordered life, and I very much admired him for it. Although he’s a bit more brooding, he’s a definite beta hero, as well as one of those rare virgin heroes in romance that I adore. I also think it’s cute the way he marvels over Kate in his own mind and although he doesn’t think he knows what to do with a woman, he figures it all out pretty well. He’s definitely the type of kind, gentle man I could totally fall in love with.

Katherine experienced a whirlwind relationship with Levi that only lasted a few weeks before he headed out for parts unknown, claiming that he was looking for a job and a place for them to live, but he never came back. Then a dark, mysterious stranger who says he’s Levi’s brother, arrives at her door, telling Kate that her husband cheated on her, is now dead, and that she’s coming with him to live on his ranch. While this might be a lot for some women to handle all at once, Kate is a pretty easy-going person who takes it all in stride. After growing up with no father, a critical single mother with whom she still lives, and working every day at the laundry just to make enough money for food and living quarters that are little more than a shack, she doesn’t want that kind of life for her baby. Even though she doesn’t know Noah, she figures that he’s at least offering her a home and his protection, so it can’t be any worse than what she’s got now. As a matter of fact, it turns out to be a whole lot better than Kate ever could have hoped for, except that she’s so pampered, there isn’t really anything for her to do, which leaves her feeling like there’s no place for her in Noah’s life. She can’t help thinking that he mainly only wants Levi’s child and not her. Kate is a really sweet heroine, almost a tad too sweet at times, because she kind of allows Estelle, Levi’s mother (and Noah’s stepmother), to run roughshod over her. However, she doesn’t like the way Estelle treats Noah, and I have to give Kate credit for finally putting the woman in her place near the end of the story. I also liked that she is accepting of Noah, scars and all, and isn’t the least bit afraid of him.

His Secondhand Wife ties into the Copper Creek Brides series in part by being set in the little Colorado town of Copper Creek, but it also shares some common characters with Sweet Annie. Of course, Annie and Luke from that story play a pretty important role, particularly Annie, who becomes one of Kate’s first friends. It was nice to see her and Luke so happy and expecting a second child while being such great parents to their first. Annie also now owns a successful dress shop, where Estelle insists upon buying new clothes to lavish upon Kate. Annie’s cousin, Charmaine, also becomes a friend to Kate. In this one, she’s eagerly – and impatiently – awaiting a proposal from her beau, and we get to see the outcome of that when she becomes the heroine of the final novella of the series, Almost a Bride from the Wed Under Western Skies anthology.

Overall, I very much enjoyed His Secondhand Wife. Just like the first book of the series, it’s the type of story I could see being turned into a Hallmark movie. I waffled mightily between rating it 4.5 and 5 stars. It’s truly my kind of book with characters I could definitely relate to, but I did get just a tad antsy at times with the way in which both Noah and Kate tend to misconstrue the other’s words or actions rather than attacking the problem head-on and getting it out in the open. However, when I looked at each of their backgrounds and respective hang-ups, I did understand why they think some of the things they do. Even though he cares for Kate and can’t believe his brother didn’t treat her better, Noah still tends to keep her at arms length, because of his scars, thinking that she’s only being nice to him out of a sense of obligation for what he’s providing for her. Even after she’s seen some of his scars, he still tends to hide himself, both physically and emotionally, but considering it’s what he’s been doing for years, I’m sure that would be a hard habit to break. For her part, Kate can’t seem to let go of the notion that Noah only married her out of a sense of responsibility, and that he really wants her baby more than he wants her. However, given that she’s worked hard all her life and was basically not being given anything to do to make her feel like she’s contributing to the ranch or Noah’s life, I suppose I could understand her feeling that way, too. I have to admit as well that the author does a good job of bringing things back around each time one of them veers off into their wrongheaded thinking. I’d no sooner be annoyed by it than something sweet or romantic was happening to help make it all better. But in the end, I decided it was just enough to knock off the half-star. Not to mention, I was a teensy bit disappointed that we, the readers, are the only ones who are privy to Noah’s virginal status. I don’t think I’ve read a romance before where that was the case. Hero or heroine, if one of them is a virgin, the other always tends to find out or be let in on it somehow. But otherwise, I thought His Secondhand Wife was a great story for fans of sweeter, gentler romances, and it, along with its predecessor, also earned Cheryl St. John a place on my favorite authors list. ( )

I wavered between a two and a three for this one. At best it's a run-of-the-mill beauty and the beast story that's entertains but brings nothing new to the table. At worst, it's a poorly written story that overuses POV prose, tells instead of shows and rehashes the fairly exasperating "angsty disabled/scarred hero consumed by self-loathing redeemed by endlessly patient and good Mary Sue heroine." The good characters are unconflicted and perfect while the bad characters are pure malice and outrageously cruel. This can work in a melodrama, but the author seemed to want to play them straight, and so they're just soulless and cardboard. I read it in one sitting, but it never swept me away and Noah's self-pity was just wearying. ( )