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Like many men on the western frontier, widower David Slade (sheriff of Salvation, Texas) has ordered up a bride. He needs a mother for his daughter and something to fill the emptiness in his life. And if he wishes the woman would also fill the void in his heart and the hollow in his soul, well he’s a realist and understands what he can’t have. After all, he’s been married before.
Laura Ashton is running away from something not to something. She’s given little thought to what she’s going to find at the end of the stage coach ride except sanctuary in the household of a lawman; someone who can protect her from the abusive hands of a rejected suitor. Having been orphaned at a young age, finding a home with security and stability is her biggest priority. She’s got money from an inheritance, what she needs now is a good home. And if she yearns for something more, well one thing life has taught her is dreams don’t come true.
One would think Laura and David are entering matrimony, however hurriedly, with their eyes wide open and their expectations in check. Many marriages have been founded on less. But dreams and desires have a way of eating at a person, filling them with regrets at what could be but isn’t, of nurturing hope for something more, something better.
If they have any hope of building those dreams into reality, however, both are going to have to face some unsettling truths about what they’ve done, who they are and what they want—and then fight for their dreams and each other. But most importantly, they will need each other’s understanding in order to salvage a true marriage from the debris of the past.
Anna Kathryn Lanier has written the story of perseverance and sacrifice with characters that will need to do both in order to find salvation through each other. With compelling characters and surprising secrets this is a story that will grab your interest and keep it through to the end. Ms. Lanier does an excellent job of capturing both the details of the Old West and the timeless struggle of people to be better than their circumstances, providing the richness and layers that make a satisfying western historical romance.
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