Review: The Soldier’s E-Mail Order Bride – Cora Seton

Staff Sergeant Austin Hall has a brilliant record in the Special Forces—except for one disastrous decision that cost his best friend’s life. Now he’s heading home to Chance Creek, Montana, where he’d like to spend the rest of his days in the obscurity of his family’s ranch. Too bad Great Aunt Heloise won’t hand the ranch over unless all four of the Hall brothers marry and one of them produces an heir within the year. Austin is too broken to marry for love, so he places an online ad for a fake wife. What could possibly go wrong?

Ella needs to leave Hollywood—fast. It’s bad enough another actress stole her fiancé—on national television. Now she’s ruined her comeback by decking her ex on a morning talk show. Pursued by paparazzi, Ella needs a new life, a new name and someplace to hide. When she reads Austin’s ad for a stand-in wife, she knows she can act this part perfectly. To the rest of the residents of Chance Creek, they’ll be a happily married couple. In private, they’ll just be roommates. In a year when she’d old news and the Hall brothers secure the ranch, she and Austin will quietly divorce and she’ll go on her way.

Or will she?

Austin’s already finding it hard to remember his promise never to love again. Ella’s finding it hard to keep her hands to herself. But when they’re asked make a back-up baby, Ella realizes she may have stepped into a lifetime role.

Can this pretend marriage go the distance?

*I received a free ARC of The Soldier’s E-Mail Order Bride from CrushStar Multimedia LLC via Netgalley in exchange of an honest review*

Feel-good romance with a very sweet couple, The Soldier’s E-Mail Order Bride made my toes curl with happiness.

My The Soldier’s E-Mail Order Bride review:

Everything seemed to be against Ella and Austin’s relationship becoming something real in The Soldier’s E-Mail Order Bride, and even I thought for a while that they just might not make it! Ella fled Hollywood after yet another embarrassing run-in with her ex and his new girl-friend, and she found Austin’s ‘wife wanted’ add at the right time. When they first met at the airport, Austin simply brought her to the church and they got married within an hour of meeting… There was instant chemistry and attraction, though, even if they had both agreed there would be no sex.

As they got to know each other a little bit, they realized they had more in common than they had thought possible – really, a soldier in the special ops and a Hollywood actress both hurting and hiding from the world shouldn’t have worked, but somehow it did. The Soldier’s E-Mail Order Bride is a very sweet story, even if Austin is dealing with a huge serving of survivor’s guilt, and he has no idea how to go on living when his best friend is dead. Thinking he didn’t deserve any happiness, he kept Ella at arm’s length; at least outside the bedroom.

The struggles both Ella and Austin had within themselves really hooked me, and made The Soldier’s E-Mail Order Bride a pleasure to read. Regan and Mason from the first Heroes of Chance Creek story played a part in this story as well, as did several characters from the Cowboys of Chance Creek series. Sexy cowboys, a beautiful actress, lots of hard work and even more hot love-making made me a very happy reader indeed. If you aren’t familiar with these series yet, but enjoy reading about hot and slightly brooding cowboys, you should pick it up! You won’t regret it 🙂

Some of my favorite The Soldier’s E-Mail Order Bride quotes:

Ella bit her lip. She hadn’t meant that to sound like an invitation. After a long moment, the cowboy nodded and turned on his heel. 

As he stripped down, she turned away quickly and he bit back a smile. If he was a gentleman he would leave on his boxers, but he wasn’t a gentleman, and ever since he’d seen his name on her list, he’d been tingling with the knowledge that she ranked him right up there with fresh air, horses and children.

Ella’s face had been a sight to see a couple of days ago when they unloaded the John deere tractor and a couple of utility vehicles they’d brought to use for many of the jobs around the ranch. “Did you think we did everything on horseback?” he’d asked her. “I guess I hoped so. It’s sexier.”

About Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms

Linda is an English as foreign language teacher and has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature. She's an avid reader, blogger, compulsive one-clicker and a genre omnivore. Ever since she learnt how to read she has been seen with a book or two in her hands everywhere she goes.

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