Tame a Wild Bride
is Cynthia Woolf’s third in the Tame series.
These novels take place in the Old West, specifically, Colorado. This novel is
set in Creede, where a man needs a wife to help him run his ranch and raise his
two kids.
Tom Harris lost his wife when she left him for another man,
then promptly died, leaving him to raise their two children, Ben and Suzie. He
realizes he cannot do this alone, so he does what any sensible man would do. He
puts an ad in the newspaper for a wife. He chooses Rosie, a sweet woman whose
letters and picture intrigued him in a way no other woman has since his late
wife.
Rosemary Stanton needs to leave Philadelphia, where her
brother is newly married and his wife wants her out. She could be a governess,
but she wants children of her own to raise, so she travels to Colorado to
answer an ad for a wife and mother. She
did not realize her new husband would be so handsome… and so bent on not having
any more children.
Generally, I am not a fan of Wild West-era romance novels. I
know that the people who survived the trip and climate were resilient folk, but
I find it hard to believe that they were all as heroic as they are in every
single novel. A woman does not always need to be galloping her horse, hair
blown askew and fire in her eyes as she rescues herself from trouble that
always comes knocking. That is not the type of heroine Rosie is. She is sweet
and accommodating and an incredibly hard worker. I promise there is NO WAY you
can dislike Rosie Harris. Tom Harris is as chivalrous and romantic as he should
be- it just takes him some time to get there because he is well, a little dumb
when it comes to emotions. As were a good majority of the male population.
Ms. Woolf created two very real characters in this sweet
western. The story is great, but the characters are the real shining star in
this book. I am looking forward to reading the other stories in this series.
