Mail-Order Christmas Baby

This is book one in the Montana Courtships series, so what a great place to start. If you like marriage of convenience type books you will love this one. It is not your typical mail-order type book, for this one involves a baby and not wife or groom on the train. There is humor, love, friendship, mystery and more in this novel, I look forward to reading more from this series. Sterling Blackwell is a handsome rancher living in this small town, when he finds his name on a birth certificate along with the pretty school teacher he is not sure what to think. Sterling and Heather must find common ground and make some serious decisions. Heather O'Connor has never really felt loved or pretty. When Gracie is claimed to be her child an overwhelming love surrounds her. But will she be able to face all the gossip this small town has to give?

There are a couple reasons I adored this book! One, I love the author! She writes fantastic historical fiction and this one is right up my alley! Two, I happen to love the cover! Three, the story was fascinating! Yes, it's a marriage of convenience story but the way it starts out is so unconventional!!! There was a time in the old west when you could mail CHILDREN to someone! That fact just floored me! That's how the story begins! This cute little baby, Grace, gets mailed to Sterling, a handsome land owner and he doesn't know what to think! When the birth record is checked, it lists him and the school teacher, Heather as the parents!!! Can you even imagine??? The gossip, of course, is all over town and Heather is totally mortified! The town preacher is a total jerk, in my opinion but you'll have to read the book to find out why!!! Eventually Sterling and Heather decide to get married and keep the baby safe on his ranch so Grace wont go to an orphanage. This was one marriage of convenience story that really felt "true to life" for me. They didn't really know each other and there were a lot of things that had to get worked out. I liked the way they eventually worked together to get the ranch running again and the men on the ranch were fun characters to read about! There are "accidents" happening on the ranch and you have to figure out who is responsible for those. A wonderful holiday book and the theme of love, forgiveness, friendship, and holiday spirit made this a must-read for me! I definitely recommend it!