A Bride for Keeps (Unexpected Brides Book #1): A Novel

Melissa Jagears

Oct 2013 · Baker Books

About this ebook

"Melissa Jagears is a stand-out talent! Her fresh new voice is strong, stylish, and makes A Bride for Keeps a page-turner for anyone who fancies a stirring love story."
-Rosslyn Elliot, author of Fairer Than Morning and Sweeter Than Birdsong

"A Bride for Keeps treats readers to an engaging, prairie romance...delivering a heartwarming, satisfying read."
-Maggie Brendan, CBA bestselling author of The Heart of the West and The Blue Willow Brides series.

"Melissa Jagears has penned a tender tale of a mail-order bride who takes both the groom--and herself--by surprise when love comes softly...quietly... to heal their broken hearts."
-Julie Lessman, author of Love at any Cost

"A Bride for Keeps is just beautiful. It put me in mind of Janette Oke's sweet prairie romances but with a bit more edge, which I found compelling...I loved it."
-Mary Connealy, author of Fired Up


Everett Cline will never humiliate himself by seeking a mail-order bride. Not again. He's already been jilted by three mail-order brides and figures a wife just isn't in his future. However, a well-meaning neighbor hasn't given up on seeing him settled, so she goes behind his back to bring yet another woman to town for him.

Julia Lockwood has never been anything more than a pretty pawn for her father or a business acquisition for her former fiance. A mail-order marriage in faraway Kansas is a last resort, but she'll do anything to leave her life in Massachusetts and the heartbreak she's experienced there.

Although Everett doesn't see how a beautiful, cultured woman like Julia could be happy sharing his simple life, he could really use a helpmate on his homestead. Determined to prove she's more than just a pretty face, Julia agrees to a marriage in name only. Faced with the harsh realities of life on the prairie and hesitant to explore the tentative feelings growing between them, can Everett and Julia ever let each other in long enough to fall in love?

Ratings and reviews

It helped me grow in my faith and made me realize that even when I'm struggleing He's right there to hold me. No question or dought is to big for Him to answer or handle. When human love isn't enough God's love fills the cracks.

This book is truly amazing. Loved the characters and it depicts the times when it was so difficult living out there in loneliness.

Unexpectedly very touching, great mission book for those who feel that God is far off and doesn't have time or anything for each of His children.

About the author

Melissa Jagears, an ESL teacher by trade, is a stay-at-home mother on a tiny Kansas farm with a fixer-upper house. She's a member of ACFW and CROWN fiction marketing, and her passion is to help Christian believers mature in their faith and judge rightly. A Bride for Keeps is her first novel. Find her online at www.melissajagears.com.