Abby: Mail Order Bride: Book 1 in Unconventional Series

Verna Clay

Jun 2012 · Unconventional Book 1 · Verna Clay

About this ebook

Readers' Favorite 2014 Gold Medal Winner--Historical Romance!

Order of books in the Unconventional Series: Abby: Mail Order Bride; Broken Angel; Ryder's Salvation; Joy's Return

Brant Samson has fallen on hard times after the death of his beloved wife a year earlier. Left with three children, he's desperate to find a mother for them. Ten year old Jenny does her best to care for two year old Ty, and fourteen year old Luke works the ranch with his father, losing himself in dime novels to ease the pain of his mother's passing. Brant's options are limited since eligible women seldom pass through Two Rivers, much less settle in the small Texas town. In desperation, he places a classified advertisement for a mail order bride. Marrying a woman he'll come to know through a newspaper advertisement scares the bejesus out of him, but at this point, he's out of options.

Abigail Mary Vaughn always dreamed of having her own family, but caring for her elderly parents, as well as working as a teacher to help with finances, ended that dream. Her parents are now deceased and she's faced with the reality of her lonely existence. After reading Mr. Samson's advertisement in the Philadelphia Inquirer, she garners enough courage to respond. Since she is considered an old maid at the age of thirty-eight, she'll more than likely spend the remainder of her life wondering "what if" unless she does something unconventional. 

Ratings and reviews

I cried so much when I got to where they lost TY, that I couldn't finish the story... you can't make me like the book/TY and then BOMB

The story was very well put together, and although I would have liked to get to know the side characters a little better, I laughed and cried. Over all. A great read.

A brave woman answers an ad in a newspaper and travels far away from home. She falls in love with her soon to be husband and children. They face tragedy, but with love they overcome it. Would like to read more by this author.

About the author

After writing a contemporary romance, I decided to try my hand at writing an historical romance. The year I chose for beginning the love story between Brant Samson and Abigail Mary Vaughn is 1886. Except for the mention of obvious cities, the towns and geographical places I describe are figments of my imagination. Although there is some historical reference, the story is first and foremost a romance, the body of which revolves around the sorrows, dreams, and emotional healing of its characters.
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 My perfect day: Laptop; WiFi availability; Java Mocha; characters demanding their stories be told; a plot that comes together; and hours to live in an alternate reality. Afterward, I return home to wash dishes and vacuum.

Seriously, I have always loved reading, and now I love writing. As a preteen, I devoured Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys Mysteries. When I reached my teen years, the romance genre became my favorite and that has never changed. A few years ago, I decided to try my hand at writing and I've been doing so with a passion ever since. After writing a fantasy series, my current focus is western romance, both contemporary and historical. Because I hate saying goodbye to characters who have lived with me for months, I usually create a series so they can be revisited from book to book.

I also write under the pen name of Colleen Clay.