Book Review: The Wayward Heart by Nerys Leigh

Fun Mail Order Bride Romance

Lizzy Cotton signs up as a mail order bride to marry a handsome cowboy and fall in love. The adventure starts well, when she arrives at her destination with four other mail order briders. Her husband, Richard Shand, is even more handsome in person than in his photograph. But he doesn’t seem at all interested in being a real husband. Instead, he leaves her alone on the ranch all day, with only one of the cowboys for company.

Lizzy was a likeable heroine, if a little naïve (delusional?) at the beginning. She was almost annoying in her Pollyanna-like cheerfulness and optimism, and her overly romantic ideas about living in the West, marrying a cowboy, and falling in love. She’s got it all planned out, but you know what they say about plans …

Richard was not nearly so likeable. In fact, he was downright unlikeable in the way he advertised for a mail order bride, married her, then ignored her. And I don't know what else to say about him that wouldn't be a spoiler. Let's just say there was a big twist, and while I knew something was coming, my guess was about 90% wrong.

There was plenty of romance—but the course of true love definitely doesn't run smooth.

There's conflict (plenty of conflict), but also a lot of laughs as Richard and the other cowboys underestimate Lizzy in many ways. Yes, she's way more than a Pollyanna.

The Wayward Heart is the third book in Nerys Leigh’s Escape to the West series, but the books can be read in any order. They all take place in the same town over the same timescale, with each book focusing on one of the mail order brides.

Overall, The Wayward Heart is a Christian Western historical romance that's got everything: intelligent and likeable heroine, intelligent and gentlemanly hero, conflict, laughs, and a thought-provoking Christian theme.

Recommended.

Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review. You can find out more about Nerys Leigh at her website, and you can read the introduction to The Wayward Heart below:

Review: A Hope Unseen by Nerys Leigh

Excellent!

The first book in this series, No One’s Bride, was one of the best books I read in 2016, so author Nerys Leigh had a keen volunteer when she was looking for reviewers for A Hope Unseen, the second novel in her Escape to the West series … but she’d also given herself a hard act to follow.

But she managed it.

Sara Worthing wants a marriage where she is loved for herself, not for her dowry. She becomes engaged to Daniel Raine, a man she has met only through his letters but who she is confident doesn’t want her for her money. When she meets she is pleased to find he’s as attractive in person as he was in his letters. And he seems just as attracted to her.

But, at the risk of using a cliché, the course of true love never did run smooth and it’s practically a rule of romance novels that trouble must come. As it does. And while I’m not going to spoil the story by telling you what happens, I will say it was great to see both characters turn to and rely on God in their difficulties.

Despite the romance, I think my favourite character was Will, Daniel’s brother who lives on the farm with Daniel and Sara. He is a loveable reprobate who provides a lot of the comic relief in the drama with lines like this:

I do hope Will gets his own happy-ever-after at some point in the series …

The unusual thing about this series is that the books aren’t sequential – A Hope Unseen takes place on the exact same timeline as No One’s Bride. This does provide a few moments of confusion when it references No One’s Bride—while I thought it was excellent, I don’t remember every plot detail and I’ve read dozens of books since then. On the plus side, this concurrent setting means it doesn’t matter what order you read the books in.

Recommended for fans of Christian Western romances, especially mail order bride stories.

Thanks to the author for providing a free ebook for review.