Wyoming Bride (Mail-Order Brides, #2) by Joan Johnston

Wyoming Bride (Mail-Order Brides, #2) Reviews

• 
  Jessica's Totally Over The Top Book Obsession

  3 Stars for everything but the hero Stars
  
  
  
  
  there will be spoilers and some ranting
  
  So what do you do when you loved a book. You loved everything about it, but you couldn't stand the hero. When you enjoyed reading the book but wanted to punch the hero in the throat the whole time. Well I'll tell you what I did. I took 12 hours after finishing the book to debate what rating to give said book. Argued with myself out loud so that people thought I was crazy. Start writing a review 3 different times and then delete it all and start over. Then finally I decided to give it a middle of the road rating and wonder why it took me so long to figure all this out. Lol but that's just me.
  
  
  
  
  Wyoming Bride would have been a 5 start read for me if the hero, Flint, wasn't a little bitch that was in love with another woman for like 95% of the book. In this book we had Flint and Ransom who are brothers. Now both Flint and Ransom fell in love with a twit name Emaline. Emaline loved Ransom and they were engaged and later married. Now we also have Hannah who married her first husband Mr. McMurtry as a mail order bride to save her, her twin Hetty and her 16 year old sister Josie. Hannah and her husband had sex one time on their wedding day which was no party for Hannah. Hannah got pregnant from that one time and shortly after Mr. McMurtry died of cholera. Then a band of Indians kidnapped Josie and shot Hetty with a arrow. Hannah went to look for help was lost for days and almost died. She was found by Flint who nursed her back to health and asked her to marry him. They were later married. Flint only wanted to marry Hannah to help him get over Emaline. So at this point I am really enjoying this book.
  
  
  
  
  My problem was Flint Married Hannah and then sat around like a little bitch wanting Emaline. It drove me crazy. For one Emaline was a total twit. She wanted to marry Ransom but wanted him to never have sex because she was afraid of getting pregnant and dying in child birth. She was so silly, naive and not at all special(not that she was bad just not amazing) that I had to ask myself why the hell was Flint so in love with her. I would have been ok with it if Flint would have tried with Hannah but instead he thought of Emaline all the time. Talked about Emaline all the time, and felt guilty that he had sex with Hannah, who was his wife, and enjoyed it because he felt like he was cheating on Emaline. I still could have over looked all that but Flint loved Emaline until page 317 of a 404 page book. I mean come on get over it already she picked his brother and didn't even want to have sex like what kind of prize is that??
  
  
  
  
  Now all that being said, I loved Hannah. I thought she was smart, sweet and brave. I also like Ransom and Emaline as a couple. Even if I thought Em was a naive twit for thinking a man would go his whole life without sex. I loved the plot of the bad neighbor stealing the cows and, trying to buy out everyone's land, and the lost sisters. I loved hearing about things back when the states where just getting established. I also like Flint when he finally pulled his head out of his ass and fell in love with his wife. Overall it was an enjoyable read but would have been better if Flint wasn't a selfish ass for over 90% of it. I can't wait to find out what happened to Hetty and Josie.
• 
  Ilaria 🌸

  Sorry it is not you it is me
• 
  Mei

  This is the second book in the series that follow the orphaned Wentworth sisters.
  
  The heroine here is one of the twins, Hannah who, like her older sister Miranda, becomes, very grudgingly, a mail order bride to escape the orphanage and its cruel caretaker, taking along her twin Hetty and the younger sister Josie.
  
  Her husband to be if Mr. McMurtry, a shy, slim, tall, virgin, strait-laced and very common man.
  He wants a very conventional wife and, during their wedding night (a very unconfortable, short and painful one at that... for Hannah...) she becomes pregnant.
  
  Unfortunately, her twin Hetty is a very emptyheaded girl who, during the travel to Wyoming with several other wagons, fall girlishly in love with a man and, in order to make him declare himself, flirt shamelessly with another. Both man, in a fit of jealousy, kill each other and the trail master expels their wagon, abandoning them to their fate.
  
  All alone, without guidance, they loose their way and, on top of that, Mr. McMurtry dies of cholera. While still shocked by his death they get attacked by indians who kidnap Josie and run away, leaving Hannah with a wounded Hetty.
  
  Hannah goes to seek help and, obviously get lost for days...
  
  In the meanwhile, Flint is in love with his brother's fiancé and doesn't know how he'll survive leaving withthem in the same house. So he runs away from the engagement party and finds the half-dead Hannah.
  
  What beter way to forget the woman of his dreams than to get a woman of his own? So, as soon as Hannah wakes he bluntly proposes.
  
  Hannah is appalled. She also doesn't remember what happened to her. So, who's this man? What shall she do?
  
  And this is how everything begins. This is a play where everything (and I mean everything) happens!
  
  Hannah strats as an amnesiac, but soon remembers what happened and when she gets back to the wagon, there's a tomb and no trace of her wounded sister... She's full of regret and guilt...
  
  She is basically a spoilt rich girl in dire straits and she must and does grow up very fast. First with Flint and his obsession with his brother's wife (who has some big problems of her own...), than with her pregnancy (which she doesn't confess before marriage to Flint), the jealous and greedy neighbour who steals their cattle and whant to kill Flint and his brother... there's a lot that happens to and around her...
  
  Flint was a kind of ass too. First with his perfect lady Emaline, than his constant fear that his brother will discover his love for her, than the way he treats Hannah, always pointing how perfect Em is... I didn't liked him for almost 3/4 of the book.
  
  Still, I must admit that I liked the story. It was full of action and always something unexpected happened when I least thought it would. I also liked the side romance of Em and Ransom and thier own problems.
• 
  Jill

  I recieved this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
  
  
  This is my first ever book by this author and I loved it.
  It was classic western historical romance, I felt 15 again and a bit sentimental. I will have to get out my Johanna Lindsey books and have a trip down memory lane. Honestly, reading this book was like getting back to my reading roots and to me it was really special.
  
  Now, this is actually the second book in this series and from doing some research on this author it looks like this new series is a spin off or side series of an already existing one. I didn't feel lost or like I was lacking information so to me you could probabaly read them out of order. The author did enough background rehashing(not alot) to make you understand what was going on.
  
  Now onto the story, don't you just love a mail order bride novel? I know I do, it's one of my favourite themes in the western romance genre. In saying this you aren't put into this story with a girl umming and ahhing over whether she will make this decision or not. Oh no, this book starts on the wedding night. I love that, straight into the nitty gritty. From the blurb of this book you will know that her husband dies and leaves her pregnant. What you don't know is the circumstances of how this happens and who else she loses.
  Needless to say Hannah is in Dire Straits when she meets Flint Creed (what and awesome cowboy name!!!)
  Now Flint was a bit of a jerk, but he does believe himself to be in love with his brothers Fiance, ouch. So the relationship between Flint and Hannah although it gets serious pretty quickly it's not really romantic, more like a relationship of necessity.
  It was great watching them fight their attraction. Even more fun was the fact was that we got a bonus couple in this book, Ransom (Flint's brother) and Emaline. They had there own problems, what was great was that theirs was a true love fromt he beginning.
  Indian attacks, cattle ranch wars, duals, the dangers of childbirth, steamy sex out of wedlock,shotgun weddings this book had everything a good western romance needs and I lapped it up, enjoying every minute of it.
  If you are after a bit of a change from all those full on books that are out there at the moment and wouldn't mind getting back to your mamma's romance books this is the one for you!!!
• 
  Jacqueline J

  This was a wildly improbable tale set in the Old West. These people basically acted as if they were modern people just wearing long dresses. The characters continually did things that I just felt were not really even thinkable in the 1870s. There was hardly any flavor of the old west. Details that might have set the stage were severly lacking. There were two romances in this book and I really never cared particularly for any of the characters. The main hero was in love with the other guys wife. His rapid change at the end was not really believable. Not sure I'll go in with the series.
• 
  Jenn

  I truly enjoyed another outside the box read in this genre. For a long while I ended up with too many cookie cutter stories, and began craving something different. I loved reading the side story between Emaline and Ransom, as I got to know the main couple of the book- Flint and Hannah.
  
  I loved that this story was able to keep my attention the entire way through, and never once did it drag. The author did a good job at adding different issues into the plot so the reader never gets bored. I loved every issue that was thrown at the four characters- and I loved how entwined into the story they were. There was hardly a moment that they weren't all around each other.
• 
  Andrea

  Ugh. Like the first installment, this is very firmly in the Wallpaper Historical category, but this one has none of the charm to make up for it. All the characters, especially the women, are Too Stupid to Live. The plot is dumb and the characters' behavior is often bizarre; in the first half, especially, you can really see the author just dragging them from one plot point to the next, without any regard to how an actual human would behave in the given situation. It's just. so. contrived. The fear-of-childbirth obstacle in the secondary plotline is shamelessly recycled from the first book, and I'd maybe buy it once, but not twice. Yes, childbirth was (and sometimes still is) dangerous, but Emaline's total assumption that she can just spring a demand of celibacy on her husband once they're married and not have it be any big thing is ri-goddamned-diculous. And an honest, five minute conversation would have solved all the remaining romantic conflict in the book. I only finished it because I liked the first one, and I do want to continue with the series, but if the third one starts out this bad, I may not get much farther.
• 
  Angela DeSilva

  My favorite series Mail Order Brides. This is a great book, I couldn't put it down. I let my daughter-in-law read the series and she couldn't put it do down either. Probably the best historical western romance series I've read to date.
• 
  Susan

  Good book. Hannah becomes a mail order bride in order to get herself and her two sisters away from the orphanage where they have been living. On their journey west her husband dies, and they are attacked by Indians, leaving Hannah alone in the wilderness. She is rescued by Flint and taken to his ranch. Hannah knows she needs another husband to take care of her and her baby to be, and when Flint offers to marry her she accepts. Flint is in love with the woman his younger brother is going to marry. He figures the only way to survive living on the same ranch is to get himself a wife of his own. When he finds Hannah it's like the answer to a prayer.
  
  I really liked Hannah a lot. Although she had dreams of finding her Prince Charming, she put them aside in order to save herself and her sisters. She had the inner strength to handle the journey west and try to keep her sisters in line. When they were on their own she was the one that kept things together. When she struck her bargain with Flint, she made sure he didn't walk all over her. She had conditions of her own and stuck to them. She didn't tell him at first that she was pregnant because she was afraid he wouldn't marry her. As time went on she found that there was a lot about Flint that she really liked. She was also very attracted to him. She wasn't happy when she found out he only married her because he was in love with his brother's fiancee. She grew to love him, but wouldn't tell him so because of his feelings for Emaline. I enjoyed seeing her stand up to him. I also liked seeing her adapt to the ways of the west and become an even better person.
  
  Flint was a little harder to warm up to. As the older of the two brothers, he was used to being in charge and often treated his brother Ransom like he wasn't too smart. He had fallen in love with Emaline, but she only had eyes for Ransom. When they became engaged, Flint decided he needed to find a wife of his own to keep him distracted from Emaline - not the greatest reason to get married. When he rescued Hannah he was drawn to her and offered to marry her more as a convenience to them both than anything else. He spent most of the book basically worshipping Emaline as a goddess on a pedestal while blowing off his own wife. He wasn't deliberately cruel, just thoughtless. It was interesting to see him try to reconcile his growing feelings for Hannah and his "love" for Emaline. There were many times that it was obvious that he was coming to love Hannah, but he just couldn't see past his idealized version of Emaline.
  
  The secondary romance between Emaline and Ransom was well done. She had some serious issues with the realities of being married and seeing her try to convince Ransom to her way of thinking was pretty funny. She and Ransom both showed some good character growth, though Ransom still has some maturing to do.
  
  I enjoyed the cattle ranching aspect and seeing the interactions among the ranchers. The problem of the missing cattle and the bad guy was very good. I liked seeing the ranchers' meeting and how things were handled there. The culmination of the conflict was good, though I'd like to know what happened to that ranch next.
  
  Overall a good book. I'm looking forward to Hetty and Josie's stories.
• 
  Zoe

  I finished this book in an hour, no kidding.
  
  I rarely rate a book 5 stars. 4 stars are sporadic. Most reads end up being 2 or 3 stars (it was ok or I liked it in a rather detached kind of way). That being said, 1 star reads are as rare as 5 stars in my book.
  
  But I have given this book one star, for the following reasons:
  
  1. I read the first book Texas Bride in the series and was so tempted to give it a 1 star. In the end I decided not to rate it, because I did not finish reading that book.
  
  2. Shallow characters: who are these people? I cannot relate to their actions and reactions, their feelings and sentiments. I had zero connection with the characters.
  
  3. Lead characters did not meet until about 10% - 15% in the book. Before that we first had to witness the heroine having weird sex with her husband who died almost immediately. But of course before he died, he impregnated the heroine. Then we met the hero and his brother, who were fighting over said brother's fiance, who was our hero's love interest. Our hero was pining for his brother's fiance and stayed that way for the better half of the book.
  
  4. Lies, lies, lies: I read 2 books from Joan Johnston so far. In both books, she has her characters engage in some kind of a scam. Her heroes and the heroines lie to each other, big lies too. Not telling his wife that he had children, not telling him that by marrying her meant he got 2 extra brothers. Not telling her husband that she was pregnant with another man's child. You catch the drift.
  
  5. There are 2 romances in this book: The hero and his brother, the heroine and the brother's fiance. Both relationships lack authenticity. I read this 400 plus pages of a book from the beginning to the end, I never forgot for a second, that this was fiction. This is why I was able to fly through this book in an hour. I did not buy into the stories. I felt like I was reading a gossip magazine. Who divorced whom and who got how much in settlement from whom, who is dating whom and who has this love interest previously dated, who got pregnant and what was she wearing today.
  
  I do not mean that say that this was a badly written book. This is not for me to judge. My review is about how I have (and have not) enjoyed reading this book.
• 
  Carin

  Wyoming Bride is the second book in the mail-order-brides series, the first being Texas Bride.
  
  Wyoming Bride is the story of Hannah who being the oldest of the three sisters left, after her older sister becomes a mail-order-bride for a man in Texas, must do whatever it takes to get her and her sisters out of the Chicago orphanage they are in. That means that she is the one to bite the bullet and become a mail-order-bride herself to a man who is headed to the Wyoming Territory.
  
  As much as Wyoming Bride is about Hannah and the man who saves her on the prairie, Flint, it is also about Flint's brother Ransom and the girl he is engaged to Emaline. When Flint finds Hannah near death on the prairie after her escape from a Sioux ambush it is an answer to his problems. Flint's younger brother has just become engaged to the woman that Flint is in love with, Emaline. Flint feels he needs to marry quickly to put a buffer between himself and the happy couple because they share a house.
  
  Being a history geek I love a historical romance that uses a lot of historic bits of fact thrown in, I was thrilled with all of the history that Ms. Johnson was able to include while still making this a fantastic story that doesn't feel like a history text ever. The love stories between Hannah and Flint and Ransom and Emaline are well developed never rushed and I felt accurately depicted as much as possible for the time period. I loved Hannah and wanted to slap Flint upside the head a few times but grew to love him too. Ransom is the hotheaded younger brother and Emaline while sweet her fear of childbirth while understandable got to be a bit repetitive.
  
  Over all this is a great historic read set in the American West, it is a great love story with likable characters, plenty of ties to the first book as well as teasers to the coming books and enough history to keep even a geek like me happy.
  I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
• 
  CoffeeTimeRomance andMore

  Marriage to a stranger is the only way for Hannah to get her two sisters out of the dismal orphanage. Now the three of them are traveling the Oregon Trail in a Conestoga wagon. Their luck worsens when they are left behind by their wagon train and when Hannah’s husband, Mr. McMurtry, falls ill. When they are attacked by renegade Sioux, Hannah must fight for her life in the wild Wyoming wilderness.
  
  Flint Creed needs a wife. His brother Ransom is engaged to marry the woman he loves, so Flint needs a distraction to keep him away from his brother’s woman. When he finds the widow McMurtry lost and alone, it almost seems like a Godsend. Not only is she beautiful, she is in need of a home and of protection.
  
  Marrying Flint is a means to an end, but Hannah cannot deny the unmistakable attraction between them. Again and again, Flint proves he is a good man, one she can rely on, if only he had not given his heart to his brother’s wife. Will the agreement between them be enough, or will they both wind up wanting more?
  
  Set against the wild and unforgiving Wyoming territory, this story is an instant classic. Flint and Hannah have an irresistible chemistry, and readers will enjoy the ups and downs of their relationship. It is a must have for those who loved Ms. Johnston’s Bitter Creek Ranch series. Fans will adore this peek into the lives of the Creeds and Blackthornes who started it all.
  
  Kaitlin
  Reviewer for Coffee Time Romance & More
  
• 
  Dorine

  Review also posted at my blog,
  TBR MOUNTAIN RANGE -- come for a visit :)
  
  Hannah volunteers to be the mail-order bride so that the remaining three Wentworth siblings can escape the horrid conditions at the orphanage. Would she have married had she known the consequences of their folly? Determined to survive, will the six Wentworth siblings ever be reunited while they discover their worth as pioneers in early North American history?
  
  Hannah Wentworth finds herself in a situation she never imagined. Her life should have been so much different, but tragedies have befallen her family too many times to keep her from having the will to survive through more. After the Chicago fire took her parents' lives and the only home the six Wentworth children knew, Hannah and her siblings scheme for a way to escape the horrible orphanage where they were placed. Their eldest sister, Miranda, became a mail-order bride and escaped in the night with their two youngest brothers in tow in book one of the MAIL-ORDER BRIDE series. Hannah, along with her twin sister, Hetty, and their youngest sister, Josie, wait to hear from Miranda, hoping she'll send for them to join her in Texas. After months of no word, the three sisters come up with a plan of their own.
  
  Hannah is an engaging heroine. We get to know her as a young woman of seventeen who hasn't borne much responsibility for anyone else because her oldest sister took care of them all. Hannah is thrust into a responsible role when marrying Mr. McMurtry will help her sisters escape the tyranny of the orphanage headmistress-in-charge. Terrorized by the headmistress' beatings for anything and everything, Hannah cannot leave her youngest sister there to bear the brunt of it all, while Hannah and her twin sister, Hetty, could leave on their eighteenth birthday. Hannah doesn't want the responsibility but she takes the risk when she knows becoming a mail-order bride will help all three of them at once.
  
  Next, Hannah is married to a stranger, pregnant, and working hard as part of a wagon train on the way west. She doesn't tell anyone she's pregnant, including her two sisters traveling with her, hoping to find the right moment to approach her distant husband. He barely speaks to her and hasn't touched her since their wedding day, so Hannah can't help feeling more for her unborn child than the man who is the father.
  
  What happens next is more than most of us can imagine, let alone withstand the memories that will eventually surface. Hannah becomes a woman who will continue to make choices in the best interest of others in the days to come. It's that woman who drives the story forward and who you'll hope will finally find happiness against all odds.
  
  Flint Creed finds Hannah near death alone on the prairie and brings her to his home to heal. He's sure that she's the answer to his problems. Women are scarce in the Wyoming Territory and he needs a wife. Since his brother is about to marry the woman of Flint's dreams, Flint needs a way to forget about what he can't have, so finding Hannah seems to be the solution. Until he realizes that Hannah has secrets and memories of a past that have not yet surfaced. Hannah becomes a lot more to handle than Flint ever imagined and the question is...will he be man enough to meet Hannah's needs, as well as her dreams?
  
  The first five chapters of this novel are a fast-paced adventure, and just when you think there isn't much more that can happen to these sisters, something else does and forces them into survival mode. That's what I love most about Joan Johnston's style—her books are an adventure, making you feel as if you're traveling right along with her characters, rooting for their happiness.
  
  WYOMING BRIDE continues with the story that
  TEXAS BRIDE didn't disclose. So, if you haven't read book one yet, you won't have book two spoiled for you, but I highly suggest that you read both books in order because MAIL-ORDER BRIDE is an addictive series. If you're a longtime Joan Johnston fan, the MAIL-ORDER BRIDE series is also connected to Ms. Johnston's other series, so it seems very promising that as this series continues, there will be more references to characters you've loved in the past. I find backtracking through previous books to be enticing as a new fan and have started a collection of Joan Johnston's books to read in the future.
  
  WYOMING BRIDE is a daring journey into the Wyoming Territory. Filled with challenges and brave characters who symbolize North America's history, this engaging romance is sure to win readers' hearts. You also get two romances to follow in this book because Flint's brother is racing right along with Flint in the efforts to please his hopefully soon-to-be wife. The best part is that the journey doesn't end here because we can look forward to Hetty's story in MONTANA BRIDE, and then Josie's story in BLACKTHORNE'S BRIDE. Those who love the pioneering spirit of America's past will enjoy the escapades in the MAIL-ORDER BRIDE series. Fun-loving and irresistible, the Wentworth sisters' habit of finding trouble, then scrambling out of it, makes for some entertaining reading.
  
  Review and book courtesy of
  Romance Junkies.
• 
  Tonya Lucas

  Bitter Creek just keeps getting better. Wyoming Bride was fantastic. I loved getting to see how the Wyoming Creeds started their ranch and loved the storyline in this book.
  Flint and Hannah just stole my heart. Ransom and Emaline were equally entertaining.
  Joan Johnston is just an amazing writer. So glad I still have 2 more books in this Bride series to read and the modern day Bitter Creek is still carrying on. This is definitely one of my all-time favorite series ever.
• 
  Laura Watson

  I think this has been my favorite so far? I don't know, I haven't loved any of the characters so far, but I appreciate that Hannah didn't lie as much as Miranda and Hetty. It was lame how much Flint wanted Emaline for so long, but the story was well done.
  
  I feel like these books could be shorter, but I am looking forward to Josie's story!
• 
  Tin

  Just when I thought Miranda's story was gritty, Joan Johnston presents Hannah's story. Hannah is 17 years old, and she's tired of the abuse she suffers at the Chicago orphanage where they've lived since the Great Chicago Fire killed her parents, and destroyed their father's legacy. Hannah decides to answer a mail-order bride advertisement, married Mr. McMurtry, and on her way to Montana with her new husband and her sisters. But the arduous wagon trail takes its toll on their small party, and Hannah's husband dies of cholera, leaving Hannah pregnant, alone, and lost in the wilds of Wyoming -- until Flint Creed finds her and rescues her.
  
  

  It was time to put her girlhood dreams away. There was no handsome, dashing Prince Charming in her future, only solemn, honest, hardworking Mr. McMurtry. She felt tears well in her eyes and brushed them angrily away, Would she ever stop dreaming and hoping and wishing for something she could never have?
  - p. 22

  
  
  Flint has just suffered a disappointing rejection when the woman he has been diligently courting decides to marry his younger brother instead. Flint still needs a wife to help him as he establishes his cattle ranch in Wyoming, and Hannah's appearance in his life is very convenient.
  
  It's not the best of beginnings, but Hannah and Flint are both willing to give this arrangement a try. Joan Johnston does something different with the second book of her Mail-Order Brides series, incorporating a second love story, between Flint's brother, Ransom, and Emaline -- the two are contrasting relationships: Flint and Hannah are a whirlwind marriage, whereas Ransom and Emaline went through a period of courtship. Despite having the benefit of time, they quickly realize that they still have some issues to work out. It's a wonderful reminder that there's no perfect formula for a relationship -- each one starts, progresses, and ends quite differently from one another.
  
  There is a strange awkwardness with Flint and Ransom, considering they courted the same girl, and, now Ransom and Emaline would be married and be living in the same house as Flint and Hannah. This is what is interesting about this point in history: the very big factor that pragmatism and reality play -- there really isn't very much room for dreams and fantasy, when you are, not only battling other people for your livelihood, but also the harsh landscapes of the Wild West.
  
  At the heart of the relationship problem is the idea of having children. Hannah is already pregnant, and she came from a big family. It was never an issue with her. But, Emaline's mother died of childbirth, and she has no intentions of going through the same ordeal. Then, to set this question against the context of the harsh life in the West, it becomes an even more difficult concern to address, but I thought Joan Johnston was able to weigh out pros and cons in the conversations her characters had with each other.
  
  

  "Oh!" Hannah said. She put her hand to her belly, drawing the cloth down tight, then looked up at Emaline and smiled. "She kicked me."
  
  Emaline couldn't help being intrigued as she watched Hannah's baby grow inside her. If Hannah had figured correctly, she was now a week shy of being seven months pregnant. She was already huge. Enaline was fascinated when she saw Hannah's stomach change shape as the baby moved, showing what appeared to be a bulge from a tiny hand or foot. "May I touch?" she asked.
  - p. 287

  
  
  What is impressive about Wyoming Bride is how distinct the pairs are -- Joan Johnston does a good job of giving an individual voice to her main characters and secondary characters. I usually get confused when there are "too many voices" in a story, but I didn't mind this one at all.
  
  Flint's greater problem had to do with rumors of his cowardice during the war, and him continuing to struggle to find his place in Wyoming. This one was tricky -- it was Flint's word against everybody, and his only ally happens to be his own brother. It becomes such an important issue when Flint confronts Ashley Patton, a cattle baron who has been stealing and rebranding cattle from smaller farms. Flint's honor and credibility are called into question when he makes the accusation.
  
  Wyoming Bride is such a broad, and sweeping, and total experience of the hardships of life in the West, but it also highlights the simple joys that these brave, and intrepid settlers experience as they work to make new lives for themselves.
• 
  Farrah

  This review also appears on my blog at
  http://www.thegoldenruleof666.blogspo...
  
  Before I say anything, I am going to rave about the cover. The man is so freaking gorgeous, I stare at him for a minute every time I see the cover. And he actually looks like the character he is supposed to be, Flint, which really doesn't happen all the time. But, seriously, where do guys that good looking hide?
  
  Now that I've made myself sound weird, let's move on to the actual book. Wyoming Bride is an excellent Western historical romance. I don't always go for Western romances, so the fact that I liked this one says a lot about it. It would have to be very good for me to actually like it. And I definitely did.
  
  Mail order bride is something that is done fairly often, but this one has a little twist, since the original husband died and the love-interest turned out to be someone else. And I rather liked the arrangement.
  
  Hannah was an excellent heroine. She tough, determined, smart, and caring. She survived being out in the wild by herself, so that in itself shows that she's strong. But she's also strong in that she didn't let anyone bully her. For one thing, she doesn't let Flint run right over her. Flint is a man used to ordering people and having them obey, but she refused to be ordered about. And, at one point, she jumps in front of a gun to save someone. Yeah, she's a tough one. I really liked her. She was an admirable heroine.
  
  Flint was less easy to pin down. I adored him, but I got so frustrated with how he put Emaline on a pedestal. Emaline is his brother's wife, but he is infatuated with her. No, this didn't become a drama explosion, but it was the biggest impediment in Flint and Hannah's relationship. He had to let go of his infatuation with Emaline and realize his love for Hannah. But that was really just a minor issue. Even when he though he loved Emaline, he was still really sweet to Hannah, which shows that he's just naturally a nice guy. And afterwards, he proved to be sweet, devoted, protective, and just adorable. He'll get a lot of hearts pumping, especially with the model of him on the front that a totally raved about (seriously, that's the best looking cover model I've ever seen).
  
  Despite the length of the book, the plot moves fast. It never drags. It begins with Hannah meeting her original husband, through to his death, then to when Hannah and Flint first meet. From then, it moves swiftly before ending on a sweet note that leaves a neat opening for the next story, Hettie's, I believe.
  
  Wyoming Bride is an excellent Western historical romance. I would recommend it to anyone who likes a good romance.
  
  5/5
  
  Thanks to Netgalley for a copy!
• 
  Melanie

  I was looking forward to reading the second book in this series ever since I read the first one!
  
  Ms. Joan Johnston’s tales are new to me, but I’ve already tracked down almost all of her back list and hope to read them in between my Regency World.
  
  What originally attracted me to this particular series, and for that matter this author, is the way she develops not just her characters, but the families within those stories. Everything about her books just has that feel of ‘saga’. They’re all connected and just sort of ‘grow’ on you…You just get hooked, and once you read one story, off you go to next and on and on!
  
  This time we have Hannah’s story and as much as I liked her, I was on a war path with her twin, Hatty. Holy Crap! She might have driven me to murder were I her sister! If there was trouble to be had, she was in it to her eyeballs!
  
  ‘Wyoming Bride’ picked up where ‘Texas Bride’ left off and Hannah is doing exactly what her sister did, marries a man just to save herself and her two sisters, from the orphanage.
  
  It was great to watch Hannah become strong and decisive woman. Like I said, character development seems to be one of many talents Ms. Johnson has.
  
  As for our hero, Flint Creed, I thought him a very complex and it was too much fun being in his head, just waiting for him to figure out that the woman he thinks is his ‘soul mate’ is nothing but an infatuation.
  
  And then we have the secondary characters, Ransom and Emaline, which are as well drawn as the first and following them was even more fun!
  
  There were many times I wanted to strangle this idiotic chick and tell Ransom to drop her like a hot potato!
  
  If you’ve never read any of Joan Johnston’s books, here is what you’re missing: great writing, wonderful three-dimensional characters and stories that have an epic feel to them. She excels in bringing her readers to go through sadness to elation within a paragraph! That’s a gift!
  
  Looking forward to Hatty’s story which will be out later this year, ‘Montana Bride’ and then, the one I can hardly contain my excitement for, Josie’s in ‘Blackthorne’s Bride’!
  
  Melanie for b2b
  
  *Book provided by the publisher through NetGalley.
• 
  Christine

  This was a quick, smooth read but ultimately uncompelling and unconvincing. Hannah agrees to marry a man heading west on a wagon train to escape an orphanage with her twin sister and younger sister. She's widowed on the way west, then an Indian attack separates her from her sisters. Flint Creed finds her nearly dead from exposure and nurses her back to health. He decides to marry her because he's in love with the woman who's going to marry his brother and he can't stand the thought of living in a house alone with the two of them.
  
  There were two romances here: Flint and Hannah as well as Flint's brother and his fiance, who announces before they tie the knot that she never wants to have a baby because if she does she will die in childbirth. So no sex. But they can be friends.
  
  The secondary romance annoyed me, partly because I found it improbable and partly because I found the exact same thing improbable in the prequel novel -- Texas Bride. (In that book it was the husband who wouldn't touch his wife because he was afraid he'd kill her.)
  
  I got upset with Hannah for not telling Flint she was pregnant before they got married. I don't think it would have made a difference, but Flint had a right to know.
  
  I wasn't wowed by Flint's adoration of his brother's wife, especially after Flint learned that the woman refused to have sex. You'd think that would seriously dampen a man's ardor, despite his pride. Maybe convince him he'd had a close call. But that thread continued throughout as a bit of (IMHO) false drama.
  
  If I had bought into the underlying conflicts, this probably would have been a very romantic novel. I'm not sure why I didn't. Death in childbirth isn't exactly an uncommon fear even today when it happens so rarely in the industrialized world. And men can and do get stubborn when they get spurned in favor of their little brothers. But it wasn't spot on for me, so it's a three star.
  
  I probably will read the next book in this series when it comes out if for no other reason than I'm curious what happened to the other two girls. I just really, really hope that fear of death in childbirth doesn't come up again.
• 
  Kathy Altman

  After exchanging e-mails with author Joan Johnston in preparation for this post, if someone were to ask me to describe her, I'd use words like "hardworking" and "gracious." But if someone were to ask one of her characters for a description, I'm fairly certain we'd hear words like "scheming" and "bloodthirsty." Of course, we all know that tortured characters make for compelling reads — and Johnston's latest addition to her Bitter Creek series is no exception.
  
  Sickness, starvation, death, ostracism, ruthless cattle rustlers and Indian attacks — Johnston's characters face it all. And not always with grace and poise or even selflessness, which renders the characters that much more authentic, their story that much more absorbing. The book's opening is humorous and heartbreaking and fresh—Hannah is a mail-order bride, but her new husband is not the hero. Hannah is young but never coy, knows what she has to do to help herself and her family survive, yet doesn't hesitate to admit she'd rather be at the receiving end of all that responsibility. Throughout the story she struggles between the practicality her frontier life demands and the youthful, romantic fantasies she can't bring herself to surrender — even at the risk of her own happiness.
  
  Flint is equally flawed and indulges in his own set of fantasies. Despite his growing feelings for Hannah, he can't seem to shake his love for his brother's fiancée. Johnston gives her romantic leads plenty of reason to doubt each other — Hannah wonders if Flint married her only because he can't have the woman he loves, and Flint suspects that Hannah agreed to marry him for no other reason than to give her baby a father. These two definitely do their share of suffering!
  
  Wyoming Bride is both gripping and touching, a smoothly written, well-paced Reconstruction Era romance offering scads of adventure and angst. Complicated, conflicted characters determined to forge lives — and find love — in an unforgiving land make for a remarkable read. Bless that Joan Johnston and her scheming ways!
  
  
• 
  Lover of Romance

  Hannah is a oprhan along with her other siblings, but when her older sister leaves them to marry and takes their two brothers, she and her two sisters are alone. Suffering abuse daily, she takes a risk and marries a Mr. McMurty, a stranger, herself and brings her two sisters with her, knowing it can't get any worse. On their way out west, her husband dies from cholera, and her two sisters end up being kidnapped by indians, leaving her alone in the wilderness, only to be found by a Flint Creed, who offers her marriage. Hannah pregnant and alone, knows she doesn't really have a choice, so she agrees. Flint, has loved his brothers fiancee for quite some time, but now that they are married, he is lost...until he finds Hannah and she is perfect to help him forget the one he really loves, only life is never that simple. Hannah making a new start for herself, starts to fall in love with handsome Flint Creed who has stolen her heart only afraid that because of his love for another woman he may never love her in return...
  
  Wyoming Bride is the second in the Johnstons Mail Order Bride series. I just loved this story and I am so glad I was able to get the ARC for it....since this is probably one of my favorite new series, and its awesome to read some historicals from this author since she usually focuses on contemporary's. Wyoming Bride is a beautiful love story about two people who are in a need of love and someone to hold onto. From first page to last Hannah I greatly loved...she has such strength and courage and you can't help but admire her...Flint on the other hand I had issues with....throughout most of the story he is always comparing Hannah to his brothers wife...and I just felt so much compassion for Hannah and I was totally on her side the whole way...but toward the end I started to like Flint but not love him because of the way he treats Hannah. Overall a great love story with many aspects that made it a enjoyable romance... A STORY TO REMEMBER!!!
• 
  Jae

  An enjoyable read.
  
  Six Wentworth children lost their parents and ended up in an orphan institute. This is the story about Hannah the second sister.
  
  
  
  It started rather unconventional; with the heroine married and the hero was already in love. To. Other. People.
  
  Only after 16% into the book did Hannah and Flint actually met. More like he rescued her after her bandwagon was attacked and her sisters went missing. So as a way of repayment Flint asked her to marry him. He wanted a wife of his own so badly to distract himself from the woman he loved which was his brother's fiancée. And she needed a husband to father her unborn child. A very complicated entanglement, this.
  
  This book was full with drama and adventure like no ordinary romance story. And I loved every single moment of it. Plus I enjoyed the cover very much too. I kept looking at it after reading a few chapters.
  
• 
  Karen

  A western with a bit of everything.
  
  Orphan family split up, 3 Texas mail ordered bride package, 3 Oregon trail marriage of convenience package (story's main focus). Disease, skirmish with reegades & unscrupulous land owners, unrequited love, even showdown in main street which would be funny if not so serious.
  
  Slice of the west, it's hardships and importance of family
• 
  Tina "IRead2Escape"

  Review to come closer to release date....
• 
  May ّمي

  3.5
  
  At the beginning I hated the interruptions of Hannah & Flint story with Emaline & Ransom. Over the course I still disliked the interruption but finally I began to like them.
• 
  Jack Vasen

  This second book of the series picks up an unresolved thread from the first book and tells a complete story but also sets up more loose threads. The book tells you pretty much all you need to know so far but would spoil events from the first book, so I would say it's best to read them in order.
  
  Fairly early on, the three sisters, whose fate is left hanging from the first book, are separated and this book focuses on the oldest of the three, Hannah. It is her mail-order marriage that starts them off on the Oregon trail, but that husband dies fairly early on despite consummating's the marriage. The other two are left with unknown fates after being left in mortal danger.
  
  There is quite a bit that is original in this story, but it eventually falls into that plot device where the husband and wife won't have sex. This book actually has two such couples living in the same ranch house. That plot device is also mixed in with the he/she can't/won't love me plot device in one of the couples. There are some original twists on the well worn devices however.
  
  The stupidity and repetitiveness of the reasons keeping the couples apart either physically or emotionally started to annoy me. For me it slowed things down even though there were plenty of other things going on in the story that kept me pushing forward anxiously as a reader. Most of these had to do with perilous situations outside the two sets of relationships.
  
  As in the first book, there is a climax with plenty of suspense and danger. There is a fair amount of story after the climax, or perhaps I should call it the first climax.
  
  I can't say I like the main characters that much. This results mostly from what I already said about the stupidity keeping each couple apart. Once again, the danger of childbirth in the frontier is stretched way too far. It would have been a worthy plot device if not carried to such an extreme and also repeated after the first book. Flint's obsession with his brother's fiancé diminishes him for me and Hannah also.
  
  There's some good villains. Unfortunately for those who want to be PC, American Indians are treated with the old stereotype of being savages and responsible for all kinds of horrible things. It didn't bother me that much, but for some it will.
  
  Mature themes: sex and violence. There are several mildly explicit sex scenes. There is a child birth scene. There is a lot of killing. There are references to atrocities by American Indians. We are reminded of the orphans mistreatment by Miss Birch, but not in vivid detail like the first book.
  
• 
  ~❤️Minnie❤️~

  What I liked about this book is that it is not your traditional Historical Romance where you have a lady or a debutante trying to either avoid scandal, a man or plain and simple has given up on ever finding a man of her own.
  
  Hannah has married a man that has promised to take her sisters with them so they can leave the awful orphanage they have been leaving in and being mistreated on. Their older sister left with their two little brothers in the first book and they are tired of wondering what happened with their sister and if she'll ever come for them.
  
  On the way to Cheyenne, Wyoming her husband dies of cholera leaving her and her sisters to fend for themselves. After an attack from Sioux Indians, she is separated from her sisters and near death when Flint finds her.
  
  From this point on it a roller coaster of secrets, lies and emotional scars that leave not just this two with a lot of thinking to do but Flint's brother Ransom and his fiance Emaline too. We get this side story that is just the perfect amount of distraction for all the time that goes in between (sometimes months) without letting you feeling like you lost something in the telling.
  
  I will definitively be adding a couple of Ms. Johnston's book to my growing TBR pile.
• 
  Susan Ross

  This book is part of a series. It's okay as a stand alone but I would suggest reading them in sequence.
  
  There are two couples in this book: Flint and Hannah & Emaline and Ransom.
  
  Flint finds Hannah half dead in the Wyoming wilderness. Widowed, pregnant and a victim of an Indian attack on her wagon, Hannah wakes up in a stranger's house with partial amnesia. Flint intends to marry her so he does not have to live alone with his brother Ransom and his soon to be wife, Emaline, who Flint is in love with.
  
  Meanwhile Emaline is terrified of childbirth and wants a celibate marriage with Ransom. That plot was ridiculous.
  
  Then there's the villainous neighbour who is stealing cattle and driving settlers off their land.
  
  Flint's infatuation with Emaline and his consequent behaviour defied belief.
  The most unbelievable example was after the ceremony where Flint and Hannah marry. A woman at the wedding tells Hannah "you're the most beautiful bride I've ever seen."
  Fint's response? And don't forget, he's literally just married Hannah, "No one's as beautiful as Emaline." Really? Flint is supposed to be a nice guy, not a stupid, insensitive asshole.
• 
  Colleen

  I love the way Ms. Johnston weaves her books together! In this novel Hannah weds Flint Creed. Now Miranda and Hannah are not just sisters but sisters-in-law! Ransom Creed brings fresh blood into the mix marrying Emaline Simmons. Life in the Wyoming Territory is hard but I love the way the author's characters are tougher than their obstacles. Henrietta and Josie are 'lost' in this novel but Miranda, true to her word, has the Pinkerton Detective Agency on the job. This novel brings in the Grayhawks and the Holloways, both families from other novels. I was surprised to see Josh Holloway in this novel with his two sons and a mention of their half-Indian mother, Kinyan. The author has truly integrated her novels. The Holloways and their story can be found in the novel Colter's Wife.
  
  I will start Montana Bride today, completing the series with Blackthorne's Bride; then on to the Regency-era Captive Hearts series where I hope to learn oodles about the Blackthorne's in their native country of England!