I like the fact that this book is an easy read. I don't think the language is completely in-tune with the setting/era of the story. "Oh my God" doesn't strike me as a common phrase used and if anything, it would be frowned upon by anyone else who heard a person use it!

I like the chemistry between Sarah and John. However, I don't need the graphic play-by-play of the sex. We know they'll do it. We know they'll enjoy it. If they didn't enjoy each other's company, they wouldn't bother to do the deed at the end of the day. It's that simple.

I wouldn't mind reading more books by Ms. Woolf. She has the chops! I'd just prefer cutting out the sex and enjoying everything else. ( )

Despite being a blond woman with blue eyes, Sarah Johnson--age 25, unwed mother of a 5-years old girl--is no ordinary romance heroine. As a would-be mail-order bride, you might have expected her to be frail and passive. But as soon as this story opens, you realize she is about to break the mold of expectations. Going methodically through the process of evaluating her best options, her predicament becomes clear. With her fiance killed at the battle of Bull Run at 1861, and her aunt's inheritance going to others in the family, she has no means of raising her daughter. Which brings her to interview for her new position: a mail-order bride.

The dialog with the matchmaker, who keeps to herself some of the less appealing facts about the groom, is written in a dynamic, fast-pace and minimalistic manner: just the words uttered, with little or no extra descriptions that may water it down. No fluff! Which suggests one thing to me: the heroine is modeled after the author herself. A no-nonsense gal. At least until the plot starts to thicken, and emotions begin to boil...

Armed with her trunks and her cook's recipes, which she hopes to publish one day, Sarah takes the train to arrive at Colorado Territory to wed John Atwood. At first blush she is surprised to find that he is a tall, dark-haired man with vivid green eyes, with good income (he raises cattle for a living.) Problem is, his daughter has not spoken a word for a couple of years, because during a bank robbery, she witnessed the murder of her mother.

Following brief wedding ceremony, the gently hinted signs of attraction in the couple blossom into love. I bet that you--like me--would root for the coming together of these two fragmented sets of troubled lives--Sarah, John, her daughter and his--and for the creation of a family, where the needs of each one are answered by the other. What a rocky journey it is for them to become whole, and how much fun it is to find out that it is more than the sum of its parts..

Five stars. ( )

Western Historical. Matchmaker 1. Mailorder bride/ unwed mother Sarah and single father John. Poor ( )