Beneath Montana's Sky is a prequel that takes place in 1882-83 - four years before The Mail-Order Brides of the West series and eleven years before Wild Montana Sky. I haven't read those books yet, but after enjoying Beneath Montana's Sky, I'm sure I'll be reading them soon.
Book Beginnings on Friday:
Sweetwater Springs, Montana Territory
October, 1882
John Carter stood in the cemetery in front of the three graves holding the caskets of the Sanders' family--his foreman and best friend, Andrew, his wife Dora, and their young daughter Marcy. Beside John, thirteen-year-old Nick Sanders only stared at the ground.
With his face ghost white, so the freckles on his nose stood out, and his blue-green eyes blank--the boy seemed almost too shocked and grief-stricken to comprehend what had happened two days earlier.
The Friday 56:
"I'm not a woman who's discontented by nature. I can make the best of things. And we can make improvements, can we not?"
FREE on Amazon
Genre: Historical Romance
Book Length: 125 Pages
Amazon Link: Beneath Montana's Sky
Author Website: Debra Holland
Synopsis (from Goodreads):
Plain and timid, debutante Pamela Burke-Smythe is a wallflower at the high society Boston balls she attends, overlooked by possible suitors. One-by-one, her friends become engaged, and Pamela resigns herself to life as a spinster.
When rancher John Carter becomes guardian to his orphaned godson, Nick, nothing he does seems to help the grieving, angry boy. At his wit’s end, he believes that a wife might help draw Nick out, and lonely himself, John’s been thinking along the matrimonial lines for a while anyway. But small Sweetwater Springs, Montana, has no suitable candidates. He decides to visit his great-aunt Hester in Boston and bring back a wife who is kind and compassionate, can be a mother figure to Nick, and who can adapt to the hard life on the ranch.
Hester, who’s also Pamela’s godmother, plays matchmaker for the two. John responds to Pamela’s kind heart and believes he’s found the ideal woman. But Pamela never thought to marry a stranger and leave Boston, and her family and friends are against the idea. She musters all her meager courage to defy her loved ones and seize her only chance at marriage.
After a whirlwind courtship, the couple marries and travels west. Pamela discovers a run-down ranch house, a bunch of unruly cowboys, a sullen boy, and a different way of life. Can their new marriage survive the challenge?
Set in 1883, Beneath Montana's Sky, is a prequel to New York Times Bestselling author Debra Holland's Mail-Order Brides of the West Series and Montana Sky Series.
