"Entertaining Americana romance"

In 1888 Silverwind, Colorado, the town's citizens are tired of males fighting over beautiful schoolteacher Melissa Grayson. The latest melee occurs as people go to church resulting in the mayor's son being shot by a ricocheting bullet that hit the church bell first. The townsfolk inform Melissa she either marry someone immediately or go to jail for attempted murder since she fired the shot that accidentally hit the lad. Desperate to continue running her deceased father's academy and to avoid jail or marriage to the locals, she sends a telegram to her telegraph pal sickly James Pickney asking if he would marry her though they never met. James accepts this chance for the adventure he always was too ill to try.

In Santa Fe, gambler Lucky Lawrence rescues Louisa Hidalgo from nasty Cerqueda, but by doing so he has made himself a deadly persistent enemy. Lucky needs to hide until his foe forgets him so when he is mistaken for James he accepts the role and marries Melissa, rationalizing his deception as assisting a damsel in distress. Soon a comedy of errors filled with love occurs even as Cerqueda plans to correct his failure.

THE MAIL ORDER GROOM is an entertaining Americana romance that wildly westernizes Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors. The characters with their distinct personalities make the story line as readers appreciate the deep cast that stars three sets of couples though much of the plot focuses on the real Lucky-Melissa. Sandra Chastain provides an engaging novel so that those lucky enough to read the novel will recognize the author's talent.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted June 1, 2002

Summary

Stunning Melissa Grayson, a veritable Helen of Troy in the Wild West, will do anything to satisfy her one burning passion--teaching art and poetry to the children at Grayson Academy, the private school left to her by her beloved father. But it isn't easy when every trip she makes into town drives the unmarried men into a frenzy of fisticuffs in their attempts to win her hand. Exasperated by the civil unrest caused by Melissa's beauty, the local clergy and sheriff finally give her an ultimatum: marriage or jail, the latter of which would surely mean the end of her school. Prepared to make any sacrifice for her students, Melissa writes her pen pal in New York, James Harold Pickney IV, a sickly, sensitive scholar. Together they agree to forge a platonic marriage whose real commitment will be to the cause of education. Plainspoken Passion . . . When he's not hightailing it from one of his many misadventures, gambling man Lucky Lawrence has a habit of rescuing damsels in distress--sometimes from himself. But this time he's the one who needs rescuing, as a murderously sore loser has a score to settle with him--and expects him to pay with his life. Even Lucky wouldn't have bet that this latest escapade would lead him to be mistaken for a bookish Harvard boy--and land him the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. Nor did Melissa Grayson expect her asthmatic pen pal to be so ruggedly handsome, with such broad shoulders and teasing eyes. Might she discover a passion she as yet has only read about? And what of ailing James Pickney, en route to his bride-to-be? Will either groom survive to stake his claim, or will Melissa be a widow before she's a wife?