"a dead-eye hit with laughs and sighs"

The teacher and founder of the Grayson Academy, Melissa Grayson was cursed. She had been born with a perfect figure, creamy skin, and sea-blue eyes. With this physical description her life in the primarily XY chromosome town of Silver Wind caused riots and civil unrest. Melissa is given an ultimatum by the men of the town: marry or be jailed. The latter would cause the end of the school her father started out in the mining town. And she surely did not want to marry one of the locals, including Black Bart, the town drunkard.

Enter Lucky Lawrence, a do-good gambler, escaping from an unhappy man who is out for his blood. Lucky steps off the train and into Silver Wood. Little does he know Melissa has sent for her pen pal to rescue her. She has never seen this man before but he promised to marry her thus saving Grayson Academy.

Melissa sees the tall, dark and unshaven Lucky and presumes he is her James Harold Pickney IV. Lucky sees the opportunity to help out a gorgeous woman whilst being able to hide out under a different name.

Melissa soon realizes her James is not exactly the scholar he had appeared to be through his letters. Although he could charm the scales off a snake, he knows little about 'reading, 'riting, and 'rithmatic. She finally confronts her 'husband' when she catches him teaching the younger students to add and subtract with 'Blackjack 21.' But she finds that no matter who he is, she loves this dark gambler with gun-metal gray eyes.

The only problem arises when the real James Harold Pickney IV arrives and discovers Melissa and Lucky have not been living as brother and sister in their false marriage. If that town finds out, Melissa and her school are in trouble, or worse Lucky may leave her with a broken heart.

This is my first novel by Sandra Chastain but she has included one of the funniest elements in her novel. That element would be hicks and hillbillies. I do love to read their dialogue and wonder why more authors do not center their novels around these colorful characters. The eloquent Melissa is reminiscent of Laura Ingalls from the "Little House on the Prairie"; strong, brave, and lovable. However the absolute best part of the book is the interaction of Lucky Lawrence and James Harold Pickney IV, and their learning to live with and as each other.

THE MAIL ORDER GROOM is a dead-eye hit with laughs and sighs to propel it into the readers heart.

Reviewed by Jennifer Vaughn
Posted July 3, 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?