A Wyoming Summer: Timeless Western Collection (Book 4), by Carla Kelly, Christine Sterling, and Heather B. Moore

From the desk of Sophia Rose:

An orphan, a widow, and a gentlewoman find adventure and meet their match in Wyoming’s Old West.

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Can true love survive the changing seasons?

“Ellen Found,” by Carla Kelly

Set in location of Old Faithful Inn, 1903-4. Working in a discouraging cafe, Ellen escapes an awful situation in rough and tumble Butte, Montana, and goes to work as second in command to a wary cook in the shell that will become Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone Park. She meets Charles Penrose, head carpenter on the massive project of Old Faithful Inn, which is being finished in a harsh Wyoming winter. Will it really open June 1, 1904? Can Ellen start to trust the other workers? What will she learn about the other employees? And Charles. He’s a widower with a young daughter there, too. Like Ellen, he wants more.

“The Widow of Daybreak,” by Christine Sterling

Doris Whistler is learning how to survive in a town taken over by outlaws. When the leader of an infamous gang murders her husband, her choices are to tuck tail and run, or stand her ground and make Daybreak as promising as its name. It proves to be a difficult task with the good citizens in fear of the corrupt mayor and godlessness that abounds. What she doesn’t expect is the support of a traveling lawman who believes in her and the tiny town she loves so much.

“May I Kiss the Bride?,” by Heather B. Moore

Viola Delany is not happy about being sent to the middle-of-nowhere, small town Wyoming. Yes, it will be good to let the gossips find something else to talk about other than her failed engagement. And yes, it will be nice to spend the summer with her Aunt Beth. But as Viola sits on the train heading for Wyoming, wondering how she’ll ever occupy her time in such a small town, none other than a real life cowboy sits across the way. She can’t help but take peeks at him, noting that the condition of his unpolished black boots and scuffed rawhide jacket seem to be authentic . . . All right, so he might be tall, dark-haired, and handsome if a woman doesn’t mind green eyes and a dangerous-looking scar, but this man certainly has nothing to do with her. Besides she’ll never see him again. What are the chances he’s traveling to the same middle-of-nowhere small town?

MY THOUGHTS

Roaming Wyoming

Three writers carried me back to the early years of the twentieth century for three very different tales set in rugged Wyoming and featuring women who found what they were looking for when they bravely bucked expectations.

I’ve been to Wyoming a few times and was privileged to visit Yellowstone and settings not unlike those described in all three stories so my mind had no difficulty conjuring up these places in the nostalgic yesteryear and appreciating the western romantic adventures presented in A Wyoming Summer.

Dawning Days of Yellowstone

Carla Kelly showed her historian and writing chops when she set her tale against the backdrop of the building of the Yellowstone Inn and National Park. I felt I was right there while the crew worked and the dangers they faced bringing this bit of civilized tourism to the wilderness even while she wrote a fascinating heroine’s coming into her own and finding love and family with a widower and his daughter.

Clearing Out a Nest of Vipers

Christine Sterling was new to me, but I will be hunting down more of her work after the exciting yet touching way she wrote her inspirational story of a widow who is grieving and harried by the outlaw her killed her husband, but chooses to fight him rather than give into his demands. Her inner strength shines even when she gets aid from a man who stands beside her and doesn’t treat her like a frivolous, helpless female while they clean up the town together.

A Fateful Journey

Heather B. Moore’s heroine is a young, sheltered city girl at the beginning, but discovers her own strength of will when she goes through an adventure, works hard for a living, and finds friendship and more with a widower lawman. She faces duty to parental expectation vs. her dream to pursue her own career path and maybe have an understanding man accept her as she is.

Deeply Satisfying Reads

There is fabulous and fast-paced western action in all these and growth of character and relationships. I thought Carla Kelly did the best of fitting a fully developed tale inside the novella page count, so the pacing felt right. They were all deeply satisfying reads with sensational Wyoming western backdrops in a nice variety of situations.

4 out of 5 Stars

BOOK INFORMATION

A Wyoming Summer, Timeless Western Collection (Book 4), by Carla Kelly, Christine Sterling, and Heather B. Moore
Mirror Press (June 20, 2023)
Trade paperback, eBook, & audiobook (321) pages
ISBN: 978-1952611322
Genre: Historical Romance, Western Romance, Inspirational Fiction

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