Gentry Is On Sale by Caroline Clemmons

 

Gentry and the Mail Order Bride

Book 1 of the Texas Hill Country Mail Order Bride Series

by Caroline Clemmons

Buy Link

In Kindle Unlimited

The cold days of winter are a good time to curl up and read a book.  Gentry, the first book in my Texas Hill Country Mail Order Bride Series, is on sale this weekend for just $0.99.  Gentry and the other five books in the series are sweet romances set in the time after the Civil War.  Families are trying to find each other after the horrors of war destroyed homes and lives.  Thoughts turn toward marrying and starting a family.  Many people set out for Texas.  Some of them end up in Harrington Springs.

Gentry Blurb:

Nothing much riles Gentry McRae. He works hard on the ranch he co-owns with his best friend, and is content with his life. He’s proud of all they’ve accomplished in the ten years since the war. That is, until his partner dies and leaves his half of the ranch to his mail-order bride—and wills the bride to Gentry. “Now just a doggone minute, I don’t plan to marry for years!” But, a single woman can’t reside on a ranch where four men live without ruining her reputation. What’s a good man to do, except marry the woman when she arrives?

Heidi Roth has been spurned for being too plainspoken and too tall. In addition, her sister constantly makes fun of her for those reasons. That’s why—with many doubts—she’s willing to travel for months from Bavaria to Texas to marry a man who once lived in her town. When she arrives, she learns her prospective groom is dead, but left her his share of a ranch. She has serious doubts, but agrees to wed Gentry to protect her reputation. Sure enough, from the next day, one event after the other happens to complicate her life—yet she is happy. Until she sees the will and learns they are not equal partners as Gentry had led her to believe.

Sometimes the perfect match is the one you didn’t expect.

Gentry On Sale by Caroline Clemmons

 

Gentry and the Mail Order Bride:

Texas Hill Country Mail Order Brides 1

by Caroline Clemmons

Amazon Buy Link

Happy New Year!  Gentry is the first book from my Texas Hill Country Mail Order Brides series.  There are currently six books in the series.  Since so many of you have new ereaders, I put Gentry on sale this weekend for only 99 cents.  The whole series is also in Kindle Unlimited.

Book Blurb:

Nothing much riles Gentry McRae. He works hard on the ranch he co-owns with his best friend, and is content with his life. He’s proud of all they’ve accomplished in the ten years since the war. That is, until his partner dies and leaves his half of the ranch to his mail-order bride—and wills the bride to Gentry. “Now just a doggone minute, I don’t plan to marry for years!” But, a single woman can’t reside on a ranch where four men live without ruining her reputation. What’s a good man to do, except marry the woman when she arrives?

Heidi Roth has been spurned for being too plainspoken and too tall. In addition, her sister constantly makes fun of her for those reasons. That’s why—with many doubts—she’s willing to travel for months from Bavaria to Texas to marry a man who once lived in her town. When she arrives, she learns her prospective groom is dead, but left her his share of a ranch. She has serious doubts, but agrees to wed Gentry to protect her reputation. Sure enough, from the next day, one event after the other happens to complicate her life—yet she is happy. Until she sees the will and learns they are not equal partners as Gentry had led her to believe.

Sometimes the perfect match is the one you didn’t expect.

https://www.amazon.com/Gentry-Texas-Country-Order-Brides-ebook/dp/B0B6YN6QHK

Excerpt:

Dietrichsburg, Bavaria, Germany, April 7, 1875

 Heidi Roth turned to face her mother. She longed to shout, but she kept her voice respectful. “Mama, why do you keep consulting the matchmaker for me? She’s tried twice and the men she found didn’t want me.” 

She turned back to concentrate on her dough and hide the pain the reminder created—like a stab to her heart. “I’m too tall or too old or they don’t want a wife who speaks her mind instead of letting them make all the decisions—or all of those.” 

She turned to face her mother, pleading for understanding, “Oh, Mama, do you not realize how humiliating that is? Please accept that there is no one for me.” She suspected her mother would continue her campaign.

Her mother crossed her arms, a sure sign she was not going to change her mind. “There’s a lid for every pot, Adelheid.” 

Just as Heidi had suspected, her mother was relentless.

Mama shook a finger at her. “You must go see Mrs. Heinz today. She assures me she has the perfect match for you.”

Although Heidi did not plan to consider consulting the matchmaker, she knew Mama would not give up. “I will think about it.” That should stall Mama for now. 

BUILDING A SERIES

 By Caroline Clemmons

Readers often ask me where I get my ideas. The answer is, ideas are the easy part of writing. They pop into my head several times a day. A memory, a news story, or a bit of conversation may spark a kernel for a story.

For instance, the idea for my current Texas Hill Country Mail Order Brides Series came as the result of a photo I came across when searching for a different one. The one I found was from a trip our family took many years ago to the Mayan Dude Ranch near Bandera, Texas. That is in the southern Hill Country, near the Medina River. The experience delighted our daughters and me. Hero was not as enthusiastic, but he was a good sport. (By the way, I'll never choose such a long series name again.)

The photo reminded me how much we love spending time in the Hill Country, and the several times we have included that area on vacations. Unfortunately, the photos have faded too much to be used here. They were processed at a place that used a defective process. Darling Daughter 2 and I even drove through the area on our way home from a conference in San Antonio. Well, it wasn’t officially on our way, but a delightful detour. To us, everything interesting is “on our way.”

I enjoy reading and writing mail order bride stories. I have read numerous books in which true stories of actual mail order brides are related. Chris Enss covered several of particular interest in HEARTS WEST. Some stories were happy while others were tragic. Of course, those I write all have a happy ending!

The photo of our family’s experience at Mayan Dude Ranch led me to the what if several the bachelors of a small town each wound up married to a mail order bride? I invented the small town of Harrigan Springs, county seat of fictional Harrigan County. The town and county name came to me when I was humming the song from an old children’s cartoon, “H-A-double R-I GAN spells Harrigan.” I’m sure that seems odd to those who are not authors, but I’m being honest.

Medina River near dude ranch

Once I had the location, I needed to choose the bachelors and their names and occupations. I try not to duplicate main character names. I chose Gentry, Jesse, Levi, Sidney, Keith, Isaac, and Edmund. After I released Gentry, so many readers wanted a story about Gentry’s younger brother, Quinn, that I added him to the series and wrote his book as book 3 in the series. Then, I had to assign each hero a profession.

Next, is the heroines. Each heroine must present a challenge to the hero. At the same time, she must be different than those I’ve chosen for other stories. I outlined the series and came up with a list of heroines I felt would work. Since only three of the books have been released, I suppose we’ll see how readers like them. Heidi Roth from Bavaria marries rancher Gentry McRae, Rosalin from Washington D.C. marries Sheriff Jesse Cameron, and Priscilla Bradford from Boston marries rancher/gambler Quinn McRae. Next will be Maeve Kelly from Ireland via New York, who marries blacksmith and entrepreneur Levi Iverson. That book will be released at the end of March.

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Books 1-3 of the series

I hope you are reading the Texas Hill Country Mail Order Bride Series. If not, you can find them and my other books at my Amazon Author Page https://amazon.com/Caroline-Clemmons/e/B001K8CXZ6/  Each is available in e-book, print, and is enrolled in Kindle Unlimited.

Keep reading and stay safe!