GRR Reviews A Cheyenne Christmas by Caroline Lee

More sweetness than heat, A Cheyenne Christmas is basically a historical Western romance w/o the mail order bride trope, even though the circumstances are similar enough.

Ash Barker and his "brother" are in trouble. Ash just busted his arm trying to tame a nasty mustang, and that's their livelihood... taming and selling horses on the ranch in the outskirts of Cheyenne Wyoming in the late 1800's. With just one arm, he can't do all the stuff his household needed to live through the Winter... He needed help... fast. Molly Murray helped her parents ran a bakery, but that went up in smoke in the Great Chicago Fire, including papa. And that left two sisters she needed to care for; one's deaf, and the other's barely school age. Nobody wanted to hire an unmarried baker in Chicago. And to her dismay, she found that same was true even out West. Desperate for any job, as her money is also running out, she accepted Ash's offer of "housekeeping" job, provided she can bring over her two sisters. Ash is very big, and kinda scary... until he smiled. Molly... enjoyed being around this gentle giant, but is that love?

Ah, the circumstances forcing them together, no matter how her "reputation" will be ruined, an unmarried girl living with a single man, blah blah blah. But what matters is their affection for each other. It's the little details in the character polish that raised the novel from mediocrity.

Category: Historical Western

Primary Plot: Two people desperate for a solution to their circumstances found each other; can they love each other too?

Tropes: forced proximity, hurt/comfort, hot for boss, different worlds

Overall Rating:  4/5