Secret Baby Dilemma

Series · 11 books · 2021

By Elissa Strati, Margaret Tanner, Jennifer Branson, and more

Books in series

Mail Order Jewel

2021

On her way to become a mail order bride, Jewel Simmons suddenly has a five-month-old baby foisted upon her. She has little choice but to take charge of her, otherwise the sheriff will deliver the child to a nearby orphanage. Adam Harrigan anxiously awaits his mail order bride. Ordering such a person goes against the grain, but he was becoming desperate. After all, at thirty years old, he couldn’t wait much longer to produce an heir. When the stagecoach finally arrives, he is aghast. How dare she turn up with another man’s child? Will these two sort out their differences? And if Adam allows her to stay, can they ever find their happily ever after ending? Author's Promise: This is a heartwarming historical novella with a happily ever after ending and no cliffhangers. It is a clean and wholesome story with nothing more than hugs, kisses, and holding hands.

Mail Order Amelia

2021

Stand Alone story Escaping from a mob of enraged townsfolk, recently widowed Amelia Crane and her baby barely make it out of town. Granted temporary sanctuary by a kindly old lady, Amelia has no option but to become a Mail Order Bride. Lonely rancher, Cole Hutton writes away for a Mail Order Bride. He has specific requirements that he wants in a wife. Amelia has none of them, and she also has a baby he didn’t know about. Had his intended bride deliberately deceived him? Or had fate stepped in to give him the happily ever after ending they both craved?

Mail Order Melissande

2021

A brooding war hero who considers himself too damaged to be seen in public, a lovely impoverished debutante with a secret that causes her beau to abandon her, and the series of mail-order bride contract omissions that bring them to the altar… An only son, Captain Drake Blackstone must bear a child to carry on his family’s hard-fought legacy—a nearly impossible task for a man with disfiguring wounds that have rendered him a recluse since the war. When his aging grandfather recommends advertising for a mail-order bride, Drake ultimately decides to leave out the details of his beastly appearance. Melissande Rose is furious with herself for believing the most eligible bachelor in town ever intended to marry her. After an elopement that her affiancéd later claims is not legal and binding, he leaves her high and dry with a babe on the way. The only thing standing between her and complete ruin is a dreamy-sounding advert for a mail-order bride—a contract she won’t stand a chance of securing, unless she hides her scandalous secret a few days longer. A sweet, beauty and the beast, mail-order bride romance! More sweet mail-order bride stories by Jo: WIDOWS, BRIDES, AND SECRET BABIES Mail Order Mallory Mail Order Isabella ANGEL CREEK CHRISTMAS BRIDES Elizabeth Grace MAIL ORDER BRIDES RESCUE SERIES Hot-Tempered Hannah Cold-Feet Callie Fiery Felicity Misunderstood Meg Dare-Devil Daisy Outrageous Olivia Jinglebell Jane Absentminded Amelia Bookish Belinda Tenacious Trudy Meddlesome Madge Mismatched MaryAnne MAIL ORDER BRIDES OF CHRISTMAS MOUNTAIN Bride for the Innkeeper

Mail Order Nancy

2021

Rose McKenna’s beau, Stephen Youngblood “Sy” Fenton, has headed west to be a farmer. Having laid claim to some fertile ground and begun building a house, he has written to Rose, inviting her to join him. Nancy McKenna White is a new bride whose husband, Joshua, has caught gold fever. Josh agrees that Apple Valley, Texas, is close enough to their line of travel to make a detour to bring Rose to her fiancé and enjoy the wedding festivities. Then tragedy strikes; only one person gets off the train in Apple Valley.

Mail Order Martina

2021

Neither of them are marriage material—but fate decrees otherwise. A deathbed promise and a land-hungry neighbor are enough for Will to cope with after getting out of jail for a crime he didn’t commit, never mind a tomboy bride with a toddler. He thought women were sweet and gentle creatures, but Martina can outride and outshoot anyone Will knows and has no interest in the role of a traditional wife. After their father dies, Martina and her young half-brother are displaced, so Martina travels west to make a new life for them. She didn’t count on her new husband being an ex-con whose ranch is under attack. Especially as Will believes a woman’s place is in the home, while Martina insists her place is next to him. When their uneasy truce is threatened, Martina puts her skills to the test and her love on the line. Will it be enough?

Mail Order Tamsyn

2021

Tamsyn Glasson has a secret. Hopefully, the man who invited her west will marry her before he discovers it. Otherwise, where will she go? On the run for almost nine months, Tamsyn agrees to marry a rancher in Montana. He wants a cook, something that causes her to believe that the marriage will be a business agreement. For Deke Collingwood, the marriage is more about the future than business. He is creating a ranching empire, and this woman will play a key role in providing the heir for it. Not that he expected the first baby to arrive only days after she arrives. Will the tough rancher summon up enough tenderness to accept the secret baby and also woo a wife who fears men?

Mail Order Blythe

2021

Blythe Greenly works as a maid for the Stapletons, a prominent Chicago family until the oldest son returns home from the university and takes ungentlemanly notice of her. In spite of her attempts to avoid him, more than once, he manages to trap her. Because she knows her employer, who dotes on her son, will not support her cause against his best interests, she knows she has to get away. Blythe answers a matrimonial advertisement and begins corresponding with several prospects who are willing to consider a widow. However, when she tells her first two choices she is carrying a child, they drop out. She keeps her baby a secret from her last hope for a husband, a U.S. Army sergeant stationed at Fort Fred Steele in Wyoming. Complications delay her marriage to a man who wants more than a loving companion who will give him a family. Eli Mitchell is a science instructor at the University of Iowa. His mother, who has been living with him, is intent on him responding to two letters from carefully-vetted women for Eli to consider so he might choose a wife suitable for a man in his position. However, as an amateur astronomer, he chooses to set matrimonial pursuits aside the summer of 1878 to spend his summer holiday with two fellow teachers traveling to Rawlins, Wyoming Territory. There they plan to view the total solar eclipse on July 29th. They will spend several weeks afterward exploring, hunting, and fishing. However, Eli, who has never been a big fan of dust and dirt, keeps finding excuses to return to the hotel in Rawlins so he can take a bath and change into clean clothes. Or is it the pretty maid waiting for her soldier fiancé who draws him there?

Mail Order Madeline

2021

An orphaned mail order bride determined to keep a promise to a dying friend, an unwilling groom with a prickly disposition, and a secret baby that complicates the already precarious situation. Madeline Platt grew up in an orphanage, so when she becomes an adult, she’s forced to find a way to provide for herself. She answers a mail order bride advert, hoping she can start a new life out West. Days before she is set to leave, her best friend from the orphanage becomes sick. On her deathbed, she requests that Madeline take care of her one-year-old daughter. Madeline has no choice but to honor the wish, knowing what awful fate would await the child if she’s given over to the orphanage. Brian Thornhill doesn’t want a wife, but his father decided it was high time he settle down if he wants to take over the family farm. When his father reveals he placed a mail order advert for him, Brian is dismayed to find out a bride is on the way to marry him. He’s completely dumbfounded when she steps off the train with a small child by her side. Can Madeline find a way to love the thorny Brian? Can Brian open his heart to his new wife and stepdaughter? And will they be able to find a way to make their instant family work?

#10

Mail Order Blaze

Secret Baby Dilemma Book 10

2021

She is desperate to save a boy… He questions his mail-order bride’s past… An evil man threatens their survival. Bernadette “Blaze” Cook rescues her nephew after her brother-in-law murders her sister in a drunken rage. While the killer is in jail, Blaze takes her nephew with her when she answers an ad in the Grooms Gazette. As further precaution, she doesn’t tell anyone where she’s going. She hopes to disappear and keep her nephew safe. Andrew “Drew” Wagner didn’t expect his bride to have a toddler but he’s willing to accept the boy. He is suspicious of her story. If the child is hers, why not admit it? As his fondness for her grows, the question becomes less and less important but won’t rest. Is his wife here to stay or is she planning to take off with some of his cash? When the nephew’s father breaks out of prison, he’s able to trace Blaze. She and Drew will need all their resources to overcome the killer’s try for revenge. Will their new found love survive as well?

#11

Mail Order Emma

2021

Emma Wainwright didn’t believe in love. Love was a matter of superfluous chemical reactions within the body that certain environmental influences exacerbated—or so her former scientist husband claimed. Until those outside influences, resulted in a chain reaction of unexpected and epic proportions, toppling her world. Now alone, penniless, and undeniably pregnant, the bookish bluestocking sets out to tackle her most fascinating experiment of all—dealing with her new husband, William. William ‘Willie’ Thomas barely understood the language his new bride was speaking, as she stood before him, spouting out all these fancy words that were even mightier than her outstretched belly. He comprehended now what she’d meant in her letter, claiming she was ‘incubating’ and ‘expanding’—but why couldn’t she just spit out the truth? The new teacher in town, his bride, was extremely pregnant! Can William’s prized brutish strength in the silver mines of Nevada even compare to the knowledge his wife kept spouting everywhere? Could two opposites come together despite their differences, finding a common ground between them? Will they be able to grow as a couple during the most obvious, impending, glorious changes coming soon within their lives?

#12

Mail Order Kaitlyn

2021

Kaitlyn Ashton is leaving on the morning train to become the mail order bride of Russ Kensley, a North Dakota farmer, when a friend from the past arrives, begging her to take her illegitimate eight-month-old baby boy and give him a normal life. Fearing for the child’s safety, Kaitlyn agrees, though she doesn’t have time to notify Russ. When she arrives with the baby, Russ is surprised but welcomes them both. Then on a trip to buy provisions, Kaitlyn discovers the real reason her friend had to give up the baby, and when the terrible secret is revealed, she’ll lose both Russ and the baby—and possibly her life.

Authors

Margaret Tanner is an award winning, best selling author. As well as writing historical novels set in frontier Australia she has discovered a love for writing Western Romance. Her novella, Edwina of Connecticut is one of the 50 novels in the American Mail Order Bride series. Christmas Cowboy is in the Western Christmas Anthology, Silver Belles And Stetsons. . She has had numerous short stories published over the years, but writing Historical romance novels is her passion. Her favourite historical period is the 1st World War. Not only has she painstakingly researched this era, but was fortunate enough to make a poignant pilgrimage to the battlefields of Gallipoli (in Turkey), France and Belgium. She is married with three grown up sons, and two gorgeous grand-daughters. Margaret lives in Australia. She has recently retired from work, and hopes to concentrate on her writing.

Ginny Sterling is an avid romance writer. She lives to tell sweet, inspirational, tender tales that tug at the heart, leaving the reader smiling, laughing, or crying. She favors writing contemporary romance books - including FLYBOYS, Healing Hearts, Flirt’s Battalion, and More. October 2023 will deliver TWO book releases! • Remember Moments – Healing Hearts Sweet Romance Series • Forever Flippant – Flyboys Romance Series Each book written is sure to be an adventure, bringing laughter and love to your heart! https://linktr.ee/ginny\_sterling?subs...

Jo Grafford

Author · 50 books

Jo is an Amazon bestselling author of sweet Christian romance full of faith, love, family drama, and a few Texas-sized detours into humor. She loves to visit with readers in her Cuppa Jo Readers group on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/Cuppa.... To join her New Release Email List, visit https://www.JoGrafford.com. Jo also writes sweet historical romance as Jovie Grace.

Caroline Clemmons

Author · 43 books

Through a crazy twist of fate, Caroline Clemmons was not born on a Texas ranch. To make up for this tragic error, she writes about handsome cowboys, feisty ranch women, and scheming villains in a small office her family calls her pink cave. She and her Hero live in North Central Texas cowboy country where they ride herd on their rescued cats and dogs. The books she creates there have made her an Amazon bestselling author and won several awards. Find her on her blog, website, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Google+, and Pinterest. Click on her Amazon Author Page for a complete list of her books and follow her there. Follow her on BookBub. Subscribe to Caroline’s newsletter at www.carolineclemmons.com to receive a FREE novella of HAPPY IS THE BRIDE, a humorous historical wedding disaster that ends happily—but you knew it would, didn’t you? She loves to hear from readers

Being a writer can be... interesting. Walking down the street and watching people go about their day-to-day life, but thinking strange, even dangerous things. I still clearly remember the day I stood at the traffic lights in downtown Melbourne. There she was, sitting in her car, waiting for the lights to change green. Tapping her fingers impatiently. Something inside my head went off. Kaboom! An idea formed, and became the beginning of a novel. Instead of sitting patiently at the lights, she was nervous, extremely anxious as she was being pursued by killers. The next thing she knew, an angry, crazy man was slamming her windscreen with a sledgehammer and she was running for her life. Yes, the life of a writer is quite unique.

Kathleen Lawless

Author · 23 books

Kathleen Lawless blames a misspent youth watching Rawhide, Maverick and Bonanza for her fascination with cowboys, which doesn’t stop her from creating a wide variety of interests and occupations for her many alpha male heroes. Her hero, Steele, in HER UNDERCOVER COWBOY, is a modern-day cowboy, so when she was wooed by a man called Steel—while he’s not a cowboy, he is an alpha male and her forever hero. Which is why all of her stories end Happily Ever After. Not that she can ever stick to just one genre. So many stories to tell—never enough time. With over 30 published novels to her credit, she enjoys pushing the boundaries of traditional romance into historical romance, romantic suspense, women’s fiction and stories for young adults. Sign up for Kathleen’s VIP Reader Group to receive a free book, updates, special giveaways and fan-priced offers. http://eepurl.com/bV0sb1

Zina Abbott

Author · 17 books

Zina Abbott is the pen name used by Robyn Echols for her historical novels. Her novel, Family Secrets, was published by Fire Star Press in October 2014 and her novelette, A Christmas Promise, was published by Prairie Rose Publications in November 2014. The first two novellas in the Eastern Sierra Brides 1884 series, Big Meadows Valentine and A Resurrected Heart, are now available. The author currently lives with her husband in California near the “Gateway to Yosemite.” She enjoys family history and any kind of history. When she is not piecing together novel plots, she pieces together quilt blocks.