Elsie wants vengeance for her father. Her neighbors and rivals, the Xanders, drove her father to his death and then had the guts to show up at his funeral. Eighteen year old Elsie can't be having that, so she gets together with her ranch hands and concocts a plan to get back at the Xanders and make her ranch more profitable at the same time. After a nearly a year, her ranch hands are trying to get her to stop, and the sheriff is suspicious.

Wyatt is a cowboy who has hurt his arm and gotten fired from his job, and shafted by his old boss. He decides that he wants to change his profession and be a lawman. When he rides into Virgina City, he approaches the sheriff and asks for a job. The sheriff tells him to go to Elsie's ranch and try to pin down what's going on.

Elsie has decided that she needs a strong husband to help her, so she has followed in her friends' footsteps and written an ad for a mail order groom. Will that groom be the strong man she is looking for or is what she wants right under her nose?

I love the twist on mail order bride stories with this series. I think it's an excellent way to take control of your own destiny and find what you are looking for if what you want isn't right there.

Elsie is one tough cookie and she works as hard as her ranch hands on making her ranch successful. However, that doesn't mean she doesn't have a hear too, and the way that she cares for Wyatt shows her generous side. Wyatt is the kind of hero pretty much every young woman dreams of at some point in her life.

I really enjoyed this story, as I have everything else that Amelia Smarts has written.

I got an ARC and you got my honest and voluntary review. ( )