The Promise Bride by Gina Welborn, Becca Whitham

She enjoys her work but her father needs a healthier environment for his lungs and her brother is hanging out with bad boys.  She's twenty-one.  She decides to become a mail order bride.  She's real excited about making a new start in Montana.  When she takes her brother and sister with her on the train (her father will be joining her later), she never expected the Sheriff to meet her at the train depot.  Not only that, he wants her to go back!

Kensington Books and Net Galley let me read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published August 29th.  

Emilia is NOT going back.  When she finds out her husband she married by proxy is dead and he has debts, she doesn't give up hope.  She finalizes the marriage (becoming a widow) and barters with the merchants.  She ends up working a lot but that's OK with her.  She did that at home, too.  Her disappointments aren't over, though.

The ranch and the cabin her potential husband told her about were not at all what she expected.  He said he had a two story cabin.  He had a small cabin with a loft.  She has chickens, cows, a pig and more to feed and take care of and she has only what she could find at the library to help her.  Luckily one of the neighbors is helping.

The Sheriff tries to ignore her but he also is trying to protect her and that backfires on him.  She can take care of herself!  Eventually, though, they realize the attraction they have for each other is not going away.

The ending was a compromise I didn't like but I can understand why Emilia would accept it.  We all do things in life we might not like to acquire what we want.  The authors made their characters human.