In Want of a Wife
Goodman’s (True to the Law, 2013) latest Bitter Springs, Wyoming, romance delves into family bonds in the Old West.  When red-haired rancher Morgan Longstreet advertises back east for a wife, Jane Middlebourne, the unwanted, orphaned relative of a wealthy family in New York City, agrees to marry him.  Her first surprises are his ginger hair and his tight-lipped attitude about his family; he is surprised by how she doesn’t look anything like the picture she sent, a picture her cousin surreptitiously substituted in Jane’s letter to him.  Despite those glitches, they manage to get along and come together, each appreciating the other’s frankness and dry sense of humor, until Morgan’s long-forgotten brothers threaten to bring past trouble into the present. Goodman’s fans will be thrilled with this newest story, a solid romance which achingly depicts, in her laconic style, the unsettling beginnings of a mail-order marriage.  Once again, her meticulous research, signature eye for the telling detail, and ear for humor in a desperate time shine. --Pat Henshaw