Romance of the Week: Star-crossed Lovers of the Wild West

Silver Lining by Maggie Osborn
The main character, Low Down, is a woman prospector who saves a camp full of men suffering from smallpox. She is rough and dirty, but when the men ask what she would like as a reward, she says a baby. The men draw straws to see who wants to father her child—as there are no volunteers. The preacher insists upon marriage, so Low Down and the handsome Max McCord ride off to meet his family on their ranch. Colorful, old west setting; a heroine that you will root for.
Max rides after Low Down to tell her he loves her, and no longer loves his ex-fiancee. Low Down will shortly tell him she is pregnant. Since they married at the beginning of the book, the story is about misunderstandings, how they are overcome, and how they realize they love each other.
The cover and title give little hint as to the sensuality of the book. It is a “stuff” cover—a silver spoon on a white background. There are a couple of sex scenes, but they are fairly low key—I’d rate them a ‘3’ on a 0-10 scale.
This was a frontier and western romance. The ‘marriage of convenience” plot would be similar, though it could be set in England as a historical, or anywhere as a contemporary romance.
A couple of fiction suggestions: Forgiving by LaVyrle Spencer
Sarah moves west to Deadwood run a newspaper and to search for her missing sister Addie. But her sister is working in the local bordello. Can she convince her sister to reform? Handsome sheriff Noah Campbell is interested in Sarah, but so are the other single men of the town.
High country bride by Linda Lael Miller
Emmeline Harding attempts to flee her past by marrying rancher Rafe McKittrick as a mail order bridge. Rafe is in competition with his two brothers to produce an heir, as the first of the brothers to become a father will inherit the Triple M Ranch.
And two nonfiction: Baby Doe Tabor the madwoman in the cabin by Judy Nolte Temple
Baby Doe Tabor is a larger-than-life character, what at one time was called an “adventuress.” She moved west and married the owner of a silver mine. Lots of local interest in her life, as she was born in Oshkosh.
They saw the elephant: women in the California gold rush by Jo Ann Levy
The author uses letters and journals to tell about the lives of women who went west—actresses, prostitutes, a stagecoach driver, and just ordinary women. They tell of the hardships endured in the perilous journeys, and the rough life.
Also: the all-true travels and adventures of Lidie Newton by Jane Smiley; Buffalo girls: a novel by Larry McMurtry; Molly Brown: unraveling the myth by Kristen Iversen