Calico Christmas at Dry Creek

This is a great story and book. The Montana territory was the land of dreams for Elizabeth. Never having a family until she married Matthew and gave birth to Rose. When they died of influenza she wanted to die too, but she did not. Instead she lived and when Jake proposes Marriage to get a mom for his Indian nieces and one is an infant Mary who needs nursing she agrees. He tries to buy her a wedding ring but she refuses.They are married the same day by the preacher with 2 witnesses. Jake takes them back to his cabin. Elizabeth holds him to his promise of being married only in name and not sleeping together.Jake is impressed with Elizabeth's ability to love his nieces and make their cabin a home. When they send Spotted Fawn who is about 9 years old to school even though she is dressed just like them, the schoolkids are cruel to her and it divides the town and even the church. As partners Elizabeth and Jake work on breaking teh towns people of their prejudices, but it is Spotted Fawn anda towns boy who totally disarm their prejudices. Jake is such a good husband Elizabeth does not want to leave him, but by loving Jake is she being disloyal to her dead husband and Baby? This is an wonderful story of loss and love. Can Elizabeth love another family?

I must say this was a sweet tale, and I enjoyed reading it,HOWEVER...I agree w/ the other reviewer. I think that it would have been more intriging if the characters had been more fleshed-out.Spotted Fawn was a very important character, yet I too felt that I did not know her at all.Seeing her importance, it would have been wonderful to have more of her back story! Also, I sure wish I could have known more about Jake, and Elizabeth's pasts. I realize that maybe there are constraints on story lengths for the authors,but it still would have been helpful for me to warm-up to them if I felt like I "knew" them all better. I DID like the tale, it just left me wanting more!

This is a great book for Ms Tronstad's foray into the Historical Inspirational market. After 14 contemporary Dry Creek books, the author has gone back 130 yrs to the beginning of this small Montana town. Her refreshing story had me smiling because I could picture it all as the story unfolds including the determination of the heroine as she sat waiting for God to come and claim her. Elizabeth O'Brian has lost her husband and infant to the influenza and is waiting for her turn to die. She sits in her tent and waits. And waits. Jake Hargrove has inherited his half-brother's part-Sioux daughters. The youngest is just weeks old and desperately needs nourishment. Jake has heard that Elizabeth has lost her baby and might be receptive to nursing his infant niece. After 10 days without her own baby, all it takes is the wail of Jake's niece to start her milk flowing again. In order to ensure the baby has nourishment until it can take solid food, Jake offers a temporary marriage to Elizabeth. Elizabeth doesn't want to forget her first husband, but she takes on the raising of the 2 young girls including the trials of the older sister as she tries to attend an all-white school. Elizabeth must use all her matronly skills to make this a special Christmas for everyone and avert a community disaster. When Elizabeth starts having feelings toward Jake, she pulls back in guilt. How can she feel like this for another man when her first husband hasn't been in the grave very long? But most disturbing of all is the fact she never felt like this before. Heat level: Affectionate

Elizabeth O'Brien and her husband hoped to build a new life for themselves and their baby daughter in 1879 Montana Territory. But that dream was shattered when fever took claimed the lives of her husband and child, leaving Elizabeth a grieving widow alone on the frontier. Jake Hargrove's brother has recently died, leaving him with custody of his two part-Sioux nieces, one of whom is just a baby. In order to give his tiny niece a chance at survival, he proposes a marriage of convenience to Elizabeth, who can nurse and care for the baby. But despite her grief for her lost husband and child, the arrangement leads to Elizabeth growing close to the two little girls, and developing feelings for Jake as well. A heartwarming story of love and family, Calico Christmas at Dry Creek is sure to appeal to fans of both inspirational and sweet historical romances. I highly recommend it to readers who enjoyed other Love Inspired Historical romances.