The Proposition

In 1892 Alberta, charm school graduate Jessica Haven, the mayor's daughter asks North-West Mounted Police Sergeant Major Travis" Roughrider" Reid for a favor. Since he is leaving for Devil's Gorge to sell three broodmares, she would like to accompany him there. She says she is doing an article on doctors for the Pacific Medical Journal though she hides that she thinks Dr. Finch is a quack who hurt people under the name of King. Jessica plans to expose the medical charlatan whom she believes stole her infant under the pretense of the baby being stillborn. Travis refuses to escort the "spoiled brat" who thinks money solves everything; besides he needs time alone as he still mourns the death one year ago of his wife Caroline in a horse incident. Using connections, she forces him to take her. As they journey together, he begins to reassess his companion who acts nothing like the spoiled brat he remembers and to his chagrin finds himself attracted to her especially her courage. When they reach their destination, Jessica, who loves the Sergeant Major, begins her twin quests that place her in danger with her beloved willing to risk his life to keep her safe. THE PROPOSITION is the latest Kate Bridges thrilling late nineteenth century Canadian Mounties romance (see THE ENGAGEMENT and THE SURGEON). The story line is fast-paced and filled with action, but is driven by the heroine who is obsessed with finding her child and exposing the doctor while also proving to her protector that she has changed from the spoiled brat she once was. Fans will appreciate the latest exhilarating bridge to a bygone era. Harriet Klausner

Setting - Alberta, 1892 --- Sergeant Major, Travis Reid was unaware of the intense scrutiny that Jessica Haven had been giving him for the last few days, but even if he had he wouldn't give her the time of day. In his mind, the mayor's daughter was the same, self-centered, shallow young girl he'd grown up with and all the polish from her fancy `charm school' she'd gone to back east for would do little in `charming' him. Travis was a very angry young man, still grieving over the death of his beloved wife Caroline, who along with him had never gotten along with Jessica. Jessica Haven, has a secret and she had changed in more ways than one, ways that she couldn't yet reveal. She desperately needed Travis to escort her across the country in an effort to try and locate what she described to him as doctor she wanted to interview for an article in the medical journal. The doctor in question had been a star witness in helping Travis convict a felon in a big case he'd just solved, so Jessica's claims that the doctor was not who or what he appeared but a greedy and unscrupulous individual was falling on deaf ears. Travis was adamant in wanting nothing to do with her and Jessica hating to do so, pulled strings and went over his head to his commanding officer to change his mind. To Travis, this was just one more instance that proved to him that Jessica still used her family's influence to get what she wanted. But to Jessica, nothing mattered more than to get one more step closer to locating what might or might not be the child that had been stolen from her 17 months earlier. The treacherous cross-country journey would be the catalyst that would force meaningful life-changing attitudes that would put both their lives in perspective. Travis, so angry and unforgiving, finally began to see that Jessica had changed and she began to stir that anger into passion and caring once again. Kate Bridges once again engages the reader's emotions with a deft hand in examining the personalities and pain of two very wounded individuals. She sets a glorious setting against the backdrop of the Canadian Rockies with great dialogs and three-dimensional characters tied to an emotional story that tugs at your heartstrings of a young woman searching for the child she was told had died and a man who had to work through the pain of loss and discover love again. The finely drawn characters and smart pace made this book a hard one to put down. --- Marilyn Rondeau, Official Reviewer for www.historicalromancewriters.com ---