Today’s
Blog Tour Tuesday features Iris Kelly and her Dreams of a Rich Life,
Book One in the Brides of Cheyenne series.
About
the Book:
Virginia Bellamy is an
ambitious, well-to-do socialite who aspires to marry into Boston’s most elite
social circles. But when she fails to attract a proposal that meets her high
standards, she agrees to become the mail order bride to a wealthy Cheyenne businessman.
He promises her a life of luxury and status. It appeals to her to be one of the
most important families in the city - even if that city is Cheyenne.
Lewis Carlyle has worked
tirelessly for fifteen years to amass a fortune. It was really all a means to
an end - a foundation for the remarkable wife and happy family he hoped to
have. But in the weeks before Virginia’s arrival, Lewis is besieged with the
worst onslaught of bad fortune; Virginia arrives to find herself betrothed to a
pauper.
It is a catastrophe of
unimaginable magnitude on both sides. What can Lewis do to make amends for the
unforgivable situation he has put Virginia in? Is the social hierarchy in
Cheyenne as rigid and unforgiving as that of Boston? And most importantly, will
it ever be possible for this determined social climber to love a man who has
nothing to offer but his heart?
“I had hoped
to put you up at one of Cheyenne’s most elegant hotels. But the cost is now
beyond me. The most reasonable accommodation I could find was a room in a
boardinghouse. The proprietor is a Miss Mabel Harper, but everyone simply calls
her Miss Mabel. You will find her manners a bit rough, but she’s quite fair and
trustworthy. And her meals are good, particularly the beef stew and the pies.
She’s rather proud of them. The rooms are clean but plain. Very plain. I don’t
think that you would ever have seen anything like it, but it is best viewed as
a very temporary circumstance. I am sure you can make the best of it.”
It sounded
unimaginably bleak to Virginia. Miss Mabel. What a coarse, common name. And a
boardinghouse? Isn’t that where laborers stayed? How could this be happening to
her? What had she been thinking? The West was every bit as wild and as savage
as the tales she had heard in childhood. Bank robbers. Thieving, cheating
grifters who had just stolen her future, her security, and yes, her money.
Money that was meant to be spent on her house, her dresses, her wine cellar,
her parties, her furniture . . .
And who was
this man, whom she had thought to marry? Mr. Carlyle walked briskly beside her,
clearly dejected and consumed with remorse. She was furious with him, of
course, for putting her in this monstrous position. And yet his own life had
been shattered as well, with the rewards of a lifetime of work cruelly snatched
from him. She had to pity him.
And he did
seem to be a man of real conscience. She could actually believe that her loss
of security weighed more heavily on him than his own. He had promised to help
her out of these frightening circumstances. Well, she would hold him to it, but
she could not see a way out of this nightmare. Was that because there wasn’t
one?
The Cheyenne Mail Order Bride Dreams of a Rich Life is available on Amazon. You may purchase it by clicking HERE.
About the Author:
Iris Kelly is a former community college
instructor and has had a lifelong affinity for Westerns, dating back to reading
every book in the Laura Ingalls Wilder Little
House series, and watching every episode of Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman.
She is fascinated by autobiographical accounts
of women’s lives in the Old West; particularly the divide between popular myth
and surprising realities.
Tweet this blog post: She could not see a way out of this nightmare. Iris Kelly & DREAMS OF A RICH LIFE http://bit.ly/1nu0ajg #SweetAmerSweethearts
What in interesting concept for a story, which really sounds like a winner. Best to you on this. Doris McCraw/Angela Raines-author
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great story, so of course I had to download it!
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