Paper Roses

Author: Amanda Cabot
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group, 2009
Pages: 384
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Her future is stretched out like the clear blue Texas sky. But a storm is coming. Leaving the past behind in Philadelphia, mail-order bride Sarah Dobbs arrives in San Antonio ready to greet her groom - a man she has never met but whose letters, her paper roses, have won her heart from afar. But there is a problem - Austin Canfield is dead, and Sarah cannot go back East.

As Sarah tries to reconcile herself to a future that is drastically changed, Austin's brother Clay wants nothing more than to shake the Texas dust from his boots, but first he must find his brother's killer.

And then there's Sarah.

Something is blooming out in the vast Texas landscape that neither Clay nor Sarah is ready to admit, and the promise of redemption blows like a gentle breeze through the prairie grasses.

Review: There is something about Texas that captured my imagination when I was young, I suspect it was an old book called Old Blue about an longhorn so black he looked blue, but regardless, there's something about cowboys, the wild west, longhorn cattle, ranching etc that just appeals to me. I even took a semester long class on the history of Texas and its independence from Mexico in college.

I had been to Texarkana a few years ago. We were in Hot Springs, Arkansas and the Texas border wasn't far so we hopped on over. Over Spring Break last month we decided to return to Texas. We flew into Hobby Airport, spent a couple days in Galveston, and then went to Houston for the Astros Home Opener.

This trip especially reignited my interest in Texas so you may see a few more books set in Texas pop up in blog over the next few weeks and months.

Paper Roses also touched on another of my interests, mail-order brides. I cannot imagine taking a train from the East to some unknown place to meet a stranger and get married. It's wild, and women did it. I imagine most out of desperation.