OUTLAW MAIL ORDER BRIDES: SERIES SPOTLIGHT

GUEST POST BY LINDA BRODAY

With the release of Once Upon a Mail Order Bride, this series has come to an end. It’s always such a sad moment for me to have to say goodbye. We’ve traveled many a dusty mile together, these characters and I, and somewhere along the way they became woven into my heart. I know how they think and how they act in any given situation. I love these men and women and respect them to the utmost.

The outlaw Clay Colby, who I introduced back in the second book of the Men of Legend series, had a vision of making a town from a rough hideout. Friends Jack Bowdre and Ridge Steele joined forces with him and the three of them began to build. So that’s how the series was born.

But they knew the town would never grow with just men alone. To get wives and start families, they enlisted the help of Luke Legend (again from the Men of Legend series.) Luke had started a private mail order bride service for men and women living in the shadows who couldn’t do things the normal way. He stepped in and connected the men with possible brides.

Clay and Tally Shannon were the first to marry. She’d escaped an asylum where she’d been kept for two years. Her stepmother put her in there to get rid of her, not because she was crazy. Tally brought into the marriage a little blind girl in her care. Violet added so much depth to this series.

Next Jack Bowdre and Nora Kane tied the knot. Then I met an interesting character named Tait Trinity and slid him into the third spot. Ridge and Addie made number four.

Each couple seemed to pick up a few orphans along the way and by the end of this last and final book, the population of Hope’s Crossing had grown to ninety-five. They had fifteen businesses and an opera house. They welcomed the down and out, people needing a safe place to put down roots. All thrived in this town where no one judged because everyone there had done something to blacken their name.

I just loved how they all pulled together in good times and bad and often wished I could live in a place like this.

My outlaws filled my imagination with such rich depth and spilled over into these four books that are now in readers’ hands. I’m very proud of each story and can honestly say that I may never write another series with this level of “heart.”

But we’ll see. I’m starting a new series in April called Lone Star Legends. These are the children of my Men of Legend brothers, a new generation of heroes. However, first let Ridge and Addie into your heart. They need love.