The Mail Order Groom [Mass Market Paperback]

Sandra Chastain (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 25, 2002

Poetry In Motion . . .

Stunning Melissa Grayson, a veritable Helen of Troy in the Wild West, will do anything to satisfy her one burning passion--teaching art and poetry to the children at Grayson Academy, the private school left to her by her beloved father. But it isn’t easy when every trip she makes into town drives the unmarried men into a frenzy of fisticuffs in their attempts to win her hand. Exasperated by the civil unrest caused by Melissa’s beauty, the local clergy and sheriff finally give her an ultimatum: marriage or jail, the latter of which would surely mean the end of her school.

Prepared to make any sacrifice for her students, Melissa writes her pen pal in New York, James Harold Pickney IV, a sickly, sensitive scholar. Together they agree to forge a platonic marriage whose real commitment will be to the cause of education.

Plainspoken Passion . . .

When he’s not hightailing it from one of his many misadventures, gambling man Lucky Lawrence has a habit of rescuing damsels in distress--sometimes from himself. But this time he’s the one who needs rescuing, as a murderously sore loser has a score to settle with him--and expects him to pay with his life. Even Lucky wouldn’t have bet that this latest escapade would lead him to be mistaken for a bookish Harvard boy--and land him the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. Nor did Melissa Grayson expect her asthmatic pen pal to be so ruggedly handsome, with such broad shoulders and teasing eyes. Might she discover a passion she as yet has only read about? And what of ailing James Pickney, en route to his bride-to-be? Will either groom survive to stake his claim, or will Melissa be a widow before she’s a wife?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Cursed with irresistible beauty irresistible, at least, to the female-starved, gold-mining men of the 19th-century town of Silver Wind, Colo. schoolteacher Melissa Grayson is forced by outraged citizens to choose between being jailed, run out of town or married. So she sends for a mail-order husband, a frail intellectual with whom she's corresponded but never met. Within minutes of his arrival, she marries him. Problem solved. Except that Melissa's new spouse is not pen-pal James Harold Pickney IV but roving gambler and rescuer-of-damsels-in-distress Lucky Lawrence, who's fleeing from a Mexican evildoer named Cerqueda. A cowboy comedy of errors ensues as Lucky shakes up the town and Melissa's life. Chastain's (The Outlaw Bride) straightforward writing style drifts from simple to simplistic more than once. There are interminable rehashings of the plot every time a new character shows up, for instance, and Cerqueda is virtually a south-of-the-border cartoon. Still, the exuberance of Chastain's writing matches the wild west setting perfectly; it's easy to imagine this book adapted as an "Oklahoma!"-type musical comedy albeit with considerably more premarital sex than is usually found on Broadway (or in the average romance novel).
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

When the stunningly gorgeous schoolmarm, Melissa Grayson, accidentally shoots one of her students in the arm and brings down the church bell, the authorities in Silver Wind, Colorado, decree that she must either marry or go to jail. Wanting to save Grayson Academy, a boarding school sans boarding students started by her late father, Melissa asks her sickly pen pal, James Harold Pickney IV, to come out West and join her in a platonic marriage. Surrounded by townsfolk, she meets the train right before the wedding and is surprised when the only man to disembark is handsome and healthy. Back at the ranch--oops! school--it turns out that the groom is actually Lucky Lawrence, a gambler and rescuer of damsels in distress who is being pursued by a murderous man from whom he rescued a young girl. Chastain's likable characters, adventure-filled plot, and the romances between members of the supporting cast make this latest title by the prolific award-winning romance author an entertaining and enjoyable read. Diana Tixier Herald
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (June 25, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553580507
• ISBN-13: 978-0553580501
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.6 x 7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,071,172 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a dead-eye hit with laughs and sighs, March 10, 2003

By 

Jen Vaughn (TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Mail Order Groom (Mass Market Paperback)

V\The teacher and founder of the Grayson Academy, Melissa Grayson was cursed. She had been born with a perfect figure, creamy skin, and sea-blue eyes. With this physical description her life in the primarily XY chromosome town of Silver Wind caused riots and civil unrest. Melissa is given an ultimatum by the men of the town: marry or be jailed. The latter would cause the end of the school her father started out in the mining town. And she surely did not want to marry one of the locals, including Black Bart, the town drunkard.

Enter Lucky Lawrence, a do-good gambler, escaping from an unhappy man who is out for his blood. Lucky steps off the train and into Silver Wood. Little does he know Melissa has sent for her pen pal to rescue her. She has never seen this man before but he promised to marry her thus saving Grayson Academy.

Melissa sees the tall, dark and unshaven Lucky and presumes he is her James Harold Pickney IV. Lucky sees the opportunity to help out a gorgeous woman whilst being able to hide out under a different name.

Melissa soon realizes her James is not exactly the scholar he had appeared to be through his letters. Although he could charm the scales off a snake, he knows little about 'reading, 'riting, and 'rithmatic. She finally confronts her 'husband' when she catches him teaching the younger students to add and subtract with 'Blackjack 21.' But she finds that no matter who he is, she loves this dark gambler with gun-metal gray eyes.

The only problem arises when the real James Harold Pickney IV arrives and discovers Melissa and Lucky have not been living as brother and sister in their false marriage. If that town finds out, Melissa and her school are in trouble, or worse Lucky may leave her with a broken heart.

This is my first novel by Sandra Chastain but she has included one of the funniest elements in her novel. That element would be hicks and hillbillies. I do love to read their dialogue and wonder why more authors do not center their novels around these colorful characters. The eloquent Melissa is reminiscent of Laura Ingalls from the "Little House on the Prairie"; strong, brave, and lovable. However the absolute best part of the book is the interaction of Lucky Lawrence and James Harold Pickney IV, and their learning to live with and as each other.

THE MAIL ORDER GROOM is a dead-eye hit with laughs and sighs to propel it into the readers heart.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars WONDERFUL!, August 24, 2005

By 

Kathryn J. Blake "K.J. Blake 2" (Phoenix,AZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Mail Order Groom (Mass Market Paperback)

I am so excited! This is the first Sandra Chastain historical romance I have read and can not wait to read more! The humor and warm rich characters in this book are a delight. James Pickney the guy she does not marry is a hoot! A sickly easterner determined to have a big adventure- he is a wonderful foil for Lucky Lawrence the gambler with a heart of gold as well as lucky coin with a diamond in it.
The humor, the romance, the passion and the rich secondary characters make this a must keep!

Now I want to read the story of Rainey - Lucky's long lost sister!

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderfully funny, fast read!, August 4, 2002

By 

M. Bradley "Mimmi" (Bluegrass State) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Mail Order Groom (Mass Market Paperback)

In the mining town of Silver Wind, Colorado, Melissa Grayson's beauty is a thing of legend. Or, the subject of any and all brawls that occur any time she's around. Melissa had come to the town of Silver Wind to help at the school that her father had built, but unfortunately he died before she got there, so she's been running the school on her own, and doing a pretty good job of it. Only without a husband, many of the single men in town seem to think that she's up for grabs, and continuously resort to fisticuffs over her. When another such brawl ends up with Melissa accidentally shooting the Mayors' son, the local sheriff, and a group of concerned citizens decide they've had enough-she's to either pick a groom, or she'll be arrested. In desperation, for she can't find a man among the locals she thinks will even halfway suffice, she contacts the brother of a friend that she's been pen pals with, Harold James Pickney IV, and asks him to become her husband in name only, and in return, she'll provide him with a teaching opportunity, and help take care of him, for he's of bad health. When Harold agrees, Melissa is thrilled to report it to the town, but they wait suspiciously for him to show up. They're determined Melissa is going to be married, one way or another.

When Lucky Lawrence, a gambler sometimes savior, saves the daughter of a friend, only to wind up on the run himself from the notorious outlaw Cerqueda, he doesn't even care where he's headed when he jumps on the train heading for Silver Wind, CO. He's astounded when he gets off the train, and there, on the platform, is a horde of people-who mistake him for Harold Pickney, IV. When Lucky begins to hear the story, he realizes that he'll have to help, as he can't leave a damsel in distress. And when he sees Melissa, he's so bowled over by her beauty; it takes him a min. to realize that she also thinks he's Harold, her fiancé. This gorgeous woman had never met the man she intended to marry? Lucky begins to see this as the perfect opportunity to hide out for a while-he can play this woman's fiancé, save her and himself, and then hightail it out of town when things die down.

In a wonderfully humorous romance, Ms. Chastain entertains us to the hilt. It's almost a comedy or errors to watch the characters with one another. The romance between Lucky and Melissa is the central focus of the story, but Ms. Chastain entertains us with several romances between supporting characters, which all together made this a delightful read.
Her spark and verve for humor come across quite clearly, and her characters will have you laughing out loud, and turning the page to see what they'll be up to next.