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This is a review of “Mail-Order Mistress” by Rosalyn Alsobrook.

The Story: “Mail-Order Mistress” begins in New York in 1886, where Cassidy Jane (known to her friends and hereafter as Casey) Guthrie, a reporter for the New York Surveyor newspaper, has been given an assignment by her boss, Kirk Dodd. The assignment: to investigate the mail-order bride industry, or more specifically, find out why men from faraway states like Texas advertise in newspapers like the Surveyor for brides. Casey and Dodd believe that the men who advertise for mail-order brides are ugly, criminals, or have some other major flaw that prevents them from finding wives in their home areas. Dodd is not planning this story for altruistic reasons, mind you, but to beat their competition, the New York Tribune, which is working on a similar story. (The Surveyor has extra incentive for this story; earlier, the Tribune beat the Surveyor to the newsstands with a story both newspapers were working on. Now, Dodd wants revenge.) Dodd has also promised Casey that if she comes back from Texas with a blockbuster expose’, that he will take her off the society beat that she currently works and make her the first female crusading reporter in New York-possibly American-newspaper history, which is what Casey dreams of being. The Surveyor has been corresponding with a man looking for a wife, ostensibly the hero of the book, Texas lawyer/rancher Justin McCade. What neither Casey nor Dodd realize is that the ad wasn’t placed by Justin, but by his younger brother, Darrell, as part of a bet between the brothers.

The bet: Darrell bets Justin, a notorious womanizer (when we first meet Justin, he is caught by Darrell in a compromising position with a woman), that Justin can’t spend a month in daily contact with a woman without trying to seduce her. (Another caveat: Justin can’t have a physical relationship with another woman in that month, while courting the woman who he’s supposed to spend time with.) If Darrell wins the bet, he wins Justin’s prize mare, Moondancer. If Justin wins the bet, he wins Darrell’s prized silver handled dueling pistols. Both brothers want the other’s prized possession very badly, and both are determined to win the wager.

Justin’s resolve to win the bet is severely tested, however, when he and Casey meet for the first time. Neither Casey or Justin are ugly, criminals or have any major outward flaws, and both are attracted to each other, making it very difficult for Justin in particular to win the bet.
When Casey is taken to Justin’s ranch-which is as opulent as described in the letters Darrell wrote to her-she is introduced to Darrell as well as his and Justin’s younger sister, Lana, who is engaged to be married. Casey also starts trying to find some dirt for her story, but other than discovering that Justin is a womanizer and was previously engaged-and jilted the day before his wedding-she doesn’t find anything she can use in her story. Casey thinks she finds that Justin is a drunk, but that is not the case; he is only a social drinker.

As time goes on, Casey finds herself in a predicament that she can’t extricate herself from easily. In her letters-which were actually written by Dodd’s secretary and sent to Darrell, not Justin, who has never seen them-”Casey” claimed to be a domestic goddess. This is the farthest thing from the truth, as Casey doesn’t know how to cook anything. Darrell decides that Casey should teach Lana how to cook roast duck, which Casey is completely incapable of doing. (Casey tried to avoid the issue by setting the live ducks she was supposed to cook free. However, Darrell replaces the missing ducks with other ones.) The dinner eventually goes off without problem. While looking in the ranch house’s library for a cookbook, Casey finds Justin drinking, and later they have their first kiss, which only heightens the sexual tension between the two of them. Later, Darrell adds fuel to the fire by moving Casey out of Lana’s bedroom, where she had been staying, to a bedroom directly opposite of Justin’s. This, of course, is part of Darrell’s master plan to win the bet.

As the book goes on, Casey and Justin kiss a few times, with different reactions. Justin is very turned on, and, if not for the bet, he would have seduced Casey by now. Casey, not knowing about the bet, believes that Justin is not attracted to her. Therefore, she goes ahead and writes her articles for her newspaper stories. The angle Casey uses: that Justin is only interested in marriage for a broodmare, and not for love. This is not true, as Justin has fallen in love with Casey, although he has not articulated that to her yet.

Later, Justin and Casey share another passionate series of kisses which lead to their making love, which means that Justin has lost the bet and Moondancer to Darrell.

The aftermath of their lovemaking should have been a happy time of bonding and declarations of love; instead, it was a moment filled with angry words, as Justin first accuses Casey of being a co-conspirator with Darrell to get Moondancer from him. This allegation instigates a fight which leads to a lot more angry words and hurt feelings between Justin and Casey, the end result being Casey demands to go back to New York before the end of the time she’s supposed to stay. Casey is acting slightly hypocritical; she’s deliberately forgetting that she is being just as deceptive as the McCade brothers are; after all, she came to Texas to get a juicy story to further her career as a newspaper reporter. While, Justin and Darrell have acknowledged their wrongdoing, Casey hadn’t before she left for New York.

When Casey returns to New York, she writes her story, gets promoted, gets paid and, at least career-wise, is happy. However, Casey-though she doesn’t want to admit it, is in love with Justin. Seeing his sister hurting so badly, Casey’s brother, Paul, an attorney, decides to do a little matchmaking by sending Casey’s article from the New York Surveyor to Justin. Upon reading it, however, Justin sues Casey and the Surveyor for libel. Justin demands $3,000 personally from Casey, and $10,000 from the Surveyor. Both Casey and Dodd have to travel to Texas to defend themselves against the charges.

When Casey and Paul arrive in Texas for a pretrial hearing (Dodd doesn’t show due to illness), Casey and Justin end up having yet another argument (notice a pattern here?) and the case has to go to trial. Justin’s lawsuit hinges on two things that Casey wrote in her story that Justin says aren’t true:

That Justin has no sincere emotions.
That Casey was forced to leave Texas.

At the trial, both Casey and Justin testify. He admits that Casey was brought to Texas under false pretenses, but he objects to the last two points above. When Casey testifies, under cross-examination, she is forced to acknowledge that she and Justin made love, that he does have sincere emotions and that she wasn’t actually “forced” to leave Texas as she implies in her article. After much rancor and shouting at each other, the judge makes his ruling. The verdict goes in favor of Justin, but the punitive damage award is $2.00. The Surveyor is also ordered to print a front-page retraction of the story and Casey is ordered to hand write a three page apology and hand deliver it to Justin. This transaction must also be witnessed by two other people. If Casey doesn’t comply with the terms, she risks the possibility of being jailed.

When Casey returns with the money and the retraction, she also brings the apology; it’s a very different apology, though. One word written on three separate pages:
Page 1. I.
Page 2. Am.
Page 3. Sorry.

After this “apology”, Casey and Justin kiss and have their Happily Ever After, which is extremely lame as it comes with no setup at all. It feels like Mrs. Alsobrook didn’t know how to wrap the book up and this was the easiest way to do it, but it’s still lame.

“Mail-Order Mistress” is written like a Romantic Comedy, although it is not an LOL type of comedy, but rather an amused smile type of comedy. The drawbacks to this book: Justin and Casey both act extremely childish at times, and one other point which I will get to shortly.

Sex: One love scene. The good news: the scene is several pages long. The bad news: the scene is boring, unimaginative, uninspired, and, as always, Mrs. Alsobrook uses the EXACT SAME WORDS in her love scenes in every book.

Violence: When she finds out that Casey is Justin’s fiance’, one of his former paramours slaps him. That’s the only violence in the book.

Bottom Line: Despite the weaknesses, this is one of Mrs. Alsobrook’s better books, which, considering some of her previous work, is not high praise.

Rosalyn Alsobrook is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors, with stories like this one... it'll be hard for others to beat!
Casey Guthrie, a reported eager to prove herself, gets in over her head when she takes a research job that requires she pose as a mail-order bride. Why would someone, who claims to be a wealthy rancher and lawyer, as well as very handsome in his letters, need to order a bride... especially sight unseen! The facts just don't ring true... expecting to find the exact opposite as the man described to her, Casey sets off for an adventure, and to write the story that will launch her career.
Only to her surprise, Casey discovers that Justin McCade is truly a very wealthy rancher, a successful lawyer, and very handsome, as well! So why would such a man need to order a mail order bride? Well the answers to that are what create a very enjoyable read.
I highly recommend this book by Rosalyn Alsobrook... as well as her other books, EMERALD STORM and TIME STORM.