Books like 'Simple Jess'
Readers who enjoyed Simple Jess by Pamela Morsi also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical western virgin hero friends to lovers sweet-hero himbo angst tortured hero slow burn age difference
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Morning Glory by LaVyrle Spencer
LOVE IN A STRANGER'S EYES... ELLY In town, they called her "Crazy Widow Dinsmore." But Elly was no stranger to their ridicule--she had been an outsider all her life, growing up in a boarded-up old house under the strict eye of her eccentric grandparents. Now she was all alone, with two little boys to raise, and a third child on the way... -
Always to Remember by Lorraine Heath
Branded a traitor and imprisoned for refusing to fight for the Confederacy, Clayton Holland returns home to Cedar Grove, only to be spurned by the townspeople, except for vengeful Meg Warner, who finds her hatred and grief transformed by love. To Meg, who lost her husbands and brothers in the war, Clay's presence was a constant offense... -
Sarah Mayfield by J.S. Anthony
An unexpected journey of the heart.The war is over and Sarah Mayfield has put the sorrows of her life in Virginia behind her. On the strength of three letters she has traveled by railroad, riverboat and stagecoach to meet her new life out west...Categorized as:
historical western m-f slow burn small town sweet heroine sweet-hero third-person-pov historical -
Carry the World by Susan Fanetti
Eastern Kentucky, 1937. After the death of her husband, Ada Donovan returned home to live again with her aging parents. She does all she can to help them keep the small family farm going. But times are hard, and there’s never enough... -
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The Lady's Mine by Francine Rivers
A delightful new western romance from the New York Times bestselling author of Redeeming LoveNew York Times bestselling author Francine Rivers returns to the California frontier in this sweeping, romantic tale of a displaced New England suffragette, a former Union soldier disinherited by his Southern family, and the town they join forces to save.1875...Categorized as:
christian historical western dual-pov strong heroine angst m-f independent heroine third-person-pov -
To Win Her Heart by Karen Witemeyer
Having completed his sentence for the unintentional crime that derailed his youthful plans for fame and fortune, Levi Grant looks to start over in the town of Spencer, Texas. Spencer needs a blacksmith, a trade he learned at his father's knee, and he needs a place where no one knows his past. But small towns leave little room for secrets.. -
The Visions of Ransom Lake by Marcia Lynn McClure
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsYouthful beauty, naive innocence, a romantic imagination thirsting for adventure-an apt description of Vaden Valmont, who would soon find the adventure and mystery she had always longed to experience-in the form of a man. A somber recluse, Ransom Lake descended from his solitary concealment in the mountains, wholly disinterested in people and their trivial affairs...Categorized as:
tortured hero historical western christian western historical cowboys clean length-medium -
The School Mistress of Emerson Pass by Tess Thompson
Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsHow easily can an open heart unlock the door to happily-ever-after? When Miss Quinn Cooper arrives in Emerson Pass, Colorado, her entire life is packed into one small suitcase. Her widowed mother and baby sister are depending upon her for their survival back home in Boston...Categorized as:
christian small town historical western historical mystery western single-father 20th century -
The School Mistress by Tess Thompson
How easily can an open heart unlock the door to happily-ever-after? When Miss Quinn Cooper arrives in Emerson Pass, Colorado, her entire life is packed into one small suitcase. Her widowed mother and baby sister are depending upon her for their survival back home in Boston...Categorized as:
historical western sunny hero sweet-hero western historical 20th century behind-doors length-medium -
Shelter Mountain by Robyn Carr
For the second time in a year a woman arrives in the small town of Virgin River trying to escape the past. John “Preacher” Middleton is about to close the bar when a young woman and her three-year-old son come in out of a wet October night. A marine who has seen his share of pain, Preacher knows a crisis when he sees one—the woman is covered in bruises... -
Reckless Love by Kelly Elliott
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe first time I kissed Scarlet, I knew I was in trouble. The night I slept with her, my life changed forever. The day I found out I was going to be a father, I ran from her. Now that I’ve been given a second chance I won’t be so reckless... -
More Than Words Can Say by Karen Witemeyer
After fulfilling a pledge to a dying friend, Zacharias Hamilton is finally free. No family entanglements. No disappointing those around him. Just the quiet bachelor existence he's always craved. Until fate snatches his freedom away when the baker of his favorite breakfast bun is railroaded by the city council. Despite not wanting to get involved, he can't turn a blind eye to her predicament . . -
Cowboy Seeking Nanny by Janice Whiteaker
As a widowed father trying to build a family empire while juggling dirty diapers and bed times, Brody Pace has full hands.And an empty bed.Losing his high school sweetheart after the birth of their twins left him broken, battered, and lonely. But business doesn’t wait, and neither do toddlers...Categorized as:
single-mother third-person-pov dual-pov m-f independent heroine small town contemporary western -
Sing My Name by Ellen O'Connell
Sarah Hammond is the overprotected daughter of passionate Massachusetts abolitionists. Matt Slade is the orphaned son of hardscrabble Texas settlers. Sarah knows about every Civil War battle from studying newspaper accounts. Matt fought in the bloodiest of them under Generals Longstreet and Lee. If Matt and Sarah ever crossed paths, it should have been for an unremarkable moment... -
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Beautiful Bad Man by Ellen O'Connell
In 1866 on the empty Kansas prairie, two children shared a few desperate moments that changed their lives. For years afterward, each nursed a secret dream—that the other had grown into a special person—brave, good, kind. When Norah Hawkins and Caleb Sutton cross paths again, dreams die. She is a bitter, suicidal widow. He is a gunman with little conscience and few scruples... -
Buck You! by Elle Thorpe
Rated: 4.71 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsSummer Hunt was destined to be the first woman on the pro bull riding tour, until a devastating accident shattered her dreams. With the injury not healing, and her fiancé pushing to move to the city, there’s nothing left for her at the small-town bull riding school she runs with her father. Dominic West has always secretly longed to know his biological parents... -
A Real Cowboy Never Walks Away by Stephanie Rowe
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsNine brothers who stand by each other no matter what, even when all hell breaks loose…which it often does when the Stockton men are around. Country music superstar Travis Stockton used his music to escape the Wyoming town that betrayed him as a youth, but all his money and fame can't chase away the nightmares that still haunt him... -
A Match for a Disgraced Bride by Tess Thompson
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsUnwanted. Unwed. Unexpectedly matched? Can a daring plan bring together a pregnant social outcast and a lonely lighthouse keeper forced to marry in this slow burn romance set in the gilded age? Sara Rose My heart shattered when my sister's fiancé took what he wanted against my will, leaving me pregnant and disavowed by my family... -
Love's Healing Path by Lacy Williams
Rated: 4.63 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsMaddie Fairfax may be young, but on this Oregon-bound wagon train, the pioneers welcome help from the self-trained nurse. Until Dr. Jason Goodwin joins up with their company. The doctor portrays a frosty exterior, but Maddie may be the only one who sees the profound loneliness that haunts him.After losing his wife and children in a terrible accident, Jason has vowed not to open his heart again...Categorized as:
age difference christian historical western cowboys western historical length-medium -
The Unexpected Champion by Mary Connealy
City dweller John McCall never expected to be out in the High Sierras of 1868 on a wild-goose chase to find the Chiltons' supposedly lost grandson. But now that he's out here, things have gotten even more complicated, mostly due to wildcat Penny Scott. She's not like any woman he's ever met--comfortable in the woods, with a horse, and with a gun... -
Sam by Susan Fisher-Davis
Rated: 4.80 of 5 stars · 5 ratingsEveryone tells Sheriff Sam Garrett to find a good woman and settle down. When he sets his sights on Clifton’s veterinarian, he fears she despises him yet he’s desired her from the first moment they met. She is quite possibly the only woman in town who isn’t attracted to him which might be why he wants her even more...Categorized as:
small town slow burn strong heroine western contemporary historical sassy heroine cowboys -
The Rest Of Me by Ashley Munoz
Rated: 4.80 of 5 stars · 5 ratingsDeath never simply settles for the life it claims. It’s greedy. It stole all of our lives that night and while it put my husband in the ground, it left my four children and me behind. After an ugly year of grief, something had to change. My sister suggested open spaces, big skies and fresh air in the heart of Wyoming... -
The Arms of a Better Man (A Love to Last a Lifetime) by Indiana Wake
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsCan a quiet and studious woman heal the soul of a wounded soldier, or will both their hearts end up broken?Katie Lacy has grown up to be a quiet and serious young woman who has no time for the pushy young cowboys who wish for her hand. Most of her time is spent working in her father’s lumber yard or with her head in a book... -
A Real Cowboy for Christmas by Stephanie Rowe
Rated: 4.57 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsOnly a deathbed promise would send Jaimi Hamilton to Rogue Valley for Christmas to track down her brothers, the nine Stockton cowboys who don't even know she exists... -
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Scarred Mail Order Bride and her Lonely Bachelor by Florence Linnington
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWhat can a scarred mail order bride do when she is stranded in the west with no one to get married to? Leanne Robinson has hit rock bottom – her father is gone, her life is in ruins, and she has no hope for the future. Until… she receives a letter from a man in Colorado, inviting her to marry him and live out west. With no other options, she accepts... -
Sing in the Sunlight by Kathleen Denly
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA marriage of convenience is the last thing Richard Stevens needs when his own identity is in question.Clarinda Humphrey’s singing career was destroyed when an accident left her with disfiguring scars. The aftermath forced her to leave her home and family, but she refuses to let her appearance steal her future... -
Wagon Train Dreams by Linda Ford
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsForbidden love and unwavering courage.Seeking a fresh start, widowed Hazel packs her belongings and joins her family in a covered wagon headed west. She yearns for a safe and stable life for herself and her son. But the tranquility she seeks is disrupted when she finds herself drawn to Joe Dumont, the half-native, half-white scout for their wagon train... -
Pretending to Wed by Melissa Jagears
It’s a match made in heaven, as long as they don’t fall in love!The ranch Nolan Key has spent decades working for, even lost a leg for, is now his—or at least it should be. But an absurd clause in his father’s will means he’s in danger of losing the place to his lazy, undeserving cousin. Nolan finds himself scrambling to save his home—by proposing marriage to the town laundress... -
A Chance at Love by Beverly Jenkins
Loreli Winters never imagined she'd end up a "mail-order bride" in middle-of-nowhere Kansas -- until the two adorable orphan nieces of a dusky dream named Jake Reed beg her to be their new "mama." And one look at the dark, devastatingly handsome man is enough to entice her to abandon her California plans and stay put for a while in this one-horse frontier town... -
The Indian Bride And Her Scarred Farmer by Florence Linnington
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsAn Indian mail order bride is not what she sees herself as, and certainly not what he expects… Ceeh'eenesie's whole family is dead. Her Arapaho way of life is dying. Sometimes Ceeh'eenesie wishes she could vanish as well. But she has a promise to keep. Her dead grandfather wants her to go on, to carry on their ways. And being a mail order bride is her only way... -
Indigo Blue by Catherine Anderson
Back in print after more than ten years. Torn between the white and Comanche worlds of her parents, Indigo Wolf has grown up estranged from the townspeople of Wolf's Landing, Orgeon. No one understands her elusive spirit-until Jake Rand comes to town to act as foreman of her family's ranch... -
Where the Road Bends by Rachel Fordham
As Norah King surveys her family land in Iowa in 1880, she is acutely aware that it is all she has left, and she will do everything in her power to save it--even if that means marrying a man she hardly knows. Days before her wedding, Norah discovers an injured man on her property. Her sense of duty compels her to take him in and nurse him back to health... -
A Lawman's Christmas by Linda Lael Miller
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe sudden death of the town marshal leaves Blue River, Texas, without a lawman...and twenty-five-year-old Dara Rose Nolan without a husband. As winter approaches and her meager seamstress income dwindles, she has three options...Categorized as:
historical western poor heroine small town third-person-pov western historical cowboys contemporary -
A Noble Groom by Jody Hedlund
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsA New Historical Romance from Fan-Favorite Jody Hedlund Recently widowed Annalisa Werner has the feeling her husband was murdered but can't prove it. Alone with her young daughter in 1881 Michigan, she has six months left to finish raising the money needed to pay back the land contract her husband purchased, and the land is difficult to toil by herself. She needs a husband... -
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The Substitute Wife by Cici Cordelia
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsHARRISON . . .Once his fortune in silver mining is secured, Harrison Carter finally sends back home for his fiancée. It's been four years since he's seen Jenny.But it's Retta Pierce, Jenny's sister, who arrives by stagecoach with young daughter Adeline in tow...Categorized as:
single-mother historical western m-f western historical arranged marriage suspense length-short -
Love at First Sight by Kelly Elliott
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsLove at first sight. That’s what it was when Rip Myers came up to me in kindergarten. From that point on, we were inseparable best friends. When I work up the courage to tell Rip I love him, I am met with rejection. He tells me he treasures our friendship too much. That statement might as well be a knife to my heart. I want to hold out hope that he’ll change his mind... -
The Rescued Bride's Savior by Amelia Rose
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsHe yearns for family. She’s desperate to escape hers. When the stagecoach delivers his wife-to-be, will he win her wounded heart? Mathew Jenkins feels isolated on his remote, rural ranch. Though he longs for a family, women in mining country are scarcer than gold nuggets. So he’s delighted by the dapper response to his mail-order bride ad from a comely Virginian lady...Categorized as:
christian historical western sunny hero historical humor western suspense length-medium -
Years by LaVyrle Spencer
The sweeping plains held the promise of a lifetime. Linnea Eager to begin her first teaching position, lovely Linnea Brandonberg stepped off the train looking as grown up and worldly as her eighteen years would allow. The golden fields and fragrant wheat of Alamo, North Dakota, were as new and different as the Westgaard family with whom she would live...Categorized as:
historical western angst age difference slow burn m-f small town sweet heroine strong heroine -
His Wagon Train Sweetheart by Catherine Kennedy
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsRiding the Santa Fe Trail is a difficult and lonely profession...especially for a girl named George.Georgianna Walton's father sat her on the back of a horse the moment she could sit up straight. Ever since, they have traveled together from one side of the country to the other with no place to call home...Categorized as:
friends to lovers christian historical western historical cowboys western length-novella -
Mail Order Bride's Baby And Her One-Arm Indian by Florence Linnington
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA mail order bride with an unwanted baby in tow meeting a one-arm Indian husband-in-waiting is nothing short of a disaster… Rachael Jeffers has spent her entire life living, and then working, in an orphanage. Until circumstances give her no option but to flee – with a baby in tow. Her only hope now is a man named Motega, whom she had corresponded via letters... -
The Rainbow Season by Lisa Gregory, Candace Camp
Luke Turner An outcast, they called him "bad blood" from his boyhood in a tarpaper shack to his nights in a prison cell. Sarah McGowan Her roots were deep in the Texas soil. But her secret shameful love for her sister's husband kept her from happiness. Pride and their love of the Texas land threw them together in an unlikely marriage... -
Texas Cowboy's Protection by Barb Han
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsIsaac Quinn missed his chance with Gina Anderson when he broke up with her after high school years ago and joined the military. Now, he’s back home for a big family announcement. Staying in Gunner isn’t in his plans until single mother, Gina, crosses his path... -
Mail Order Bride And The Gift of Children (A Western Historical Romance Book) (Evergreen Frontier) by Florence Linnington
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFinding love is never easy for a single mother listing herself as a mail order bride. But it is necessary.Eliza Buell has just given birth to her second child. Now a single mother after the death of her husband, she finds herself alone and desperate for a way to help her children survive the coming winter. With no other option, Eliza opts to become a mail order bride... -
Half-Deaf Mail Order Bride and her Heartfelt Pastor by Florence Linnington
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsCan a mere letter from the west be a ticket out of poverty and to love for a… half-deaf mail order bride?Elizabeth Quinn has had to bury her mother and is about to lose her home when a letter from a stranger offers her a way out of poverty: move out west to marry a man she has never met...Categorized as:
christian historical western disabilities and marks historical western length-medium -
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Mail Order Bride's Baby And Her Mismatched Rancher by Florence Linnington
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA mail order bride with a baby mismatched to a rancher with no interest in children… Abbie Hustley thinks her future is secure when she becomes a mail order bride for a rancher in the west. There will be no more singing in saloons, no more late nights. Sam Sayler has everything he wants, a ranch of his own, loyal ranch hands, and a life under the wide Colorado skies. All he needs now, is a wife... -
Sadie by Patricia PacJac Carroll
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsSadie Bluhm receives the letter to confirm she had been chosen to be the mail order bride for Conrad Frazier in America. She is delighted. Growing up an orphan, Sadie relishes the idea she has been chosen to belong to someone. Conrad lost his wife six months ago. Desperate to find another, he enlists the help of an agency to find him the proper German bride... -
Long Journey Home by Sarah M. Eden
From Sarah M. Eden, the USA Today Bestselling author of the Longing for Home series, LONG JOURNEY HOME is a new romance novel set in the beloved world of Hope Springs. Widowed by war, Maura O’Connor has raised her son alone under the weight of poverty in the unforgiving slums of New York City. That harsh and difficult life has taken a toll on them both...Categorized as:
historical western m-f age difference small town single-mother sweet heroine sweet-hero dual-pov -
Captivate by C.A. Harms
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsI was back in Brooklet Georgia and things were far from how they were when I left years ago. Maddison used to be one of the guys, but that was definitely not the case anymore... She had changed and damn if it didn’t make my heart race. With each passing second she began to consume me. Her smile made my knees weak and the way she looked at me took my breath away... -
Hand Of Fate by Duane Boehm
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsBestselling Western author Duane Boehm has written another western novel with enough humor, heartbreak, love, and outlaws to keep you turning the page. While the ranchers around Trinidad are circling like buzzards in wait for Flannery Vogel to fail, the downtrodden widow with a young daughter refuses to surrender as she struggles to run the ranch that cost her husband his life... -
Tanner (Bachelors and Babies Book 14): American Western Historical (Bachelors & Babies) by Cheryl St.John
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsOne of the most reliable western romance writers today!♥ "Story and style remind me of LaVyrle Spencer." - Linda HowardHe's focused on the future...The past is all she knows.Together they're forced to face today.His months in Salisbury prison taught Union Captain Tanner Bell to detest a southern drawl, and Widow Cranford's exaggerated Dixie twang has him gritting his teeth...
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