202. Ranch Water, baby! "His Secondhand Wife" by Cheryl St. John

Whoa!mance is back in the saddle with a cozy sleeper set on the Colorado front range. In Cheryl St. John's His Secondhand Wife (2005), Noah's rakish brother is murdered in a saloon, leaving behind a pretty new bride, and a baby on the way! Honor demands Noah take Kate home. And boy howdy is Kate grateful that this brooding hermit of a rancher who hates gaslamps and sunlight has whisked her away from a life of drudgery in ye old Boulder. But Kate just wants to be of use, and Noah won't let her. Cue the slow burn.Morgan and Isabeau dig into the Beauty and the Beast bones of this one — the formula, the fantasy, and the lies we tell ourselves about who we are and what we deserve. Sometimes it takes a beloved outsider to call us on our nonsense and set us straight. And underneath it all: what does it look like when two people's vulnerabilities are seen and honored?Hitch the wagon, listeners — we're going for a ride!Tags: romance novels, historical romance, western romance, Beauty and the Beast, marriage of convenience, forced proximity, slow burn, reluctant hero, pregnant heroine, Cheryl St. John, book podcast, romance podcast, cowboy romance, Colorado, frontier romance, redemption arc, vulnerability, emotional romance, found family, cozy romance Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.