Title: Wild Irish Rose
Author: Deborah L. Weikel
Publisher: Walnut Springs
Release Date: June 3, 2010 (per Amazon); November?
ISBN: 978-1935217664
Size: 292 pages, 5.5×8.5, softcover
Genre: Historical Romance
Rosaleen O’Shay must marry a perfect stranger to help her family. Can she do it?
Rosaleen glanced down the street, took her mother’s arm, and started to cross. Then she heard her mother scream just as a horse reared in front of them. Stumbling back, she tripped over her mother’s foot and landed in the dirt.
”Ye filthy brute!” Rosaleen shouted. ”What are ye doin’, tryin’ to kill me?”
”What in tarnation were you doing walking down the middle of the street? Don’t you have any sense in that pretty little head of yours?” Rosaleen looked up at the dirty soldier grinning down at her from his horse. She rose to her feet with as much dignity as possible. . . .
”How dare ye insinuate I’m in the wrong! Yer nothin’ but a trail-dusty blackguard with the manners of a pig. . . . If ye cannot brin’ yerself to help a lady in distress, at least ye could apologize for yer blunder.”
”I don’t see a lady in distress,” the soldier replied, casting Rosaleen a lopsided grin. He tipped his hat and winked at her, then urged his horse on down the street. . . .
Clearly, this soldier was accustomed to flirting with anyone who wore a skirt. Yet Rosaleen had to admit he had the most gorgeous blue eyes she’d ever seen. Even the sound of his voice caused her pulse to race.
It is May 1865. When Rosaleen O’Shay and her mother lose their factory jobs, and then her father and brother are injured in a coal-mine cave-in, the family is in serious trouble. Rosaleen worries they will never save enough money to fulfill their dream to leave Pittsburgh and buy a farm in California. Hoping to give her a better life, Rosaleen’s father secretly arranges to marry her off to Blaise Cameron, a young man on his way to his parents’ ranch near Stockton, California. In a twist of fate, Blaise turns out to be the soldier from the street — the one Rosaleen considers a blackard.
To make matters worse, Blaise has a plan‹and dubious motives for taking a wife — so Rosaleen will have to drive a hard bargain of her own. Will Blaise tame the fiery redhead and make her truly his? Or will he annul the marriage as promised when he has achieved his objectives? And will Rosaleen realize that unusual beginnings can lead to happily ever after?
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