Lazarus County Mail Order Brides Boxed Set: Four Clean Historical Western Romance Books

By: Amber Seraph

Narrated by: Charley Ongel

Lazarus County has yet to be tamed. There’s drought, bandits, and natives to contend with. People have moved out there hoping to better themselves, have a chance at the kind of life they could never hope for back East. Of course plenty of the settlers are lonely and willing to take a chance on love, even with someone that they’ve never met.

In She Has to Stop Running Sometime, Ellen has to stop running sometime. She's fled her past all the way across the Atlantic and has given up hope of having the kind of romance she dreamed of as a girl. Bruised, inside and out, she'll be happy just to find a family she can keep house for.

Nate Harper has been in Lazarus County, NM, for years. His younger sister knows how lonely he is has been seeking a bride for him back East. He's embarrassed, but his heart wells up with kindness when he reads about Ellen's hopes for a new life and invites her to his home as a housekeeper.

In Western Redemption, Marlie Kane needs salvation. Not just for herself but for her three brothers, two of which can’t stay sober long enough to pay rent in Boston. When their landlord tells Marlie that her only way to make money is to sell her body, she’s praying for a miracle and willing to try anything to get away.

Graham Evans is the cooper and carpenter of the town of Gilgamesh in Lazarus County. After losing his wife to diphtheria, he came to New Mexico to forget his past. He’d long since given up on love but is surprised by the happiness that his friend Nate has found with his mail-order bride. Ready to throw the dice, he puts out a matrimonial ad himself.

In Western Freedom, Annabelle Feelan is from the upper crust of Philadelphia. Her wealthy father has showered her with luxuries and indulgence her entire life but now is beginning to despair of her. It's time for her to marry, but Annabelle finds every prospective husband who is suitable to her father a complete bore.

She longs for the sort of romance she’s read about in novels. None of the men in Philadelphia could bring her excitement or rescue her from bandits! She finally takes matters into her own hands and puts an advertisement in a newspaper. She never imagined a man like Aidan Killarney would respond!

In The Sheriff Needs a Bride, Lazarus County needs a sheriff. There are Indian tribes and bandits throughout New Mexico, and the people of Gilgamesh have gone on far too long without a lawman. The town folk unanimously vote for John Wilkins, the stage coach driver, but he thinks his soldiering days are long past.

Nonetheless, he is beloved by the people of Gilgamesh, including the Kimball family who are just there for a spell. Harriet Kimball finds herself enchanted by Gilgamesh and begins to think of the place as home, going so far as to put out an ad for marriage in the newspaper. She is almost as surprised by John Wilkins’ reply as he was.

©2018 Lazarus County Books (P)2018 Lazarus County Books

Mail order brides

Four sweet stories of mail order brides that moved to Lazarus county to marry men of different characters. They fall in live . I received a arc of this book and I highly recommend listening to these stories. They are clean and well written.

STRENGTH IS IN THE ACTIONS, NOT THE THOUGHTS

Four riveting stories of strong women in the 1800’s that decided to take their fate into their own hands and travel across an ocean, in one instance, and across the country to New Mexico. Their boldness is something to be admired, even by today’s women. The men who loved them can set an example for some men today, also.

The narration is another example of women taking on a strong role. The narrator did a good job imitating a man’s voice.

you need to make this a longer series it needs mor

I need more of these these stories are so sweet and wholesome in a time that was so hard I want to go back to simpler times maybe then I'd be married LOL but these are wholesome stories and good people and small town I want that kind of life you're writing makes me want to even more please make more like these are about the same area I want to see how this town grows

4 Sweet stories

This is a set of 4 short sweet stories of how 4 different women in Gilgemish Lazarus County NM. It shows how women who are desperate and have courage for love, to make a difference in their lives. Not knowing if it's for the better, but they are willing to take a chance on finding love.
Charley Ongel tells these stories with gentleness and sweetness! I enjoyed listening to these stories.
🎧audiobookobsessionreviewer🎧

Lazarus County Boxset

This is a really good four stories. My opinion it's worth a credit or buying to get all four stories. There all entertaining and holds your attention. There written and Narraited very well. If my review was any help will you please click the helpful link. Thank you

Clean, nice - but too short...:)

Amber Seraph is a new author to me and I think she has potential to create engaging, moving romances and likeable, strong characters. But in this collection - maybe because of the lenght of individual books - her talent hasn't got enough room to shine through...

All four novels have very good beginnings and sweet endings (as clean romances should have), but I feel they lack the part which I like the most: the development of true, strong love between the H and h. What I mean is, we get great stories of why the main characters decide to enter the "mail order bride" relationship, we get great first meetings and then we jump a few weeks/months into the future and they profess their love for each other and decide to get married. But why and how did they really fall in love? What actions or events made them develop such strong mutual feelings (beside the obvious instant physical attraction)? This is what I missed in three of the novels - the last one is a positive exception to the rule.
But all of that said, the stories are emotionally engaging; you do keep your fingers crossed for all the couples involved. The characters are likeable (or not - there's one particularly unpleasant "gentleman" in one of the books:)), the pace of all four stories is right and the plots keep you listen on with pleasure. So if you like clean, sweet romances just delve into this box set, it will give you a few hours of joy and sheer entertainment.

As for the narration, I'm on the fence with Ms Ongel. On the one hand, she does voices really well, Each character is distinguishable and she acts out dialogues perfectly. But I really didn't like the narrative parts - she sounds like a person on the verge of an emotional breakdown: remember the scene in "Sleepless in Seattle" when Meg Ryan is talking to her friend about "An Affair to Remember" and is on the brink of bursting into tears? - that's how Ms Ongel reads the narrative parts; it gets irritating after a few minutes.
So, to somehow summarise it, I'd give Ms Ongel 5 stars for the dialogues and 2 stars for the narrative parts - which makes it around 3 stars overall.

DISCLAIMER: I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Couldn’t Get Past Narration

The narrator is breathy and puts stops in a sentence where there shouldn’t be. I tried very hard to get past that, but I couldn’t. I wish I could get a refund because it was too horrible to listen to. I think the story would have been good, but who knows. And her voices for the make characters were horrible.

Clean Mail Order Bride Tales

In She Has to Stop Running Sometime: Ellen has to stop running sometime. She's fled her past all the way across the Atlantic and has given up hope of having the kind of romance she dreamed of as a girl. Bruised, inside and out, she'll be happy just to find a family she can keep house for.

Nate Harper has been in Lazarus County, NM for years. His younger sister knows how lonely he is has been seeking a bride for him back East. He's embarrassed but his heart wells up with kindness when he reads about Ellen's hopes for a new life and invites her to his home as a housekeeper. Neither want to admit to their attraction, and Ellen can't shake the feeling that no man will ever love her with her dark past.

In Western Redemption: Marlie Kane needs salvation. Not just for herself but for her three brothers, two of which can’t stay sober long enough to pay rent in Boston. When their landlord tells Marlie that her only way to make money is to sell her body, she’s praying for a miracle and willing to try anything to get away.

Graham Evans is the cooper and carpenter of the town of Gilgamesh in Lazarus County. After losing his wife to diphtheria he came to New Mexico to forget his past. He’d long since given up on love but is surprised by the happiness that his friend Nate has found with his mail order bride. Ready to throw the dice, he puts out a matrimonial ad himself.

Graham is hardly prepared for Marlie’s brothers to arrive in Lazarus County as well. The whole town is shocked by the arrival of other outsiders, who think that the family owes them something. Their plans to take it out of Marlie’s flesh lead to a confrontation and a decision by Graham that changes his life forever.

In Western Freedom: Annabelle Feelan is from the upper crust of Philadelphia. Her wealthy father has showered her with luxuries and indulgence her entire life but now is beginning to despair of her. It's time for her to marry but Annabelle finds every prospective husband who is suitable to her father a complete bore.

She longs for the sort of romance she’s read about in novels. None of the men in Philadelphia could bring her excitement or rescue her from bandits! She finally takes matters into her own hands and puts an advertisement in a newspaper. She never imagined a man like Aidan Killarney would respond!

Aidan is a homesteader in Gilgamesh, New Mexico. He came to Lazarus County with his sister and twin younger brothers. Watching his sister get married and prepare to have a baby has made him realize that his life of hard work in Lazarus County might not be enough after all. He never expects that answering a strange girl’s newspaper ad would be the most important decision of his whole life.

In The Sheriff Needs a Bride: Lazarus County needs a Sheriff. There are Indian tribes and bandits throughout New Mexico

Sweet Historical Romance

I loved these stories. Although all taking place in the same town in New Mexico, they are about very different love stories!

The last one was my favorite!

I wasn't particularly pleased with the narration though! She constantly breathed out her words like excitement at a constant rhythm. it was strange. Two stories starred Irish characters, and her Irish lilt was anything but!

She did do great on the other voices though. If she worked on her breathyness she'd be amazing!

Great series

Some books were better than others. However this series was great. I am glad I listened to it and did not read it. The narrator brings everything to life.