FINDING PROMISE - Scarlett Dunn
The McBride Brothers - Book 2
Zebra
ISBN-13: 978-1-4201-3891-7
January 2016
Inspirational Historical Romance

Kansas to Colorado - Approximately 1870

Former U.S. Marshall Jake McBride is on his way to Promise, Wyoming, headed for his brother's ranch with a herd of over 2500 cattle, a crew of drovers, and Jake's best friend, Cole Becker, also a recently retired U.S. Marshall.  When he and the crew come upon a wagon train, they find over a dozen people slaughtered.  However, there is still one woman alive, but unconscious.  Hoping to help her stay alive, Jake drapes her to lie over his saddle and takes her back to his camp where he and Shorty, the cook, get her into dry clothes and a dry bed.  She stay unconscious for days, and in that time, Jake decides to read the diary he brought from her wagon and see if he can learn more about her and the people on the wagon train.

Southern heiress Parker Promise Sinclair is on her way to Colorado with her brother Matthew.  Her aunt Nettie and Uncle John are providing land for the settlers on the wagon train, and a home for Promise, where she'll have a new start on her life.  Unwilling to stay home and play the sheltered life of a high society lady and all its said obligations, Promise is looking for adventure and the opportunity to paint her pictures.  Moving West is just the ideal thing.  Her brother has doubts, but still, he leaves his fiancée back home in South Carolina and grudgingly agrees to accompany Promise to their uncle's ranch.

Promise finally wakes in an amnesiac state, just like the doctor Jake brought out from a nearby town explained:  memory loss is not uncommon for head injuries, and Promise might or might not recall any details of her life or what happened to her.  In the meantime, the men who attacked the wagon train are now targeting Jake and the herd, determined to get to Promise and the treasure they believe she has.  In a run for their lives, Jake is determined to take down the killers, deliver Promise to her uncle in Colorado, and get the cattle safely to Wyoming.  Will they stay alive long enough to accomplish all that?

To Jake's surprise, Promise is not the genteel and helpless society lady he thought she would be.  This woman can ride a horse and shoot a gun just as well as most of his crew, and she cooks like an angel!  (Even Shorty admits her biscuits are the best!)  Jake's constant care of Promise and the trust they build together soon develops into deeper feelings, but Jake has a job to finish, and if they can reach their destination, all will be well.  Even though he vowed to deliver Promise safely onto her uncle's ranch, fate sometimes has other plans.  Is it coincidence that instead of Colorado, he's taking her to his home, coincidentally also named Promise?

FNDING PROMISE is the second book in the McBride Brothers series, following PROMISES KEPT (August 2015).  These books stand alone, each with their own stories, but the characters sparkle so much and the pages are exciting, which will drive the reader to get the entire series!  The third novel is LAST PROMISES, due in May 2016.

With lots of suspense, tender romance, and vivid characters, FINDING PROMISE is a sure winner!

Diana Risso