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Reviewed by Jane Finch for Readers' Favorite
An Improper Proposal by Davalynn Spencer tells the story of a city girl, Mae Ann, who finds herself in the wilds of Colorado having agreed to marry a man she has never met. Fate intervenes and leaves her a widow before she has even gotten married. Desperate not to return to the life she had left behind, she grasps the opportunity to become the wife of a rancher, and she and Cade Parker are married. She sets off for a new life on the ranch, determined to be a perfect wife in all practical ways, but aware that their ‘arrangement’ is purely one of convenience. The problem is, where matters of the heart are concerned, nothing ever turns out how it is meant to.
The author, Davalynn Spencer, has crafted a very gentle romantic story, intertwined with the reality of the harshness of life in the wilds. Couple that with a legal dispute over land, and learning to ride, shoot, and tend to a property and garden that has seen little female care for a long time, and this is a story that will enthrall the reader. The characters are well-developed and the way the author just teases out the romance with hints of attraction and desire really engages the reader to care about the characters, to feel enraged at the injustice of Mae Ann’s situation, and to mentally draw the two protagonists into each other’s arms. This is not just a romance; this is a story of survival and a determination to make life the very best that it can be.