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Wagon Wheel Justice #1
A Bride's Deception
When Uncle Gabriel dies, Sadie Salinger and her sisters find themselves owning a detective agency. Complete with a case ready to go. Adelaide’s come up with an idea. Masquerading as a madame and a lady of the night. Sadie’s the one who has the gumption to pull off the ruse, so it’s settled. She and Adelaide will go to a mining town to solve the mystery Uncle Gabriel left behind.
Larson Donaldson’s not a lawman anymore, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t need to eat. Of course, he does, so he gets himself a job as private security for a madame and her sportin’ woman. He’s never had a job quite like this one. Then again, he’s never met a woman quite like Sadie Salinger.
Things seem fine until an attempt is made on their lives. That’s when he determines he needs to know the truth. He can’t protect the women when he doesn’t know what in creation’s name they're actually doing in this mining town.
Larson Donaldson’s not a lawman anymore, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t need to eat. Of course, he does, so he gets himself a job as private security for a madame and her sportin’ woman. He’s never had a job quite like this one. Then again, he’s never met a woman quite like Sadie Salinger.
Things seem fine until an attempt is made on their lives. That’s when he determines he needs to know the truth. He can’t protect the women when he doesn’t know what in creation’s name they're actually doing in this mining town.
236 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 31, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
June 20, 2022
Plot fair, characters ok, written badly
Don't hold your breath for this one. I liked Sadie, Larsen, & Adelaide. Though half the time the author called Sadie "Georgia". The sisters Josie..or Justine..& Belinda were barely characters in this story. Adelaide & Sadie acting like a madame & prostitute in order to talk to men was dumb. Sadie wore a tight dress but didn't even attempt to act in order to talk to bartender or anyone else. Larson told Sam..as he was undercover .that he was a boxer..after already telling girls noone would believe that. Then he turned around and acted like an investigator & Sam never questioned it. He was happy to tell larson everything & boxing for Larson was never mentioned again. More mistakes like that one happened. The book Larson finds...one person needing it, then suddenly another says she's taking it. And why did a guy attack Adelaide? No reason was given. Plus Larson says "I doubt if we'll ever know." Someone tries to murder you & you just shrug it off as a mild problem that you don't want to solve? I was frustrated all the way through.
Don't hold your breath for this one. I liked Sadie, Larsen, & Adelaide. Though half the time the author called Sadie "Georgia". The sisters Josie..or Justine..& Belinda were barely characters in this story. Adelaide & Sadie acting like a madame & prostitute in order to talk to men was dumb. Sadie wore a tight dress but didn't even attempt to act in order to talk to bartender or anyone else. Larson told Sam..as he was undercover .that he was a boxer..after already telling girls noone would believe that. Then he turned around and acted like an investigator & Sam never questioned it. He was happy to tell larson everything & boxing for Larson was never mentioned again. More mistakes like that one happened. The book Larson finds...one person needing it, then suddenly another says she's taking it. And why did a guy attack Adelaide? No reason was given. Plus Larson says "I doubt if we'll ever know." Someone tries to murder you & you just shrug it off as a mild problem that you don't want to solve? I was frustrated all the way through.
July 6, 2023
Not a great story. I omitted tagging it as historical because there is no sense of history to it. It is merely “olden days”, in the very broadest sense of the phrase. It is very naively written, as though it was done by one of my year 8 students — some good ideas but no research, and often showing a lack of common sense or experience. Continuity is also lacking. The older sister is described as both “stockier” and “slender” at different points in the book, and their client is referred to as both the sister and the wife of the dead man. The author also forgets that their employee had only met two sisters and has him also giving his opinion on the other two he has not met.
I have read other books by Carver and have enjoyed them, although editing has also been an issue for them. this one, with its premise that good, slightly religious girls, would go undercover as a Madam and one of her girls, is too ludicrous to deserve a better rating.
I have read other books by Carver and have enjoyed them, although editing has also been an issue for them. this one, with its premise that good, slightly religious girls, would go undercover as a Madam and one of her girls, is too ludicrous to deserve a better rating.
March 13, 2022
It's not a typical western. The names of the sisters changed so I thought it was more than 4. It seems like days to solve the case, but towards the ending it said months. I'm not interested in any other of her books.
February 14, 2022
There was no bride. Two of the 4 sisters were called by different names with no reason. Not impressed.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 23, 2023
First of all, this is NOT a mail order bride book AT ALL. None of the sisters in the book are brides at all. So this book’s title and subtitle are totally wrong and misleading.
Secondly, within the first few pages, Josephine aka Josie is also referenced as JUSTINE! I think the author originally had her as Justine and did a “find and replace” in Word and the computer didn’t find them all to replace. I had to go back and forth several times to be sure I wasn’t missing another sister.Sadie was also born Sarah but the father called her Sadie so they call her Sadie. Just way too much confusion over the sisters names!!! This book was clearly not edited in any way.
Thirdly, there was no point whatsoever in Adelaide and Sadie posing as a madam and a prostitute. There was not any scene where they even pretended to do so except one time where Sadie dresses up in a tight, revealing dress, and wears fish net stockings and goes to the Saloon with Larson. There was no need for that. Larson watched over her, never let any other guy near her. The whole point was for Adelaide and Sadie to get close to men so that they would talk more freely about things to them. There was never any situation where Adelaide or Sadie were talking alone with another man. Larson was ALWAYS with Sadie. The only men they spoke to were the coroner and the bar tender.
Also, when that man, Byron, broke in and held a knife on Adelaide and fought Larson, he got away. That whole situation was never brought up again! It seemed like, while reading it, that the author was intending for there to be some sort of cover up with the murder and Byron had gone to try to warn them off, but that NEVER happened. He was never mentioned again.
Fourthly, for this being a MURDER investigation they never even spoke to the sheriff!!! They only spoke to the sister that hired them, the bartender, the coroner, and the girl that had a crush on the guy that died. How about speaking to the sheriff and find out what his investigation showed? How about interviewing witnesses?!
Fifthly, when they did find out who killed the guy, it was like oh, that’s a reasonable excuse why you accidentally killed him. We won’t tell the sheriff you killed the guy! It’s called involuntary manslaughter, Ms. Carver! She should have been arrested and served some sort of jail time.
Sixth, the date of the story was never mentioned though over time you figured out it was sometime in the late 1800s. It would have been nice to know the date, so you would know what the setting would look like, what clothes people wore, etc.
Seventh, there were a few times where it was unclear if it was the same day or the next day. And one time May said I want you to go NOW. And then they went to speak to Sam and they said “how did you know?” And he replied “I spoke to May last night about it” and there was no way May knew about it until they spoke that day. So either May knew about it and was involved in killing her brother (she wasn’t) or the author screwed up again having the characters go to see Sam THE NEXT DAY when it clearly said they were to go NOW as in the same day!
Eighth, Larson mentions Belinda and Josie and he never even met them! He also mentions the nice house the uncle left them. 1) he didn’t know about them inheriting the business and (2) he only visited the office part of the building, never the residence.
Ninth, the attorney told the girls that they all equally inherited the estate of their uncle, including all money and all properties that he owned. Why did Adelaide say she was giving I believe it was Josie one of the mansions and all its profits? When you own something EQUALLY you all own it EQUALLY. And the eldest child wouldn’t be able to say you get this property, you get that property, you get that other property. No, all four sisters would own each property equally. One sister could live by herself in one of the houses, but they ALL own it EQUALLY. If they want one sister to have it to herself in ownership then they either have to sell their shares of the property to that sister, or gift their shares of the property to that sister. And just because Adelaide was the eldest child, that doesn’t give her any legal rights to do anything without the other sisters written approval. She doesn’t automatically become in charge of anything either.
There were a lot of things wrong with this book, making it totally unrealistic in any timeline and it gave me a headache getting through reading this book.
The writing itself wasn’t that bad, but I would say this is a very rough draft of a story that needs to be worked on a lot more (and researched) before publishing it.
Secondly, within the first few pages, Josephine aka Josie is also referenced as JUSTINE! I think the author originally had her as Justine and did a “find and replace” in Word and the computer didn’t find them all to replace. I had to go back and forth several times to be sure I wasn’t missing another sister.Sadie was also born Sarah but the father called her Sadie so they call her Sadie. Just way too much confusion over the sisters names!!! This book was clearly not edited in any way.
Thirdly, there was no point whatsoever in Adelaide and Sadie posing as a madam and a prostitute. There was not any scene where they even pretended to do so except one time where Sadie dresses up in a tight, revealing dress, and wears fish net stockings and goes to the Saloon with Larson. There was no need for that. Larson watched over her, never let any other guy near her. The whole point was for Adelaide and Sadie to get close to men so that they would talk more freely about things to them. There was never any situation where Adelaide or Sadie were talking alone with another man. Larson was ALWAYS with Sadie. The only men they spoke to were the coroner and the bar tender.
Also, when that man, Byron, broke in and held a knife on Adelaide and fought Larson, he got away. That whole situation was never brought up again! It seemed like, while reading it, that the author was intending for there to be some sort of cover up with the murder and Byron had gone to try to warn them off, but that NEVER happened. He was never mentioned again.
Fourthly, for this being a MURDER investigation they never even spoke to the sheriff!!! They only spoke to the sister that hired them, the bartender, the coroner, and the girl that had a crush on the guy that died. How about speaking to the sheriff and find out what his investigation showed? How about interviewing witnesses?!
Fifthly, when they did find out who killed the guy, it was like oh, that’s a reasonable excuse why you accidentally killed him. We won’t tell the sheriff you killed the guy! It’s called involuntary manslaughter, Ms. Carver! She should have been arrested and served some sort of jail time.
Sixth, the date of the story was never mentioned though over time you figured out it was sometime in the late 1800s. It would have been nice to know the date, so you would know what the setting would look like, what clothes people wore, etc.
Seventh, there were a few times where it was unclear if it was the same day or the next day. And one time May said I want you to go NOW. And then they went to speak to Sam and they said “how did you know?” And he replied “I spoke to May last night about it” and there was no way May knew about it until they spoke that day. So either May knew about it and was involved in killing her brother (she wasn’t) or the author screwed up again having the characters go to see Sam THE NEXT DAY when it clearly said they were to go NOW as in the same day!
Eighth, Larson mentions Belinda and Josie and he never even met them! He also mentions the nice house the uncle left them. 1) he didn’t know about them inheriting the business and (2) he only visited the office part of the building, never the residence.
Ninth, the attorney told the girls that they all equally inherited the estate of their uncle, including all money and all properties that he owned. Why did Adelaide say she was giving I believe it was Josie one of the mansions and all its profits? When you own something EQUALLY you all own it EQUALLY. And the eldest child wouldn’t be able to say you get this property, you get that property, you get that other property. No, all four sisters would own each property equally. One sister could live by herself in one of the houses, but they ALL own it EQUALLY. If they want one sister to have it to herself in ownership then they either have to sell their shares of the property to that sister, or gift their shares of the property to that sister. And just because Adelaide was the eldest child, that doesn’t give her any legal rights to do anything without the other sisters written approval. She doesn’t automatically become in charge of anything either.
There were a lot of things wrong with this book, making it totally unrealistic in any timeline and it gave me a headache getting through reading this book.
The writing itself wasn’t that bad, but I would say this is a very rough draft of a story that needs to be worked on a lot more (and researched) before publishing it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 13, 2024
Heed the 1 and 2 star reviews. This was a good premise, terrible execution. It really needed an editor. I only made it 25% before a DNF for me.
Won’t be reading other stuff by this author due to writing, lack of editing, and according to other readers a lacks of brides.
Fairly confident I could have written a more well executed story.
Only thing I remotely liked was the cover for this story for my Kindle edition.
Won’t be reading other stuff by this author due to writing, lack of editing, and according to other readers a lacks of brides.
Fairly confident I could have written a more well executed story.
Only thing I remotely liked was the cover for this story for my Kindle edition.
February 12, 2022
Such a fast paced, fun book
When 4 sisters lose their last relative, the uncle that had raised them, they are surprised to learn that he'd left them a detective case that he'd accepted before he died. Fascinated, the girls make plans to pick up where he left off and are soon on their way to becoming detectives.
When 4 sisters lose their last relative, the uncle that had raised them, they are surprised to learn that he'd left them a detective case that he'd accepted before he died. Fascinated, the girls make plans to pick up where he left off and are soon on their way to becoming detectives.
February 12, 2022
Private Investigators
When the four sisters learned that their uncle had left everything to them, they weren't sure about keeping his business going. But he had even provided the first job for them, too. Sadie and their newly hired bodyguard were hitting it off really well.
When the four sisters learned that their uncle had left everything to them, they weren't sure about keeping his business going. But he had even provided the first job for them, too. Sadie and their newly hired bodyguard were hitting it off really well.
February 14, 2022
A good st.
I would recommend this book for a relaxing weekend. It was an unusual story and held my interest until the end. It is a very tastefully done love story as well as a mystery.
I would recommend this book for a relaxing weekend. It was an unusual story and held my interest until the end. It is a very tastefully done love story as well as a mystery.
February 23, 2022
A poorly edited book
I keep wondering who George is. I don't think anyone edited this book. It was thrown together without much character development or depth to the story. It also had nothing to do with mail order brides.
I keep wondering who George is. I don't think anyone edited this book. It was thrown together without much character development or depth to the story. It also had nothing to do with mail order brides.
May 21, 2022
Their uncle knew they would be good running his business
I liked the way the story brought them together and they figured out the ministry together and decided what to do in the end.
I liked the way the story brought them together and they figured out the ministry together and decided what to do in the end.
August 7, 2022
Christian historical novel
Interesting story enjoyed the characters and connected.
History was well told it had no sexual content or cussing.
Thank you I recommend the book and the author.
Interesting story enjoyed the characters and connected.
History was well told it had no sexual content or cussing.
Thank you I recommend the book and the author.
February 23, 2022
Well
The overall story was great. However, the timeline was skewed a couple of times...and names were wrong. Not a terrible read, just a little erm, what the heck just happened?
The overall story was great. However, the timeline was skewed a couple of times...and names were wrong. Not a terrible read, just a little erm, what the heck just happened?
February 27, 2022
I thought this was a very ditzy novel. Could appeal to juvenile--it was a clean, Christian tale with a titillating "cover story" involving bordello and impersonating a "sporting"
gal.
gal.
March 25, 2022
Nice story.
This was a fun story. There was a real problem with the writer keeping names consistent. Time was a little confusing also. For the most part a good book.
This was a fun story. There was a real problem with the writer keeping names consistent. Time was a little confusing also. For the most part a good book.
March 27, 2022
Good read
You can be more comfortable and then you have to read it good story for a rainy day. Plus you can see what happens
You can be more comfortable and then you have to read it good story for a rainy day. Plus you can see what happens
June 17, 2022
Like a lot of the reviews, the story line was good. But the editing was horrible. The title is off to, there was no bride. Surprised it made it to print.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 9, 2022
A delightful book but much too simple with very little depth in the characters or the plot.
October 31, 2023
Short chapters. I enjoyed the novel.
December 28, 2023
This book is an interesting story but so many questions are not answered. Why did the man break in and try to kill them. Why did the main character’s name keep changing.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews