Heidi Hart

I usually have little patience with Westerns because the dialogue tends to be so godawfulbad, but this one was a pleasant surprise.

Houston is the middle of the three Leigh brothers. Facially disfigured in the Civil War at 15, he is lonely and considers himself unloveable. His brother Dallas sends Houston on the three week journey to get his (Dallas's) mail order bride, Amelia, from the train in Fort Worth: he can trust Houston, he thinks, because Houston is too ugly to tempt a woman to stray. More fool him.

Of course Houston and Amelia do fall in love. I got frustrated with the last half of the book because all the time Amelia is wishing Houston would grow a pair and admit he wants to be with her, she didn't seem to get that doing so would mean betraying his brother. I thought Houston's reticence was honorable, not cowardly (which is how it is mostly described by various characters).

I enjoyed the brothers, too, and read all three books in the series in two days.