jjares reviewed on 1/8/2021 + 3387 more book reviews

Penniless Miss Quinn Cooper takes a job in the small town of Emerson Pass. From Boston, she travels to Colorado, where she hopes to earn enough money so her sister, her mother, and she can eventually be reunited. Since Quinn's father died, it has been difficult to make ends meet and now her mother is not doing well (lung problem).

When Alexander Barnes left England, he eventually landed in a small Colorado town. He recreated Emerson Pass because it had been burned to the ground. He is a widower with 5 children. His wife died about 3 years before the opening of the story; both he and his children are scarred by the memory of their mentally-ill mother.

Quinn arrives unconscious because someone fires two shots; that startles the horses and the sleigh she's riding in slips off the road. When Lord Barnes sees Quinn, he realizes she is far younger than he'd expected and that she couldn't reside in the local boardinghouse because the area had mostly rough men (1 woman for every 80 men). Someone of her youth would be easy prey for the (often drunken) men. So, he has her join his extensive household.

This is the very pleasant opening of a pair of series by Tess Thompson. Book 2 is listed below. However, the author is using the same town/region, while creating contemporary characters (related to the original characters in 'The School Mistress of Emerson Pass'). This Kindle selection offered the first chapter of the contemporary series 'The Sugar Queen' for readers (attached to the main story).

Emerson Pass - Historical Series
** 1. The School Mistress of Emerson Pass(2020)
2. The Spinster (2021) - Josephine Barnes' story

Emerson Pass - Contemporary Series
The Sugar Queen (2020)

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