Colorado, 1910. Quinn Cooper can’t help feeling uneasy. But securing a job as a schoolmarm in a tiny frontier town was the only way to save her family from starvation back in Boston. And her nerves aren’t eased by a stray gunshot that spooks the sleigh horses, casting her into the snow… until she’s rescued by a handsome stranger.

Lord Alexander Barnes knows better than to believe any pretty young woman would willingly become a mother to five children. But the lonely widower finds himself charmed by the lovely newcomer and her easy rapport with his offspring. And after his disgruntled nanny quits, his heart melts at the sight of her joyfully taking over the role.

Determined to prove herself in the schoolhouse and as a governess, Quinn fears her near-poverty will prevent any possible courtship with the affluent Englishman. And between their age difference and prejudicial violence in the town, Lord Barnes is certain this second chance at happiness just cannot be.

Will their love go unspoken, or will their persistence reward them with a lasting passion?

If it’s a book written by author Tess Thompson, whatever the genre or time period, you can count on sweetness, an easy, comfortable flow of action, a compelling cast of characters, and a more-than-satisfying conclusion. The School Mistress, the first in the Emerson Pass Historicals series, combines all those elements in what promises to be a heart-warming saga. The School Mistress adds an interesting twist: it’s an Edwardian historical romance, but it’s set in the American West at the turn of the 20th Century. An English Lord in a mining town? Sounds like an odd match, but it works perfectly.

Also an odd match on the surface is Lord Alexander Barnes and Quinn Cooper. He’s a widower with 5 young children. He built the town of Emerson Pass, Colorado to provide a safe, stable life for his family and others, and his life is a combination of English civility and tradition and taming the American wilderness. He doesn’t have time to realize he is lonely and yearning for a wife. She is a schoolteacher who has come to Colorado hoping to build a life and provide and eventually send for her widowed mother and baby sister, who are teetering on the brink of poverty and disaster back home in Boston. She isn’t looking for a husband but rather a way to escape the constraints and shame in Boston and gain some independence and freedom. She was expecting the Mayor of Emerson Pass, not a Lord. He was expecting an old spinster, not a beautiful, spunky young woman. They are both surprised, but very pleasantly so. The children take to Quinn at once and the feeling is mutual. However, they think she is the new mother for them and wife for Barnes provided by providence, not just their teacher.

As already noted, this story is full of sweetness, love and wonderful people. That’s not all, though. This is the West in 1910 – times are tough, prejudices are strong, danger is present. Thompson has filled the story with not only love and family and hope but cruelty and mystery and intrigue and some exciting action-packed sequences.

This is a wonderful start to the Emerson Pass stories, which are intended to have both an historical path and a contemporary one. I can’t wait to read the next entry and see where this saga goes. Highly recommend. ( )