Siobhan’s Quest by P. Creeden

As arable farmland grows scarce, the United States opens up former sections of Indian Territory for homesteading. Those who want to claim land must make a run for it. Will a thin, homely woman find love or disappointment when she answers a mail-order bride advertisement from Oklahoma? Siobhan Ryan has always lived in poverty. She and her brother had to fend for themselves in New York ever since her mother’s passing. But on a whim, Siobhan answers an advertisement for a mail-order bride from Oklahoma. Though she soon finds herself falling for the man writing the letters, she fears answering his proposal, since she can’t imagine that her thin, sickly frame could appeal to any man as great as Sean Murray. And besides, she hasn’t yet told her brother about the advertisement, much less the proposal. But when she strikes up the courage to tell him, her brother goes missing… Sean Murray and his father traveled west, working on the railroad—until his father’s near fatal accident. Now he’s caring for his father in Oklahoma City and puts an advertisement in for a mail-order bride do battle his loneliness. But when he finally proposes to her, all correspondence stops. To make matters worse, he’s running out of money, and no one in Oklahoma City wants to hire an Irishman. And hundreds of Irishmen are sitting in a camp just outside of town, all waiting for the upcoming Land Run. So, Sean comes up with a plan to help himself and the other Irishmen there, but soon it looks like his plan is for naught and all his dreams of having a wife, a property and employment are falling to pieces at the seams. How will he recover from each heartbreaking disappointment?