A school teacher and a moonshiner? Sign me up! The Moonshiner’s Bride by Cora Hayes is out now!
The Moonshiner’s Bride by Cora Hayes
RATING: 4 out of 5 STARS
{Mild Spoilers; Adult Content}
As with a lot of my favorite things in 2019 so far, I’ve found them on Twitter. Several days ago, Cora Hayes tweeted that her debut novel was live, and I immediately clicked the link and fell in love!
The Moonshiner’s Bride is the first in what I hope will be the first in a new series from this debut author! The novel follows Clara Flynn, an orphan from California, as she takes a position teaching in a rural town in West Virginia in 1928.
Clay Creek feels like it’s another world entirely. Like most small towns, it’s ruled over by one family with the name that founded the town. Harris Clay is strict, unyielding, and carrying a grudge against a family up on the mountain next to the town.
The Abbots have lived on the mountain for generations, and the head of the family, Warren (Wren) Abbott, keeps his head down, doesn’t mess with the townsfolk, and definitely doesn’t mess with Harris Clay’s self-righteous ass. All he wants to do is take care of his two siblings and make enough money to get them what they need.
Wren also has something that Clay wants very much, the deed to the land he lives on…practically half the mountain. In this mountain, on Abbot’s side, he runs a coal mine where the mountain people work. Wren won’t sell him the land that would expand his business because it was his father’s, and he doesn’t want to give into to a man like Clay.
Enter the new schoolteacher, Clara Flynn, who lives in Clay’s home so he can keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn’t do anything that would sully her reputation. She finds out about two children on the mountain who don’t come down to school with the other children. She takes it upon herself to reach out and try to persuade Warren Abbott into letting them come to school.
It takes several tries, but eventually he relents. What follows is a growing romance between Clara and Wren. One that will shake up the town and everything the Abbott family has come to know.
This novel is swoony, sexy, and so interesting. Clara and Wren’s chemistry is fantastic, and oh my gosh, y’all! I do love a virgin hero. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does **chef kiss**.
“Once with you is not near enough, though I’m betting any amount of time will never be enough. I have to have you again before I go. I need you. Please?”
Clara is no wilting flower, even though she doesn’t have a lot of confidence in a crowd, she makes a good partner for Wren. As you read the novel, you find out just how lonely they both are and that they fit together so well. Wren needed someone to be sweet and flirt with, and Clara needed someone who would appreciate her for who she is. They’re adorable, y’all!
“I don’t need any help keeping women away. Don’t you know? I’m mean and scary.”
“Is that it?” she questioned teasingly. “It must be because I do believe you have the most handsome face for a least a hundred miles around.”
He twisted her in his arms so that they were face to face. “Really now?”
“Mmmhmm.” His searching lips muffled her answer.
“I’m glad you think so,” he mumbled between kisses. “I don’t have a mirror. Haven’t seen myself in ages.”
“No wonder you don’t bother with a razor.”
“I wouldn’t recognize my own face,” he admitted. “Not to mention, who would turn your chin pink if it wasn’t for me.”
I MEAN. This novel was exactly what my heart needed to start the new year.
My only issue was the very end. It felt a little rushed and crammed together like the author was trying to set us up for other novels in the series, but also trying to tie up any loose ends from Clara and Wren’s story. It wasn’t bad, though.
I really hope there’s a sequel about Walter and June! There’s so much left to tell there, and I can’t wait to find out what it is!
Give The Moonshiner’s Bride a read! It’s got a stubborn, smart heroine and a grouchy moonshiner hero with a heart of gold. If you’re familiar with the twific version of this story from many, many moons ago, there’s a nod to that title toward the end, or at least I took it as a nod! I highlighted it. Oh, and there’s a lovely HEA.