There have always been mail-order brides in America—but we haven’t always thought about them in the same ways. In Buying a Bride, Marcia A. Zug starts with the so-called “Tobacco Wives” of the Jamestown colony and moves all the way forward to today’s modern same-sex mail-order grooms to explore the advantages and disadvantages of mail-order marriage. It’s a history of deception, physical abuse, and failed unions. It’s also the story of how mail-order marriage can offer women surprising and empowering opportunities. Drawing on a forgotten trove of colorful mail-order marriage court cases, Zug explores the many troubling legal issues that arise in mail-order marriage: domestic abuse and murder, breach of contract, fraud (especially relating to immigration), and human trafficking and prostitution. She tells the story of how mail-order marriage lost the benign reputation it enjoyed in the Civil War era to become more and more reviled over time, and she argues compellingly that it does not entirely deserve its current reputation. While it is a common misperception that women turn to mail-order marriage as a desperate last resort, most mail-order brides are enticed rather than coerced. Since the first mail-order brides arrived on American shores in 1619, mail-order marriage has enabled women to improve both their marital prospects and their legal, political, and social freedoms. Buying A Bride uncovers this history and shows us how mail-order marriage empowers women and should be protected and even encouraged.

Everyone pays their debts to my family. Even if the payment is their daughter. When Amber was promised to me, I was too young to know what that really meant. But I'm older now, and so is she. She has curves that I want to hold. Her mouth is mine and mine alone. There's nothing that I won't do to her. No matter what happens, she's mine. She's bought and paid for. I'll protect her as long as she remembers one thing. She belongs to me. This is a standalone arranged marriage novel with a HEA!

From the country’s foremost expert on “cold feet,” a smart and compassionate guide for the bride-to-be who thinks she should be blissfully happy—but is freaking out instead For most brides, the elation of engagement is accompanied by a cocktail of unexpected emotions: Anxiety about making a lifelong commitment. Sadness about leaving their single life behind. Confusion when even simple decisions—should we serve chicken cordon bleu or beef Wellington?—bring them to tears. Worst of all, since everyone around them expects them to be happy, few brides feel there’s anyone to turn to with these conflicting feelings. Written by one of Modern Bride’s “25 Trendsetters of 2006”—and targeting the 2.5 million women who get engaged each year—Emotionally Engagedis the only book geared toward helping brides survive their engagements and emerge as stronger, happier, better- adjusted married women. In the book, Allison Moir-Smith shares her threestage, tried-and-true process from her workshops and individual therapy sessions, along with the stories of over a dozen brides-to-be and newlyweds, helping readers transform their bridal blues into bridal bliss.

Previous ed. entitled: Offbeat bride: taffeta-free alternatives for independent brides, 2007.

Book 3 of Cowboys & Brides From New York Times and USA Today-bestselling author Carolyn Brown comes a contemporary Western romance filled to the brim with sexy cowboys, gutsy heroines, and genuine down-home Texas twang. Emily Cooper promised her dying grandfather that she'd deliver a long-lost letter to a woman he once planned to wed. Little does adventurous Emily know that this simple task will propel her to places she never could have imagined...with a cowboy who's straight out of her dreams... When sexy rancher Greg Adams discovers his grandmother Clarice has installed Emily on their ranch as her assistant, he decides to humor the two ladies. He figures Emily will move on soon enough. In the meantime, he intends to keep a close eye on her—he doesn't quite buy her story of his grandmother as a mail-order bride. A lost letter meant a lost love for Clarice, but two generations later, maybe it's not too late for that letter to work its magic. Fans of Linda Lael Miller and Diana Palmer will thrill to this charming story of a sexy Texas rancher and the mail order bride who brought him to one knee. Cowboys & Brides Series: Billion Dollar Cowboy (Book 1) The Cowboy's Christmas Baby (Book 2) The Cowboy's Mail Order Bride (Book 3) How to Marry a Cowboy (Book 4) Praise for Bestselling Contemporary Western Romances by Carolyn Brown: "Sizzling hot and absolutely delectable."—Romance Junkies "Charming...a smoking-hot romance...there's nothing sexier than a cowboy."—RT Book Reviews, 4 stars "Witty dialogue and hilarious banter... Carolyn Brown delivers yet another steamy cowboy romance."—Night Owl Reviews

A Bride's Book is designed to be a record and treasured keepsake which takes the bride from her engagement through her post-honeymoon thank-you notes. Lavishly illstrated with gorgeous photographs by Richard Jung from Marsha Heckman's best-selling book, Bouquets: A Year Of Flowers For the Bride, A Bride's Book is both a hard-working wedding planner and journal. In addition, it is filled with tips for the bride, wedding traditions, and marriage customs - as well as instructions on how to make 7 stunning wedding bouquets. Spiral bound to open flat, with elastic closure and inside pockets, A Bride's Book is easy for the bride to carry with her thoughout the year as she plans her wedding and honeymoon. A Bride's Book is organized into six sections, each with a 4-color photograph of a wedding bouquet on the front, and how-to instructions and photographs on the back.

Most in the United States likely associate the concept of the child bride with the mores and practices of the distant past. But Nicholas L. Syrett challenges this assumption in his sweeping and sometimes shocking history of youthful marriage in America. Focusing on young women and girls--the most common underage spouses--Syrett tracks the marital history of American minors from the colonial period to the present, chronicling the debates and moral panics related to these unions. Although the frequency of child marriages has declined since the early twentieth century, Syrett reveals that the practice was historically far more widespread in the United States than is commonly thought. It also continues to this day: current estimates indicate that 9 percent of living American women were married before turning eighteen. By examining the legal and social forces that have worked to curtail early marriage in America--including the efforts of women's rights activists, advocates for children's rights, and social workers--Syrett sheds new light on the American public's perceptions of young people marrying and the ways that individuals and communities challenged the complex legalities and cultural norms brought to the fore when underage citizens, by choice or coercion, became husband and wife.