Review: The Lucky Hat Mine

Synopsis:

A recipe for true love or murder? Ingredients: one Southern belle, one Colorado gold miner, a wife wanted classified, and a fainting goat. Let simmer.

What’s a Southern belle to do in 1863? Wife-wanted ads are always risky business, but Millie Virginia never imagined she’d survive the perilous trip across the Great Plains to find her intended husband in a pine box. Was he killed in an accident? Or murdered for his gold mine? Stuck in the mining town of Idaho Springs, Colorado territory, without friends or means, Millie is beleaguered by undesirable suitors and threatened by an unknown assailant. Her troubles escalate when the brother of her dead fiancé, Dominic Drouillard, unexpectedly turns up.

Dom is an ill-mannered mountain man who invades Millie’s log cabin, insists that his brother was murdered, and refuses to leave until he finds the killer. Compelled to join forces with her erstwhile brother-in-law, Millie discovers the search for Colorado gold is perilous, especially with a murderer on their trail.

The Lucky Hat Mine interlaces the tale of a feisty heroine with frontier legend and lore making for an engaging historical mystery.

Rating: 5-stars

Review:

The Lucky Hat Mine by J. V. L. Bell was brilliant! The story tells of one strong woman taking the chance on a new life for herself. Her friend brings to her attention of a mail bride order. This would give Millie, aka Red, the chance of a lifetime. Only does she realize that the journey would be anything but fun. Men taking advantage, men after her money, and then the death of her fiancé. Millie has it rough. She has very little. Men are proposing and offering to buy her out…then, she meets the insufferable man. Dom, so happens to be the brother of her dead fiancé. Once Millie informs him about his brother’s death both work together to find out who the killer is. Dom is sure his brother was murdered because the fats weren’t adding up…the last and expected thing neither of them wanted was to fall in love. A murderer is out there threatening them as they get closer.

The Lucky Hat Mine is intriguing, bold, and hilarious. J. V. L. Bell is a talented writer. I was impressed with the flow of the story. Before I knew it, I was finished reading it. Most engaging pioneer tale that I have ever read. Danger, romance, and murder. All wrapped into one masterpiece. I laughed, cried, and fell in love with both the story and the characters. Overall, I highly recommend this historical fiction to all.