About the Book

Book: Wildflower Bride

Author: Mary Connealy

Genre: Christian Historical Romance

Release Date: August 11, 2026

From bestselling author Mary Connealy comes a thrilling Western romance about finding belonging in unexpected places—a tale of a fierce woman warrior caught between two worlds, a gentle-hearted rancher, and the faith that brings them together. Perfect for fans of historical romance and unconventional heroines.

Abby has lived with the Flathead tribe since they rescued her as a child, forgetting her white heritage. But when her village is massacred, and she’s saved by kind-hearted rancher Wade Sawyer, she’s forced to confront her past and future. Though drawn to Wade’s gentle strength, she refuses to be bound to the white world that once abandoned her.

Wade Sawyer has spent his life trying to please his tyrannical father while battling his own demons. When he finds Abby—fierce, independent, and unlike any woman he’s known—he sees a chance at real love. But winning the heart of a woman who trusts no man and bridging the gap between two worlds seems impossible.

As they face deadly rustlers, family conflicts, and their own fears, Wade and Abby must learn to trust in God’s plan for their lives. But can Abby let down her defenses and embrace a future with Wade? And can Wade prove that true strength lies in gentleness and faith?

A moving story of finding home, healing from the past, and discovering that love knows no boundaries in the untamed Montana Territory.

 

Click here to get your copy!

 

About the Author

Mary Connealy writes romantic comedies with cowboys and is celebrated for her fun, zany, action-packed style. She is a two time Carol Award winner, and a Rita, Christy and Inspirational Reader’s Choice finalist.

Mary Connealy writes romantic comedy with cowboys always with a strong suspense thread. She is a two-time Carol Award winner, and a Rita, Christy and Inspirational Reader’s Choice finalist. She is the bestselling author of over 80 books and novellas. She has over a 1.8 million books in print.

Mary lives on a ranch in eastern Nebraska with her very own romantic cowboy hero. Visit her website or find her at Petticoats & Pistols!

 

More from Mary

I try to write books I love, and I re-read my own books. I’m a big re-reader and if I find myself uninterested in a book I wrote, I take that as a bad sign.

I happen to LOVE Wildflower Bride as much as any book I’ve ever written.

I wrote for ten years before I got my first book published. On that fateful day when I earned my first contract, I had twenty finished books on my computer. And I didn’t just write them and move on. I’d go back (re-reading even then) and polish them. I took stand alone books and shortened them, lengthened them. Turned them into series, saved all versions in case an editor wanted a series or did NOT want a series.

Each book well, not ALL twenty of them, but a whole bunch, had about nine versions, all saved separately. Love Inspired length, trade fiction length, series, stand alone. I kept them all. But when I felt like I’d really improved one of them, I went back to the other versions and made those same improvements. I did a LOT of writing within those twenty books.

Wildflower Bride was the first book I wrote from scratch after I signed a contract for it. Maybe for this reason, I especially love it. I took everything I knew, everything I learned and put it into this book. I remember staring at that blank page…I had about six books published by this time…and holding my hand flat on the computer screen and praying, God help me to remember everything I’ve learned.

The hero is Wildflower Bride is the villain in Montana Rose. He is wretched. But to me, he was a broken man. My editor, when I told her Wade was the hero, said, “I can’t imagine it, but go for it.”

He is saved at the end of Montana Rose. A young Christian trying to do right in the face of enormous pressure from his powerful, abusive father, in The Husband Tree, and a sad, lonely, but strong man, still growing in his faith at the same time he’s very solid in it, in Wildflower Bride.

I just loved him.

I love the wild beginning of Wildflower Bride, the heroine is an adult woman taken in by an Indian tribe at the age of ten when they find her, alone in a cabin, with her family all dead from a fever. She loves the people who saved her.

Then people start trying to save her from the tribe and she is insulted and wants no part of this new world when her small band of native family is killed in a massacre. Again, she survives.

Abby, she only vaguely remembers her birth name, fits nowhere. And she’s so at home in the wilderness she’s planning to live on her own, somewhere.

Wade falls desperately in love with the strength he finds in her.

These two need each other so badly, but Abby is a hard one to convince she should spend her life with Wade.

Then Abby finds that one of her family, an older brother who didn’t come west with her family, is alive and living nearby.

The way they discover each other, well, I just love it. Wade is starting to look pretty good compared to the grouchy, quick to swing a fist, brother. Still, she begins to remember her big brother, and she remembers loving him. Abby is a confused woman.

Can Abby find her place anywhere in the world? Can Wade find enough backbone to stand up to his father…so far he’d just cut him out of his life. But Pa needs him even if he’s too awful to admit it. Wade’s pa needs God, too.

And those evil men who destroyed her village, haven’t gone away and they want more from Wade and Abby than anyone can imagine. They have to be stopped and Abby and Wade have to find a way to work together to stop them.

Author Interview

• What is your favorite genre of books? Why?

This is tricky. Are you asking about writing or reading? Of course I want to write historical romance with cowboys. I read widely. I love romantic suspense, I’m a huge fan of Regency romance. I read a lot of detective fiction. I have about ten…or twenty authors I love and read every book that comes from them. And then I take suggestions from writer friends.

• Are you a one project at a time author or do you have multiple projects going at once?

I usually start a book and write it all the way through beginning to end before the next one begins, but I’m also doing a lot of revisions and interviews and other jobs that are part of being an author and that can knock me off my straight-through way of writing. But always, whatever is distracting me, I have that one book that needs to keep growing.

• How has your life experience helped in your writing journey?

I think it’s fundamental to it. I’m a small town girl who’s grown up on a farm, then married a Nebraska cattleman, so I think I bring some authenticity to the voice and attitudes of cowboys.

• What is the funniest thing to happen in the process of writing one of your books?

The first thing that flashed into mind was, I once wrote a romantic thriller about a demon-possessed serial killer (you know, the usual!!!) and at some point, in this spooky old mansion I had to make the heroine go up in the attic alone…and I couldn’t bear to have her be an idiot. I mean she KNOWS there’s a killer in the house. Why would she go up there? I was working it out and found myself laughing out loud and one of my kids came into the room I was in and just gave me this LOOK. This, “Has mom finally lost her mind” look. I couldn’t really blame her.

• How do you relax after a long day of writing?

Usually by reading. I know, like it’d kill me to take a walk once in a while. I’m a sedentary person and honestly to be an author, doesn’t that make sense?

• Where do you find your greatest inspiration?

I usually get the idea for my next book in my research for my current book. I spend a lot of time researching and I love it. I find tidbits of weird history that sparks an idea and off I go. A writer has a very strange mind and I am firmly in possession of one.

• Who is your favorite author? Why?

Oh, now that’s just mean. Do you know how many author friends I have? Do you know how many NON-friends whose books I love? I’m not even going an answer this, though I will tell you I am currently somewhat obsesses with Erica Vetsch’s Regency Romances.

• Do you have extensive outlines when writing or do you write a book as you go?

No outline at all. I pitch a one-page long synopsis of what I want to write to Bethany House Publishing and then a half-page each of books 2 & 3 in the series. Sometimes they ask questions but I don’t know why? Chances are the book I finally write will only vaguely resemble the book I said I was going to write. I am very much a seat-of-the-pants writer. I start out with a story idea and know the end goal is happily ever after with the bad guys all in prison or dead. The parts in between that all grow as I write.

• Do you remember the first book you read? What sort of impact did it make on you?

I don’t remember the first book I read, I was a huge reader from the cradle. (well, maybe a little later than that!) But I vividly remember reading The Black Stallion by Walter Farley and closing it and flipping it over to read the name of the author and thinking, “How did he do that? How did he put me right in the middle of those horse races?” I could taste the dust, hear those pounding hooves, feel those big bodies pressing against each other while they moved, feel the jockey’s arms straining as he held the reins. Really brilliant writing.

• What do you need in your writing space to help you stay focused?

Nothing. I’m very low-maintenance as a writer and have an uncanny ability to tune the world out and focus. My husband might say the ability is more annoying than uncanny. But I for sure have it.

Blog Stops

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, August 18

Texas Book-aholic, August 19

Labor Not in Vain, August 20

Paula’s Pad of Inspiration, August 21 (Author Interview)

For Him and My Family, August 21

Tell Tale Book Reviews, August 22

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, August 23

Book Holds and Jello Molds, August 24

Guild Master, August 25 (Author Interview)

Books You Can Feel Good About, August 26

Simple Harvest Reads, August 27 (Guest Review from Donna)

Holly’s Book Corner, August 28

Cover Lover Book Review, August 29

Fiction Book Lover, August 30 (Author Interview)

The Vine and The Branch, August 31

Mary Hake, August 31

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Mary is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon Gift Card!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://gleam.io/reBqi/wildflower-bride-celebration-tour-giveaway