WYOMING STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY PUBLICATIONS FICTION AWARD winner KIRKUS INDIE NEW AND NOTABLE From opposite sides of an ocean, two people wounded by the Great War are fated to meet and try to rebuild their lives. First a war bride. Francesca Sittoni was brought against her will to America by the husband she never loved. Now she finds herself alone - widowed, pregnant, and with a small daughter to support. Terrified of being deported back to the impoverished Tyrolean mountain region of her birth, Francesca answers an ad placed by Wyoming rancher and former doughboy Kent Reed. Then a mail-order bride? As their contracted year together passes, Francesca begins to ask if she is cook and housekeeper to Kent...or a secretly sought mail-order wife as her sly old neighbor insists. Only Kent Reed, burned by mustard gas and his spoiled former wife's desertion, knows his heart's true desire when it comes to the beautiful immigrant woman now living in the uncomfortably close quarters of his small ranch house. Alethea Williams explores the powerful pull of love and endurance through this tale of heartache, romance, and overcoming hardship. Set in the final homesteader days of Wyoming, Willow Vale is the story of two strangers struggling with their own past who slowly begin to hope that they can meld their lives together into a new family.