Miss Ellie's Purple Sage Saloon: A Novel of Independent Women on America's Great Frontier - Softcover

Jerrie Hurd

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0671519093 ISBN 13: 9780671519094

Publisher: Pocket Star, 1995

Synopsis

Breaking off her engagement to her business partner, Miss Ellie Wells, a saloon owner, disguises her emotions when Seth weds Marta Mae, a woman who is all too aware of the threat Ellie poses to her new marriage. Original.

About this title

Review:

Miss Ellie Wells is an uncommon woman holding her own in a man's world. She owns the Purple Sage Saloon that was given to her by Seth Watkins. But while she accepted the gift of the saloon, she never accepted Seth's marriage proposals. Ellie has no intention of ever marrying Seth or anyone else. She knows that marriage will mean giving up her independence and she's happy with her life the way it is. Ellie and Seth have an unusual relationship that Ellie thinks works just fine-- until Seth returns to Martinsville with a wife. Tired of being turned down by Ellie so many times and determined to become respectable, Seth accepts the marriage proposal of Marta Mae, niece to one of Colorado's richest men. Marta Mae is a lady in every way and very different from the fiery, unpredictable Ellie. Seth has never been able to understand Ellie and why she acts the way she does. First she gives him and his new wife a wedding gift, then she throws him out of the Purple Sage for no reason. He knows there's going to be trouble when Marta Mae starts organizing a temperance movement and tries to close the Purple Sage. But despite their differences, Seth promises Ellie he won't let Marta Mae close the saloon. For Marta Mae, marrying Seth might be her salvation. Believing that she will be made whole again with a man to give her children, she knows that Ellie still has a hold on Seth. Through temperance, she will fight Ellie and hang on to Seth, even if he doesn't love her. But Ellie isn't ready to let go of Seth or lose her saloon and she will fight Marta Mae any way she can to keep what belongs to her.Rich in historical detail! Jerrie Hurd captures the feeling of the American frontier and the spirit of the people who called it home! A wonderful glimpse into the past... the characters leap right off the pages and into your heart! Jessie Hurd writes with a style that is unique and captivating! Miss Ellie's Purple Sage Saloon is entertaining from beginning to end!Kristina Wright -- Copyright © 1994-97 Literary Times, Inc. All rights reserved -- From Literary Times

From Publishers Weekly:

The Wild West: it's where women go to tear off the stays of contemporary morality, battle their demons and find their true selves-their true loves be damned. Set in turn-of-the-century Colorado, Hurd's comical and lyrical women's western breaks the mold. Her frazzled hero, Seth Watkins, is a man besieged. Miss Ellie-the con artist and scam-puller to whom he has given his heart and the keys of the Purple Sage Saloon-won't marry him and keeps throwing him out at gunpoint. His new, "respectable" bride, Marta Mae, daughter of Colorado's richest entrepreneur, won't heed him. She's put antimacassars on all the couches at his rustic hunting lodge, and she's leading the townswomen in a temperance fight to close the Purple Sage. Ellie, a fierce freethinker and deadly poker player, is grieving for the little girl she and Seth lost in Abilene because she was judged an "unfit" single mother. For her part, Marta Mae believes that her reproductive organs are drying up, little knowing that a doctor destroyed them during an abortion forced on her by her family. But when Marta Mae's temperance ladies threaten her uncle's power base, she and Ellie become "enemies enjoined," determined to do him in and to empower themselves. Hurd, just as quirky, powerful and zealous as her heroines, portrays the causes of both past and present in such fine spunky style that readers are never overwhelmed by her moral clarion.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pocket Star
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0671519093
• ISBN 13: 9780671519094
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384