Taming Lady Temperance
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected Feb 17, 2026
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
When passion for justice conflicts with the heart, which will prevail?
Noreen O'Sullivan is an enthusiastic member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and believes herself called to defend the cause of prohibition. When she's invited to join the Secret Society of Spinsters, Noreen jumps at the chance to rally others to her movement and shut down the local saloon for good. However, her passionate campaigning often puts her at odds with the men around her--including the local deputy.
Deputy James Paxton believes in preserving the peace, but Miss O'Sullivan has been disturbing his peace for months. If James wants to be elected sheriff, he can't afford to be seen as her ally. But when Noreen ropes him into helping her plan a temperance march, their growing closeness sparks unexpected feelings. Then tensions escalate at the saloon and accusations fly. James must choose between upholding his badge and protecting the woman who's captured his heart--knowing either choice could cost him everything.
Karen Witemeyer presents a swoony Western romance with a determined heroine, cowboys, prohibition, and the rivals-to-lovers and duty vs. desire tropes. Fans of Mary Connealy and frontier romances set in the Old West will savor this clean, historical read.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Witemeyer (To Love a Beast) kicks off The Secret Society of Spinsters series with a lively late-19th-century romance between a woman spearheading a local temperance movement and an ambitious policeman. Noreen O'Sullivan, 27, grew up with a troubled alcoholic father and is determined to marshal the Secret Society of Spinsters, a group dedicated to protecting single women in their small Texas town, to shut down the local saloon. When a fight breaks out between Noreen and the saloon owner, deputy James Paxton intervenes. He's struck by his attraction to the feisty woman, but he's running for sheriff and he worries a relationship with her might cost him the town's male vote. As Noreen picks James's brain about persuading people to join her cause, both open up about their pasts, and James can't help but admire Noreen's fierce faith. When a fit of rage overtakes her during a temperance march and her actions turn criminal, however, he worries she's becoming too much of a liability to take a risk with—and that her volatility might also hamper the success of her cause. Witemeyer's prose is propulsive and the chemistry between her leads is palpable as they struggle to balance their deepest values with the possibility of a relationship. Fans of clean historical romance should snap this up.
