Lucy's Brewed Ambitions (A Mail Order Bride Romance)

In the bustling city of New York in the 1880s, Lucy Atkins was a woman ahead of her time. A savvy merchant who imported the finest coffee beans from overseas, she took immense pride in grinding them herself and savoring every sip of her morning brew. However, Lucy's ambitions extended far beyond her quaint shop. She yearned to expand her business and put her marketing acumen to greater use. It was a chance encounter with a newspaper advertisement that set Lucy's life on an unexpected course. The ad, a call for a mail-order bride in the rugged expanse of Northern California, caught her eye. The prospective groom was Avery Stokes, a shopkeeper who shared her passion for the aromatic dark brew. Through a flurry of letters, a spark ignited between the two strangers bound by their love of coffee. Emboldened by the prospect of a new adventure and the tantalizing promise of fertile ground for her entrepreneurial spirit, Lucy made the daring decision to answer Avery's call. With a train ticket and a modest sum for travel expenses provided by her prospective husband, she bid farewell to the familiar streets of New York and embarked on a journey into the great unknown. The long train ride across the vast American landscape was rife with excitement and trepidation. As the miles rolled by, Lucy couldn't help but wonder about the man she had agreed to marry, a virtual stranger whose face she had never seen. Would their shared love of coffee be enough to bridge the divide between their worlds? And what challenges awaited her in the rugged terrain of Northern California?