The Bridegrooms by Allison Pittman

The four young Allenhouse sisters (the oldest was eight) had been abandoned by their mother and raised by their doctor father. They are now at the ages where thoughts turn to marriage.
Two baseball teams (the Spiders and the Bridegrooms) come to town for exhibition baseball and the excitement begins. One baseball player is so smitten by the youngest sister that he fails to catch a ball that hits a man in the crowd and knocks him out. The unconscious man is taken to the Allenhouse home for recovery and is devotedly cared for by another sister. The third sister has sent off advertisements to frontier newspapers, looking for a husband. The oldest sister is being courted by a faithful yet somewhat boring man.
The excitement increases as we find that the smitten baseball player has a secret, the unconscious man awakes, a frontier man shows up, and the oldest daughter is being chased by a romantic ball player.
Pittman has woven a great story that contrasts passion against faithful love. The reader’s guide at the back would make this a good book for reading groups. This is a delightful book.
This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.
For ordering information:
http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781601421371