Though his small outback town is having a wife-finding competition to bolster its population, Jeff Houston wants no part of it — until Billie Holden’s car breaks down on her way through Casey Plains, and Jeff starts looking for ways to convince her to stay… First in a series!
Billie Holden thought she had the perfect life, until she caught her boyfriend with another woman. Betrayed and hurting, she leaves Sydney for a new life in the tropical north. To help soothe her broken heart, she takes the inland route so she can see the outback. She’s never been there before and just as luck would have it, she breaks down smack in the middle of the smallest town she’s ever seen.
Jeff Houston didn’t want to join the wife hunting competition but he owed Beth big time, and can’t refuse her request to bolster the numbers. His luck changes when he meets Billie, the perfect candidate for a wife. Pity he isn’t looking for one, and the last thing she wants is to get into a relationship again. She only needs his mechanical skills.
They get on better than either of them imagined and Jeff decides he really wants to get to know her more. But keeping Billie in Casey Plains with lies wasn’t the best choice he could have made, and she finds out before he can come clean.
Once again, she’s on the run with a broken heart.
Is there anything this country man can do to tempt her to try again?
I swear I was born with a book in my hand and that is how I spent most of my childhood. That was fine until I got older and the voices in my head demanded to be heard and I started to write. The voices are no quieter but there are less of them.
This is a sweet and thoroughly enjoyable romance, set in the small Australian outback town of Casey Plains it is a small town that needs new people to move there, as the towns populations it is dwindling. When freelance journalist Billie Holden’s car breaks down on her way to a new life in Cairns, this could be the start of a new life for the town as well as herself.
Billie has just been burnt badly by her fiancé and it is time to move on, a sea change perhaps in Cairns, but she decides to take the inland road through the outback, when her car breaks down and she is desperately trying to find the mechanic she is directed to the pub and it is not long before she finds herself in a contest, for farmers to find a wife, this was not going to happen but when she meets Jeff the mechanic and a deal is made, Billie is finding that Casey Plains and its people are maybe what she needs.
Jeff Houston is living on the family farm and loving it now, but there were times that things were different and when the local mayor and pub owner Beth starts a contest to help bring more people to town he cannot let her down. Meeting Billie opens up a lot of feelings for Jeff and the deal they make see them spending two weeks together, which leads to more and the more time they are together the he wants to be with Billie, could this be his future bride?
This story is beautifully written and takes in the heart of the town and the problems that they are having, there are so many awesome characters living here and I do hope we get to know them even more in other books in the series. Billie is just the person the town needs to boost it, she has a heart of gold and is strong and caring but trust isn’t easy for her, and Jeff has issues from the past that play a part in their relationship, but when cupid’s arrow strikes it strikes and their journey to a HEA is wonderful. This is a story that I highly recommend lots of emotion and very moving.
Not even sure where to start with this.. The timeline is so questionable and confusing.
So Billie ends up stranded in a small town and finds herself at a matchmaking event that she can’t get out of. Then she moves into a complete strangers house while he fixes her car.. which she never asks about. She agrees to fake date him even though she just caught her ex-fiancé cheating and doesn’t want a relationship.
She and Jeff don’t seem remotely interested in each other but end up in bed together and all of a sudden are so happy together. And then he’s asking her to marry him on live television, which came out of nowhere.
2⭐️ is generous in my opinion.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
The Farmer Takes A Wife by author Ann B Harrison is a fun adventure to Australia for me. It was a smooth clean read that had me laughing in spots and looking to my own past in others. Like so many small towns all over Casey Plains is in the. So outback of Australia there are only so many women to go around for the men. So they have decided to hold a "Farmer Needs A Wife" speed dating night then you have to speed 2 weeks getting to know your winning date. LOL, the funny thing is Billie is one of the candidates. She is she had no idea she was signing up for speed dating. She thought she was there to find someone to fix her car that broke down as she ran away from her old life. Well, we all know life throws out stumbling blocks and well these two made them into stepping stones. What a wonderful read!
I love the author and I’ve read some of her other books. I had not heard of this series so I was a bit hesitant. I am glad I read it tho. I couldn’t put it down! Such a great storyline and great characters. You will get pulled in. You will laugh and show emotions for these characters. Yes there is long description parts but that’s what book ones of a series is mostly in many series. You will sit through the description parts and introduction parts and enjoy this book!
I loved the characters the p!of is great. The book holds your interest. A lot of emotion in the book. You won't be disappointed if you read it. Looking forward to reading more of her books.
I love the idea of the reality show presented here. So much better than the rich and famous that we usually see. Some of the problems presented here are not so different than rural America too.
Entertainment. Casey Plains is a town with colorful folk and a strange practice of how to find a spouse.
Yes, the town is slowly dying, the younger people are migrants to the big cities, and only remind the ones who loved to work the land and there are singles. So they have a strange dating competition to find their other half, even if the person is just passing through their town.
Baillie, car broke down and needs a mechanic fast, but to talk to the mechanic she needs to sign a paper (a secret contract😮) and thinks gets complicated by the minute, special since she isn't looking for any kind of relationship.
Jeff, the mechanic ends up dating Baillie (find out how) and he is determined to make Baillie stay forever in Casey Plains and married her, but everything goes wrong.
Colorful folk, dating competition, closed-door intimacy, romance, some drama, and a realistic point of view regarding the struggles of farmers' lifestyles and small towns.
Good story. I like the eye-opening regarding the farmer's life and how much important is to support and help them to maintain a good quantity of life no matter what, our life depends on them. 👌❤️
I enjoyed learning about the outback. Lots of similarity to the Western part of the US. And I loved getting to see characters who had a love of rural life.
Billie is leaving Sydney in order to start her life over. She was dumped by her boyfriend and it broke her heart. When her car dies, she is in a very small town. She finds herself taking part in a dating experience when all she wants is a mechanic.
Jeff is the town mechanic. He is really a farmer and he is in the dating contest to try to find a wife. Billie appeals to him right off the bat.
From there the reader gets to know Billie, Jeff and the people in town.
I liked the characters a great deal. Billie and Jeff are good together. And the secondary characters are wonderfully interesting.
The story has some slow spots. I would have liked a little more development.
I got the feeling of Australia…..at least I think I did. I got the feeling for small towns where the population is dwindling and that causes problems. Interesting topic for a story.
city girl finding her place in small town in the outback
Finding her fiancé cheating on her Billie decides to leave Sydney and start over somewhere far away. Taking the inland route instead of the coast road leaves her stuck in small town Casey Plains when her car breaks down. Having to sign up for Date Night at the local pub to be able to see the mechanic doesn’t make her night any better. Jeff sees Billie when she comes in and is determined to be the one who gets to date her. I found this whole concept unique and interesting. While waiting for parts for her car Jeff lets her stay with him and his ranch hand. Since she is a journalist it seems natural for her to write some articles about life in this town. This is like a snowball rolling downhill, Jeff and the town begin to grow on her. Jeff makes a mistake because he is trying to get her to stay that nearly ends the relationship they have built.
I love all the happenings in the outback. The town seems like a place that would be welcoming and the people are certainly entertaining. I love this and I hope you will too.
This is probably the most tepid romance I have ever read. There's absolutely no chemistry between the characters, and it should have ended when they got engaged, maybe one wedding chapter or a prologue. But that happened around the 70% mark. The rest is very boring info-dumping about the problems of the town in detail, which we should have gotten way before this point, if they were relevant for the plot (they're not).
La historia de amor entre Billie, una reportera de Sydney y Jack un granjero del Outback australiano, a partir de su encuentro fortuito en una rueda de cita, se entrelaza con los sueños y angustia de los habitantes de una población abandonada a su suerte por los habitantes de las grandes ciudades y sus gobernantes. Excelente relato con muy buen timing. Sin duda alguna leeré otras obras de esta autora.
A small dying farming/ranching community located in the Australian Outback. Like small towns in America the youth are moving to the big cities as soon as the graduate high school and some never return except maybe to visit family. A fictionalized story sort of based on the tv show, the lives of the community are being changed for the good.
Not your everyday story, but there is a lot of interesting things that happen. It's about people who didn't want their town to die. The mayor came up with an unique way to make it grow. An outsider got caught in this scene and she got the ball rolling. Now there is hope in finding spouses for all the farmers!
Billie and Jeff may have been brought together by chance but fate had a hand in it. Though it drags a bit the storyline is heartfelt and the characters witty.
Good read. Clean read. Fun getting to know the town's people. City living a lot different then country living. Guess it would be hard meeting new people when you're living country.
SWEET CLEAN ROMANCE A THREE BOOK SERIES WITH A CLIFFHANGER ENDING. IF YOU WANT TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENS TO THE H/h I GUESS THEY FINISH IT UP IN BK#2 THEN START ON THE NEXT BROTHER (there are 3). CHUCKLE. ;D
Billie was pressed to join a show of Farmer Needs a Wife. All she really wanted was to find a mechanic to repair her broken down car. Jeff had his heart broken and didn't really want a wife.
1. Wtf is happening? 2. Ummm what. Meet. Stranger and then move into his house from a speed date??? Serial killers anyone? 3. Nope don’t like it, if it didn’t fit my challenge prompt I would’ve dnf’d it. Don’t think I’m going to read the rest of the series
Hard to believe that this arrangement can be found anywhere. Stranger still that it actually works. Love can find it's way into a life under odd circumstances. Reading this story was great.
I couldn't put it down and read it to the end! Ann keeps the story flowing and the excitement high. You feel like you know the characters in real life, as you know your friends.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I couldn't wait to find out what's happening next! It kept my attention t Throughout the entire book! I'm definitely looking forward to reading the next book in the series!
It's the outback dating time. Jeff's doing it because he owes the mayor a favor big time. Billie walks in because her car has broken down outside of town and she needs a mechanic and that's Jeff. Crazy mix up but the story and the romance can't be beat enjoy.
she moves from Sydney after finding her fiance cheating on her her car breaks down and gets a lift to a small country town where she finds herself signed up at the annual speed dating