Left deaf by a fever as a young girl and sent to live at the Colorado Institute for the Education of Mutes, bright, loving Amelia Polley isn't content to let life pass her by. When handsome rancher Aaron Zachary advertises for a wife, she marries him-without telling him she can't hear.

With secrets on both sides (Aaron can't read), the marriage is off to a rocky start. Communication difficulties, a poignant loss, some ill-advised decisions, and the plots of assorted villains don't help. Although Amelia and Aaron agonize far too much about their flaws, they are admirable and wonderfully appealing. Plentiful historical detail about the hearing impaired  makes this a good choice for all fiction collections. Sundell lives in the Colorado Rockies.