Character Spotlight ~ Amanda Cabot's Sarah Dobbs & Clay Canfield

Today the spotlight shines on.........................................Sarah Dobbs & Clay Canfield


Amanda Cabot's debut novel historical novel has garnered very positive reviews which bodes well for the sequels in her Texas Dreams Trilogy. We hope you enjoy this behind the scenes look at Sarah and Clay......

Sarah Dobbs

Brief physical description

Sarah describes herself as “medium height, medium brown hair, medium brown eyes.” Can you tell that she does not consider herself beautiful? No one else – especially not Clay Canfield – would agree. Sarah’s most distinctive physical characteristic is a limp, the result of a riding accident when she was a child. Because of it, she’ was shunned by her former friends and had to build a life of her own.

Actor/famous person who might resemble her

This was a difficult question for me, since I don’t base my characters on real people, but after you asked, I realized that Jennifer Love Hewitt, from the television series “Ghost Whisperer” might make a good Sarah.

Strengths and weaknesses

Sarah’s greatest strength is her loyalty toward people she loves. It starts with her young sister Thea, whom she’s determined to protect. It’s that determination that leads Sarah to become a mail-order bride, traveling thousands of miles to marry a man she’s never met. Once she arrives in Texas, Sarah develops intense loyalty – or is it love? – toward Clay and will do anything, including risking her own life, for him.

Quirk (if any)

Sarah is not really a quirky person.

Your inspiration for the character

I’ve always been intrigued by mail-order brides and consider them to have been incredibly brave. It’s one thing to enter into an arranged marriage. At least in that circumstance someone – normally the bride’s parents – has met the groom. But a mail-order bride has no such assurances. To me, that’s courage. So, when I started thinking about a story where the heroine was a mail-order bride, I kept asking myself “why?” Why would anyone be so desperate as to marry a man she had never met? And what would happen if she traveled all that way, only to discover her fiancé was dead? Paper Roses is the result.

Clay Canfield

Brief physical description

Clay is six-feet tall with blond hair and blue eyes. Undeniably handsome, he has strong features and could have starred in a Western. Inside, however, he knows that he’s out of place as a Texas rancher.

Actor/famous person who might resemble him

Once again, this was a difficult question for me, since I don’t base my characters on real people. But if I were choosing an actor to play Clay, Keifer Sutherland from television’s “24” comes to mind.

Strengths and weaknesses

Like Sarah, Clay has a deep sense of loyalty. It’s loyalty to his father that brought him back to Texas, though he would have preferred to stay in Boston, practicing medicine. It’s loyalty to his brother that keeps him in Texas, determined to find his brother’s killer. And it’s loyalty to Sarah, the woman who should have been his sister-in-law, that leads him to risk everything.

Quirk (if any)

Clay’s not very quirky.

Your inspiration for the character

Besides mail-order brides, I’ve always been intrigued by the story of Cyrano de Bergerac. I love the idea of a self-sacrificing hero and ghost-written love letters, but I wanted a happier ending, so I decided to make Paper Roses what I now call my ‘mail-order-bride-meets-Cyrano-de-Bergerac’ book. Although I do not base stories on my own life, I have a fair amount of experience with love letters, because my husband and I spent the five years of our courtship mostly apart, writing daily letters.

Background to the story

Socialite Sarah Dobbs never thought she’d be a mail-order bride. But, then, she never thought she’d be destitute, shunned and her young sister’s only hope for a normal life. Drawn to the Texas Hill Country by the poetic letters she calls her paper roses, Sarah believes her secrets will be safe there. But the town is deeply divided and harbors its own secrets, including the identity of the person who murdered Sarah’s fiancé. There’s no one she can trust, not Clay Canfield, and certainly not God. He’s abandoned her. Talented physician Clay Canfield has only one desire: to find the man who murdered his brother and exact vengeance. He’ll never marry again, especially not a woman burdened with a child. As for faith, that’s not for him, any more than it is for Sarah. But God has plans for Sarah and Clay, plans that challenge everything they hold dear.

Thanks Amanda :)

Amanda has generously subjected herself to a Relz Reviewz interview which I know readers will enjoy so come back soon to learn about why she was drinking iced tea at McDonald's on the other side of the world!


Tune in on Thursday for a spotlight on Ann Shorey's Molly McGarvie from The Edge of Light ~ another debut historical writer!

Relz Reviewz Extras

Visit Amanda's website

Buy Amanda's book at Amazon or Koorong