The Jilted Countess by Loretta Ellsworth
Based on a true story, the Jilted Countess tells the tale of a Hungarian countess who falls in love with an American GI named Joe in Vienna just after WW2. They get engaged before he heads back to Minnesota, and stay in touch for the 2 years it takes her to get the paperwork and funds to join him. However, when she gets to America, she discovers that he had recently married the girl who sent him a Dear John letter during the war. She is devastated at losing him and possibly having to flee back to now Communist Hungary since her GI visa is expiring in 2 weeks. Then she gets the idea to advertise for a GI husband who is willing to marry her in 2 weeks. She receives over 1700 proposals and has to sort through them and make a life-changing decision. The author said that much of the story is accurate but because the Countess wished to remain anonymous, she had to invent the rest of the story of what happened after she picked a husband and moved to a small town with this veritable stran...