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Four young women each brave challenges at the dawn of the 20th century. Will they overcome their hardships and find love?
Three Rings for Alice by Lisa Lickel
Alice Smith is a thoroughly modern young woman at the brink of the twentieth century. She may be an orphan, but she enjoys the companionship of close friends who all look toward the future. When they begin pairing off, Alice feels lonely. In her job as the Milwaukee Mayor’s secretary, she keeps long hours at City Hall, filing, copying correspondence, and answering the new telephone system, the first without a switchboard. When an intriguing-sounding man makes an accidental call to the mayor’s office, they strike up a companionship. Alice tells herself she doesn’t miss him when his random calls stop and she begins a no-nonsense courtship with a friend. Until he calls again.
Forgiven by Paula Mowery
Henry isn’t interested in working in the family business. He has his own aspirations. And his mother is determined to make sure he weds a woman he doesn’t love.
Jessie wants to build a life for herself and her sister that is more than the life her father dealt her when he abandoned them.
When Henry and Jessie meet, it seems to be the classic love at first sight until a shocking revelation tears them apart.
The Pocket Watch by Kathleen Rouser
Isabel Jones, an orphan, receives a ruby ring left by the mother she never knew and wants more than ever to find her roots. When a young physician, Daniel Harper, rescues her from an oncoming automobile and she finds his pocket watch in a puddle, her circumstances take a turn. She begins to consider what life outside the orphanage could be like. Daniel’s heart has been broken before and the attractive young lady who finds his treasured timepiece wouldn’t be deemed suitable by his social climbing parents.
When Isabel and Daniel work side by side, caring for the orphanage children during an influenza epidemic, she becomes gravely ill. Compelled to redeem the time by helping her find the past, Daniel finds a buried truth, connected to the ruby ring, which creates an unbridgeable chasm between them. Where will they find hope in a hopeless situation?
Flames of Hope by Teena Stewart
Young San Francisco police officer Gideon Light is smitten the moment he sees Lily McMinn rolling down the awnings on her father’s mercantile. Lovely, petite, and spunky, Lily had to grow up quickly after her mother passed away. She not only oversees the welfare of two younger siblings, she also helps run her father’s business.
Gideon and Lily are immediately attracted to each other and soon become good friends. It doesn’t take long before Lily realizes her feelings for Gideon have changed to something far deeper. He secretly harbors dreams of advancing in the force to earn a substantial enough income to make Lily his wife.
Before either has a chance to pursue each other, however, an earthquake of unthinkable magnitude shatters their world. With a raging fire fast in its wake, tragedy and triumph await as Gideon, Lily, and her family flee for their lives with little more than the clothes on their backs.
Set during the time of the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, this tale of great loss, incredible human courage, and sweet romance will inspire and warm your heart.
