1760s – Canada
Frenchman Henri Geroux can’t sign the oath of loyalty to the British after the end of the French and Indian War. He leaves his home behind and sets out on an adventure with his Ottawa friend, Dances Away. But heading west to trap beaver doesn’t mean he outruns his problems. Faced with a dangerous journey into an unknown land, he and Dances Away get caught up in more than they’d bargained for.
1821 – Texas
From fashionable New Orleans society, Miss Della Mott is now bound for frontier Spanish Texas where anything might happen. At twenty-five and never interested in marriage, she is glad finally to be considered “on the shelf.” But her plans for independence in Louisiana have failed and now her very life may be in danger.
The panic of 1819 destroyed many fortunes, including Della’s stepfather’s plantation. When he hears of Stephen Austin’s agreement with Spain to allow angloamericanos to settle on free land in colonial Texas, the impulsive man packs up the family, slaves, and their remaining possessions in wagons, traveling north along the trading route to Texas. Della, the realist, knows she can’t depend on her inept, volatile stepfather. Who will provide the protection and guidance they will need to survive?
Quinn, son of an American scout and a Cherokee mother, is heading home to Texas. A horse-trader, he has failed in obtaining a thoroughbred colt in New Orleans. thwarting his plan to breed thoroughbred and mustangs. Along the way he meets with Della’s family. He is struck by her dignity and strength. But he has decided not to marry. Both his parents died before they reached forty. The frontier is too dangerous to start a family. And he is of mixed blood.
But he also recognizes that Della’s stepfather will lead them into disaster and perhaps death. He can’t ignore her need. And so begins their unspoken alliance into wild frontier Texas.
Unfortunately someone else’s twisted agenda will endanger them all.
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1887 – Alaska
He only offered her passage to Alaska. But they end up fighting for something bigger along the way…
Maggie McDougal is determined to save her family’s land after her parents’ sudden deaths. And if that means leaving the sandy shores of Lake Michigan and traveling across the country to Washington Territory in search of her brother so he can claim the land, then so be it. Anything is better than watching the land she loves fall into her uncle’s greedy, conniving hands.
The trouble is, when the ship that her brother works on arrives in Bellingham, her brother isn’t on it. But Captain Sacha Amos is. And when he offers to take Maggie north to Alaska where she can meet her brother on his new ship, she has little choice about saying yes.
Except Alaska doesn’t turn out quite like she thought, at least not after she meets the gruff captain’s large, sprawling, family. A family that happens to include one sister who’s a doctor, another who’s a lawyer, and two half siblings that the family loves against all odds.
Or after she discovers the secret study that a scientist is conducting aboard Sacha’s ship—one that just might put an end to seals being illegally killed for their pelts.
But seal pelts are worth a lot of money, and if word leaks about what Sacha’s trying to do, he’s going to find himself in the crosshairs of some very powerful men.
Caught between her mission to save her family’s land and the escalating tension in Alaska, Maggie soon finds herself fighting for something that’s bigger than just property or family ties. And she just might discover a new home along the way—one that offers more warmth and love than she ever imagined possible.
1795 – Louisiana
In the wake of the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror, Alix de Morainville Carpentier—a former lady-in-waiting to Marie Antoinette, now married to her gardener—seeks peace and security in the Spanish colony of Louisiana. But her journey into the man-eating swamp called Attakapas reopens the wounds of her old life in France. Alix is forced to reckon with the choices that saved her life at the cost of her honor—and perhaps her soul.
In revolutionary France, the Old World is dying; the quest for liberty, fraternity, and equality has become a nightmare where the price of dissent is blood. In the wilderness of Spanish Louisiana, a new civilization is beginning to emerge—but in this budding New World, the slave trade perpetuates the systems of oppression that sparked the revolution. Caught between old and new, scarred by trauma and grief, will Alix ever find a home where she can truly be free?
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1876 – Washington
Once the darling of her Boston-area community, Alice Dennison has traveled across the entire country to start life over as a schoolteacher in the tiny settlement of Wallin Landing, north of frontier Seattle. No one there knows the humiliation and hurt hidden in her heart. Perhaps she can finally be herself. Then a storm forces her to seek shelter with a handsome logger for the night, and suddenly she’s facing marriage or scandal! Again!
One look, and shy Jesse Willets knew the pretty, proper schoolmarm wasn’t the woman for him. He saw the love between his mother and father, a love built on common values, shared experiences. He has nothing in common with Alice, except maybe a desire to make the world a little better.
The community comes together to help this unlikely couple find their way in a marriage of convenience, and Jesse and Alice begin to discover that they have more in common than they thought. When Alice’s past intrudes, revealing secrets, they must work together for their chance at happiness. In doing so, they may discover that true love is so distant after all.
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1851 – California
Can an unsuitable pair…make the perfect match?
Heading west to California is schoolteacher Lorna Alderly’s best chance to find a job—and the independence she craves. But the rough mining camp of Woods River isn’t as welcoming as she expects, especially surly widower Jesse Kittredge. Struggling to raise two children, the illiterate miner gives Lorna six months before she quits. Yet he’s soon swayed by her dedication and charm. When a scandal threatens Lorna’s reputation, Jesse offers marriage—in name only. But could this arrangement lead to a love neither expects?
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1833 – Montana
Will this epic journey be their second chance or the final heartbreak?
Heidi Wallace came west with secrets. When she accompanied her cartologist cousin to map terrain in the Montana Territory, she never imagined he would die from a snakebite. As she and her maid bury the body in this wild country, the last person she expects to come to their aid is the man she’s no longer sure she wants to find. But now that Ben Lane is standing before her…her heart demands answers.
Ben never thought he’d see Heidi again…let alone find her burying a body beneath a pile of rocks in the fierce Rocky Mountain plains. A man she claims was her husband. The last time Ben saw her, tears cascaded down her pretty cheeks as he walked away forever. He’d planned to marry her. Planned to spend his life making her happy. But to protect her life, he had to leave her behind. Now she’s alone again…and once more in danger.
Heidi must finish her contract to map the Marias River. When Ben insists she’ll need more than a maid to keep herself alive, he determines to travel with them into the treacherous northern country. As Ben and Heidi uncover each other’s secrets, the threat of the mountain wilderness may not be half as dangerous as the love that once flamed between them.
1848 – Traveling
Under the thumb of her overbearing half-brother, Rose Briggs fights for survival on the treacherous Oregon Trail. Her sole desire is to claim independence and establish a mercantile close to her beloved Porcelain Doll sisters. Unbeknownst to her, she becomes entangled in the perilous schemes of a cunning sibling duo, Boone and Sandy, masterminds of a ruthless ring of thieves.
Amos Pate, a former outlaw, has shed his past and the weight of destitution, determined never to steal again. Yet, when his loved ones’ lives hang in the balance, he is torn between honoring his pledge and taking action.
United by circumstance, Rose and Amos forge ahead as allies, forever evading the clutches of a relentless criminal gang. Their hopes, dreams, and existence hinge on outsmarting their adversaries, for failure would mean surrendering all they hold dear.
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1813 – Georgia
A frontier scout, a healing widow, and a desperate fight for peace.
At the farthest Georgia outpost this side of hostile Creek Territory in 1813, Jared Lockridge serves his country as a scout to redeem his father’s botched heritage. If he can help secure peace against Indians allied to the British, he can bring his betrothed to the home he’s building and open his cabinetry shop. Then he comes across a burning cabin and a traumatized woman just widowed by a fatal shot.
Freed from a cruel marriage, Esther Andrews agrees to winter at the Lockridge homestead to help Jared’s pregnant sister-in-law. Lame in one foot, Esther has always known she is secondhand goods, but the gentle carpenter-turned-scout draws her heart with as much skill as he creates furniture from wood. His family’s love offers hope even as violence erupts along the frontier—and Jared’s investigation into local incidents brings danger to their doorstep. Yet how could Esther ever hope a loyal man like Jared would choose her over a fine lady?
1754 – Virginia
Talented silversmith, Magdalene Sehler, departs from Philadelphia and the business run by Jacob Owens but leaves a portion of her heart with him. To her surprise, he, too, has joined the wagon train, that her family is on, to the Shenandoah Valley. Jacob becomes a suttler, supplying the forts. As the French-Indian War commences, Magda, Jacob, and their family members and friends face grave danger. Can Magda and Jacob find love and begin a new life together–one that may take them further south to the James River? Or will all be lost?
1779 – Virginia
William Cole cannot forget the cruel burden he carries, not with the pock marks that serve as an outward reminder. Riddled with guilt, he assumed the solitary life of a long hunter, traveling into the wilds of Kentucky each year. But his quiet existence is changed in an instant when, sitting in a tavern, he overhears a man offering his daughter—and her virtue—to the winner of the next round of cards. William’s integrity and desire for redemption will not allow him to sit idly by while such an injustice occurs.
Lucinda Gillespie has suffered from an inexplicable illness her entire life. Her father, embarrassed by her condition, has subjected her to a lonely existence of abuse and confinement. But faced with the ultimate betrayal on the eve of her eighteenth birthday, Lucinda quickly realizes her trust is better placed in his hands of the mysterious man who appears at her door. Especially when he offers her the one thing she never thought would be within her grasp—freedom.
In the blink of an eye, both lives change as they begin the difficult, danger-fraught journey westward on the Wilderness Trail. But can they overcome their own perceptions of themselves to find love and the life God created them for?
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1606 – North Carolina
The Lost Colony of Roanoke: discover an alternate view of their fate alongside the life of Pocahontas.
Born the daughter of a Powhatan chieftain and a woman of unknown origins, Mato’aka enjoys a carefree life. When strange men from across the eastern waters appear near her home, she regards them at first as a mere curiosity. Soon, though, she finds herself torn between fascination for one of their leaders and the opinions and ways of her people–then becomes a pawn in their delicate and dangerous game of politics. Drawn to a young Englishman, John Rolfe, who has lost a wife and baby daughter, she shares his griefs. . .and perhaps something more.
Could she have a future among the English of Jamestown, accepting their ways and even changing her name? Could her destiny be a part of the lasting legacy of the Lost Colony of Roanoke?
1880s – Montana
Miss Jillian Hayes of Honey River Canyon in Montana Territory has worked hard to prepare for her dream of becoming a teacher in the Wild West. However, she is stunned when her new teaching position and harsh winter weather conspire to trap her on Silver Mountain, forcing her into a loveless marriage with a handsome British stranger.
The handsome British stranger, Trenton Sterling, the Duke of Weatherly, recently arrived at Silver Mountain on a mission to retrieve a blue sapphire his reclusive uncle offered to sell to his dear friend, the Prince of Wales. Bertie desires the sapphire as a gift for his wife, the Princess of Wales. Trenton never imagined his uncle would die without a chance to tell him where he hid the blue sapphire. Nor did he imagine he’d find himself obligated to marry a schoolmarm shortly after becoming the ward of his recently orphaned niece.
When he becomes embroiled in a deadly game of revenge in the Wild West, Trenton Sterling will need to unleash the war inside him, trading it for an external one, becoming a force to reckon with in a manhunt to capture and slay the vile and wicked outlaws who attempt to overrun Honey River Canyon, bringing harm to anyone in their path.
1878 – Montana
Dr. Ezekiel Knight arrives in Montana Territory after graduating from a medical university in Philadelphia, to set up his first practice in Honey River Canyon. The heir to his family’s steel corporation, Zeke has no shortage of wealth, but his interest lies in helping others achieve good health. He’s drawn to Miss Jacqueline Hayes but clashes with her almost instantly.
Able to shoot better than most men in the Wild West, Jacqueline Hayes is full of spunk, sass, and spitfire. Her main ambition in life is to marry well and never worry again about having a shortage of fine dresses. On a spiritual collision course headed for a wasteland as her destiny, several catastrophes requiring Dr. Knight’s assistance change everything.
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1815 – Canada
She was called to be a healer, but her skills–and heart–have never been so challenged.
Levi Masters’s time as a British spy hasn’t ended, though his country’s war with America has. After overhearing a scout reveal a discovery that could give America the upper hand in future conflicts, Levi is sent on one last mission. While trekking through the Canadian Rockies in pursuit of his former enemy, he is taken captive by warriors from a hidden mountain village.
Village healer Audrey Moreau is more curious than afraid of the outsider, and she’s drawn to his commitment to honesty even at his own expense. Despite her arguments for his release, the council remains at an impasse. Compelled to help him escape, she sneaks him out of the village. But when Levi faces a life-threatening injury and the fierce mountain winter closes in, Levi and Audrey are forced to discover just how far they’ll go to ensure the safety of the other and the love growing between them.
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1890 – Oklahoma
Frontier women don’t ride off alone to track an outlaw—not even women as capable as tomboy spinster Willa Malone. But Willa desperately needs the bounty money offered for her father’s killer if she’s to keep their homestead and take care of her sisters. That means she needs an expert tracker’s help. Gideon Hartley has the skill, but the handsome trail guide also has a troubling secret…
Gideon has spent years trying to numb his pain with whiskey. Little by little, their quest—and Willa’s belief in him—is restoring the sense of purpose he thought he’d lost. Journeying into the heart of danger, they’ll have to face down the past together if they hope to protect their future…
1763 – New York
Abigail Aldridge’s life in Boston was difficult. Her inability to converse with the fluid grace of her societal peers made her an outcast, a spinster sister living with her step-brother and his wife. When she concocts a way to join her uncle at the British outpost of Fort Niagara, she has no idea what dangers lurk at the edge of civilization.
Working at the fort, Koyengquahtah, a Seneca scout for the British army known as Koyen, watches the white women carried ashore from the boat. Soldiers are one thing, but women mean families. Families that plan to stay on Seneca land. It sparks in him a rebellion against the changes threatening to overwhelm his people and their way of life.
When Abigail befriends the sisters of Koyen, their paths cross and their initial distrust of each other grows into a grudging admiration. But violence erupts as two cultures clash, fueled by the Ottawa leader to the west, Pontiac.
1877 – Montana
Jocelyn Hayes and her two younger sisters have inherited the family farm in Honey River Canyon, Montana Territory, after their parents perished in a blizzard. Fast forward to 1877, five and a half years later, Josie is no longer seventeen going on eighteen, trying to survive. At twenty-three, beautiful, vivacious, and independent, she has learned to succeed. She has a strong desire to expand Cherry Crossing into the horse farm Pa had always envisioned, but one man stands in the way, Jacob Hunter. Infuriated, Josie hopes to change his mind, but can she fight a man she finds so infuriatingly attractive?
Jake Hunter arrives from Philadelphia, running from things in his past, shaking his faith. After inheriting his grandfather’s trading post, the mayor’s mansion, and remaining town plots in Honey River Canyon, maybe a fresh start is exactly what he needs. He instantly clashes with Miss Jocelyn Hayes, the belligerent beauty who accuses him of swindling her out of the horse he purchases. Although he never met his grandfather, a man of honor, Jake is no swindler, but convincing Josie otherwise proves challenging and complicated.
When a cattle baron’s son turns up dead, fingers point to Jake, and now he must prove his innocence, win Josie’s heart, live up to his grandfather’s legacy, and carve out a place for himself within the community. In a rock and a hard place, he finds he can’t do any of it without his faith in God.
1755 – Virginia
A Virginia chocolatier and a privateering sea captain collide once more after a failed love affair a decade before. Will a war and a cache of regrets keep them apart? Or will a new shared vision reunite them?
It is 1755, and the threat of war with France looms over colonial York, Virginia. Chocolatier Esmée Shaw is fighting her own battle of the heart. Having reached her twenty-eighth birthday, she is reconciled to life alone after a decade-old failed love affair from which she’s never quite recovered. But she longs to find something worthwhile to do with her life.
Captain Henri Lennox has returned to port after a lengthy absence, intent on completing the lighthouse in the dangerous Chesapeake Bay, a dream he once shared with Esmée. But when the colonial government asks him to lead a secret naval expedition against the French, his future is plunged into uncertainty.
Will a war and a cache of regrets keep them apart, or can their shared vision and dedication to the colonial cause heal the wounds of the past? Bestselling and award-winning author Laura Frantz whisks you away to a time fraught with peril–on the sea and in the heart–in this redemptive, romantic story.
1587 – Virginia
Elinor White Dare sailed from England heavy with her first child but full of hopes. Her father, a renowned artist and experienced traveler, has convinced her and her bricklayer husband Ananias to make the journey to the New World. Land, they are promised, more goodly and beautiful than they can ever imagine. But nothing goes as planned from landing at the wrong location, to facing starvation, to the endless wait for help to arrive. And, beyond her comprehension, Elinor finds herself utterly alone. . . .
The colony at Roanoke disappeared into the shadows of history. But, what if one survived to leave a lasting legacy?
1795 – Massachusetts/New York
A year has passed since Ian Cameron reluctantly sent his uncle’s former slave Seona and their son, Gabriel, north to his kin in Boston. Determined to fully release them, Ian strives to make a life at Mountain Laurel, his inherited plantation, along with Judith, the wife he’s vowed to love and cherish. But when tragedy leaves him alone with his daughter, Mandy, and his three remaining slaves, he decides to return north. An act of kindness on the journey provides Ian the chance to obtain land near the frontier settlement of Shiloh, New York. Perhaps even the hope for a new life with those he still holds dear.
In Boston, Seona has taken her first tentative steps as a free woman, while trying to banish Ian from her heart. The Cameron family thinks she and Gabriel should remain under their protection. Seona’s mother, Lily, thinks it’s time they strike out on their own. Then Ian arrives, offering a second chance Seona hadn’t dared imagine. But the wide-open frontier of Shiloh feels as boundless and terrifying as her newfound freedom—a place of new friends and new enemies, where deep bonds are renewed but old hurts stand ready to rear their heads. It will take every ounce of faith and courage Ian and Seona can muster to fight for their family and their future . . . together.
1888 – Wyoming Territory
1763 – Pennsylvania
Sarah Feight has her life planned with a loving husband, a promising new settlement, and big dreams to shape the future of trade on Pennsylvania’s frontier. An Indian attack at dawn changes everything.
When he pulls his freight wagons into Fort Pitt, Leith McCully never dreams he’ll be conscripted into the militia and ordered to defend the fort. Worried about trader friends on his delivery route, he rides to their settlement and returns with Sarah, the only survivor.
Fort Pitt is crowded to twice its capacity with the settlers who have taken refuge there and surrounded by the rising smoke of burned-out settlements. Tempers flare, disease breaks out, and the constant fear of the next attack has everyone on edge.
Cully keeps an eye on Sarah because he feels responsible for her. And, though he doesn’t admit as much, she tugs at his heart. Sarah sees Cully as the last link to her past. A friend of her husband’s family. She’s going to need someone she can trust, and she trusts Cully. Her rescuer.
Are trust and admiration enough to help them survive the siege and its devastating consequences? Is there any hope for a future beyond?
1730s – Pennsylvania
Outgoing and irrepressible, young Christina has her choice of suitors. But she and her practical-minded older sister, Hilda, have built a thriving life in the rugged Pennsylvania backcountry. Hilda has given up her marriage dreams as foolish—and Christina vows she’ll never marry until she finds her sister a husband. So when two handsome newcomers arrive, Christina engages in a bit of secret matchmaking—with disastrous results . . .
Johan is used to hard work and overcoming obstacles. He’s instantly drawn to Christina’s lively nature—and agrees with her that his serious brother, Wilhelm, would be perfect for Hilda. But Christina’s selfless schemes are keeping her from seeing how much Johan really cares for her. And between mishaps, mistakes, and an unintentional masquerade, Christina and Johan will need to search their hearts to understand themselves, set things right—and embark on a future together . . .
1831 – Idaho Territory
This epic journey may seal her fate forever.
Determined to prove her worth, Meksem fiercely fought to earn her place among the warriors in her Nez Perce camp. When her half-sister is captured by an enemy tribe, she refuses to trust the rescue to anyone else. But her new friends insist on joining her mission, and she battles between relief and frustration at their presence. Especially the white man who peers at her as if he can see through the face of the warrior she struggles so hard to maintain.
Spaniard Adam Vargas thrives on adventure wherever his travels take him. He’s fallen in love with this Rocky Mountain wilderness, as well as the spotted horses the Nez Perce tribe raise. His fascination with this Indian maiden-turned-warrior catches him off guard though, including the way she seems to be fighting for more than her sister’s safe return.
The journey proves more perilous than any of the group expects, and the secret Meksem hides becomes impossible to conceal. If they live through this mission, the life they knew will never be the same again.
1794 – Ohio Territory
In retaliation for his brother’s death, Ryan McGowan vows to kill every Indian in Ohio territory. When his captain assigns him to teach English to a woman found sobbing over a dead warrior, he resents the task. But the woman melts away his vengeance. He begins to understand the way to peace is through forgiveness. Then he learns the woman carries the child of her Indian husband in her womb.
Màxkchulëns, a white woman adopted by the Lenape at the age of four, is confined at the fort and longs to return to her people. Though Ryan leads her to recall part of the faith her biological parents held dear, she struggles to understand it and the power of grace.
Can she rely on that grace in desperate times? And will faith protect her unborn child as well?
