1905 – Colorado
Seb White had his heart shattered when Emma Morris walked away from their courtship two years ago. Now far from home, when he is beaten and left for dead, the last place he wants to be is under her care. But that’s exactly where he finds himself.
Being close to her former beau means secrets are uncovered. But not the one Emma holds close to her heart. She never stopped loving Seb.
1893 – Colorado
When 15-year-old Tisha Crowder gets caught shoplifting, attorney Nolan Duffy tries to protect her from consequences that could rattle her already troubled life. His daughter, Jillian, feels like she’s the one being punished instead—by having Tisha assigned to work with her on a backlog of genealogy files. Tisha doesn’t seem interested in taking the job seriously, and Jillian’s patience wears thin. Besides, everyone in Canyon Mines knows the Crowder family has experienced generations of brokenness. Then a sliver of hope turns up in long-ago words in plain sight, challenging shrouded assumptions about Tisha’s family. Now Jillian is the one who can walk with Tisha back to 1893 and uncover where everything went wrong in the first place—and save her from the past.
1874 – Colorado
After a rough winter spent alone, Ursula Nordegren realizes she must overcome her fears of the outside world and begins a trek down Hope Mountain. Along the way she finds a badly wounded stranger and realizes God may have used her decision to leave as a way of saving the man.
Wax Mosby was climbing Hope Mountain in part to atone for his terrible choices. He was hired to drive out the Warden family and now knows he was duped. But when he’s wounded during the climb, the last person he expects to rescue him is a beautiful blond woman with the voice of an angel.
As both Ursula and Wax weigh the costs of living new lives, the two find an unlikely bond. And they’re joined by Ursula’s sisters and the Warden family as the final showdown over the family ranch looms with the coming of spring.
1867 – Colorado Territory
Cornelia’s parents send her to America hoping to heal her heart. Accompanied by her protective brother, they’ll travel by covered wagon to the Colorado Territory to search for gold. When Cornelia meets a man who seems as troubled as the friend she lost, it seems she might be given a second chance to save someone before it’s too late.
Jake, once a prisoner of the Union Army, leaves Tennessee in disgrace. He wants nothing more than to find enough gold to start a new life. The last thing he wants is to fall in love.
Can the feisty Cornelia make him leave his past behind?
As the wagon train brings them together, will they look beyond past promises and old pain and discover treasure worth more than gold?
1890s – Colorado
Tragedy strikes Katherine Matthews and the small town of Cripple Creek, Colorado. An epidemic teams her with an old enemy, Wyatt Sullivan, the town’s doctor. In the midst of desperation and death, Katherine has decisions to make. But she has no idea to what extent they will affect her daily life and livelihood.
The town is turned upside-down when the gold miners go on strike. The owners bring in outside reinforcements, ready to break the resolve of the Western Federation of Miners. Everything in an upheaval, Katherine faces a crisis of faith and hard choices. Will life ever be normal again?
1885 – Colorado
He has to choose – keep his secrets or the woman he loves. He can’t have both.
With no husband of her own, midwife Sophie Price lives to keep others calm in their hour of need. But when a handsome horse handler steps off the train with a fiery stallion, he brings anything but calm as he looks her dead in the eye and clear through to her soul.
Clay Ferguson returns to the place he once called home, hunting a fresh start and the one woman who could draw him back. If he can hide his battered heart and the brutality of his past, maybe she’ll take another look and give him a second chance.
Both bear scars from their fathers. Both fight for life. Together, they may learn that love is worth its impossible price.
1909 – Colorado
A Father-Daughter Genealogy Team Link Present to Past on Family Trees
A trunk abandoned at Denver’s Union Station more than a century ago leads Jillian and Nolan to untangle the mystery of its contents—including correspondence with the head of Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency Denver office. While Nolan digs into the legalities of the findings, Jillian searches for the descendants of a stolen identity who might not be who they think they are on Colorado ranch land. When Drew seems anxious to hear what Jillian has to say but his Great Aunt Min slams the subject closed—twice—Jillian is all the more determined to find out what happened to the woman who never claimed her luggage, why Min doesn’t want to talk about it, and what will happen for Drew if he gets the answers he seeks.
1800s – Colorado
Hope Clark has fought hard to convince the town of Defiance that a woman doctor is good for what ails them. But when certain physical challenges present themselves, hard facts spur her own doubts, crushing her self-confidence. And if she can’t stay, if the city is really where she belongs, what about the people she has come to love, especially a certain cowboy?
Lane Chandler’s never been in love before and isn’t exactly sure what his heart is telling him about Hope. After all, she’s a doctor and he’s just a cowboy. Or so Dr. Edward Pratt happily keeps reminding him.
Lane wonders if Hope could truly be happy practicing in a remote mining town. Pratt believes she would be more fulfilled serving in a Philadelphia hospital. With him.
In the end, nothing but true love will give Hope the freedom to choose her own path.
1873 – Colorado
After years of isolation on top of Hope Mountain, Ilsa Nordegren may finally be ready to leave. Raised to fear the world, Ilsa and her sisters never planned on coming down, but when the Warden family arrived in need, they had to help. And it may cost them everything.
Having made his fortune, Mitch Warden returned home and found the family homestead abandoned. In a land grab, a ruthless cattle baron had forced his family to escape up the mountain, and when he follows, the last thing he expects is to fall smitten to a black-haired woman who dresses like Robin Hood.
Warden is intent on helping his family reclaim their land, but doesn’t realize the risks his past has brought. Dangerous men have tracked him, and rather than risk innocent lives, he’s determined to end the danger. But that means a journey to the city–and when Ilsa insists on joining him, the mismatched pair suddenly find themselves on a venture they’ll never forget.
1880 – Colorado
Mining, murder—and a mock marriage?
New York City socialite Becky Campbell inherited more than a speck of her father’s wanderlust. Now his murder bequeaths her a mystery, a ramshackle homestead, and a silver mine.
Zeke Graumann signs on as Becky’s foreman to keep his portion of his family’s ranch. He shares the workers’ reservations about a woman boss, especially one who burns water and prances around in dungarees. Even though she did look awful good in the dungarees.
Then a series of accidents add threat to tension. Can Becky trust Zeke, find her father’s killer, and turn her mine into a profitable venture? Will Zeke be forced to give up his ranching dream to win Becky’s heart?
1870s – Colorado
Della Hughes longs for adventure and for freedom from the strictness and austerity of 1870s Boston society. When her uncle and guardian, General Clint Logan, uses his fortune to purchase property in Colorado and set up a horse ranch selling remounts to the western army, Della decides she must accompany him and his family to the West. Along the journey, Della encounters more adventure than she bargained for.
Rustlers, Indians, and rattlesnakes add danger to the trek. A persistent cavalry captain who believes Della would make him the perfect wife and a Cheyenne chieftain’s son who tells her she’s brought sunshine to his heart complicate her life. And the handsome army scout who ramrods their wagon train guards a secret from his past that makes him believe he’s not worthy of loving Della. She must meet the challenges of the West and convince the man of her heart that love is worth risking everything to gain.
1890s – Colorado
Katherine and Wyatt have settled into a well-earned, comfortable life together. Until an unexpected attack threatens to bring an end to their happily-ever-after. And on the cusp of the town’s yuletide merriment.
As they come to grips with their new circumstances, they begin to realize the difficulty is far from over. And new challenges arise.
What will become of their family? Of their Christmas?
1875 – Colorado
She’s seventeen with a ranch to run, a fear of heights, and a cowboy intent on stealing her heart.
Abigale Millerton leaves a Denver women’s school and returns to her grandparents’ high-country ranch to find the boy she’d grown up with not a boy any longer—and butting in on her challenge with local timber thieves. If he’d stop telling her what to do, they might get along.
Seth Holt has loved Abigale since before he knew better. And now that she’s back in the high country, she’s still as bull-headed as ever. But Seth can match her, and he’s determined to keep her out of harm’s way and in his line of sight. Trouble is, he’d rather keep her in his arms.
1800s – Colorado
A battle is brewing in Defiance. The cost of victory may be a good man’s soul…
When a campaign of violence and murder turns from targeting his empire to his family, Charles McIntyre resurrects old demons to stop a dangerous enemy. But absolute power, it has been said, corrupts absolutely. Can he wrestle the forces of darkness for control of Defiance without giving into them?
Matthew Miller knows the line between love and hate is as thin as a razor’s edge. When he finally accepts Naomi’s heart will always belong to McIntyre, his own thirst for power turns to a dark quest for vengeance. Now, all he wants is to make her suffer.
1889 – Colorado
After their father is bushwhacked, David and Jenny Foster must ready themselves for their first winter in Colorado’s rugged San Juan Mountains. Eighteen-year-old Jenny is under no illusions—it’ll take a miracle to survive, much less thrive, in the unforgiving wilderness, particularly when twelve-year-old David fights her every attempt to prepare.
Unexpected help arrives when John Beck—once a close friend of their father’s—arrives at their cabin. The tough-as-nails bounty hunter reluctantly agrees to stay through the winter. He owes it to his murdered friend to help Foster’s children build a working ranch, even if it’s the last thing he wants to do.
Their uneasy alliance is fraught with hardships, danger, and back-breaking work that still doesn’t guarantee anyone will survive until spring. Especially with their father’s killer still on the loose.
1873 – Colorado
Josephine Nordegren is one of three sisters who grew up nearly wild in southwestern Colorado. She has the archery skills of Robin Hood and the curiosity of the Little Mermaid, fascinated by but locked away from the forbidden outside world–a world she’s been raised to believe killed her parents. When David Warden, a rancher, brings in a herd much too close to the girls’ secret home, her older sister especially is frightened, but Jo is too interested to stay away.
David’s parents follow soon on his heels, escaping bandits at their ranch. David’s father is wounded and needs shelter. Josephine and her sisters have the only cabin on the mountain. Do they risk stepping into the world to help those in need? Or do they remain separated but safe in the peaks of Hope Mountain?
1880 – Colorado
Mail-Order Misfire exposes the heart of a widowed lawman when he meets the bride his nine-year-old daughter wrote for without telling him.
Preacher Bern Stidham is a peacemaker—when he’s not carrying one on his hip. His little girl, Gracie, wants a helper for her preacher/sheriff papa and a mama for herself, so she writes their former pastor in Missouri asking for a mail-order bride.
Recently widowed dressmaker Etta Collier is a half-step ahead of the banker who carries a lustful eye for her as well as the note on her home. When her pastor receives a letter from little Gracie Stidham, he sees a solution for everyone’s problem and encourages Etta to answer Gracie’s request.
Running from one man’s lecherous pursuit into the home of another she knows nothing about, Etta Collier risks everything to ease a little girl’s loneliness and perhaps find a second chance at love.
1890s – Texas
Sarah Novak’s near-death experience in the mountains has forced her to acknowledge her love for Lee Logan. She’s determined to change the Riverford School Board’s ban on married women teachers.
Victoria Hodges is painting pictures depicting strong women breaking through traditional gender barriers. She’s determined to be one of the first women to have a showing in New York in the new century.
Christine Boyd has defied the restrictive traditions of widowhood and performed her first public concert in Colorado. She’s determined to open concert stages to women and to pave the way for her musically talented daughter.
All three women have gained new strength, new visions at the first Colorado Chautauqua, but now it’s time to go home. Will they have the courage, the strength to destroy restrictions on women in the upcoming new century?
The train awaits… Riverford, with all its stagnant traditions, is a mere twenty-four hours away. The time has come to test the determination of these women.
But forces they never dreamed of are already arrayed against them.
Can they make the new century accept the new woman?
1864 – Colorado
Dr. Sadie Hoppner is no stranger to adversity. She’s fought to be taken seriously since childhood, when her father began training her in the healing arts. Finding acceptance and respect proves especially difficult at Fort Lyon, where she’s come to practice medicine under her brother’s watchful eye.
Cheyenne brave Five Kills wouldn’t knowingly jeopardize the peace treaty recently negotiated between his people and the Army. But a chance encounter with the female doctor ignites memories of his upbringing among the whites. Too intrigued to stay away, tension erupts with the soldiers, and Five Kills is injured.
As he recuperates under the tender care of the pretty healer, an unlikely bond forms. However, their fledgling love is put to the test when each realizes that a much greater danger awaits—a danger they are wholly unable to stop, and one which neither may survive.
1848 – Colorado
Sophia Lorenzo is a young widow. And she’s in hiding at Bent’s Fort with her one-year-old son. Her late husband’s parents are powerful and determined to take her son from her. To protect them both, she must hide her true identity.
Buck Williams is the wagon master for the wagon train recently arrived at the Fort. He has been a loner since his wife died on a wagon train headed for Oregon. He guards his heart against further hurt.
Buck knows Sophia, but doesn’t know why she is lying about her identity. When she reveals the trouble she is in and asks for his help, Buck finds new hope that protecting this woman and child will atone for his failure to protect his wife.
But trouble is on Sophia’s trail. Can Buck protect the woman and child he’s come to love?
1884 – Colorado
As a child, she lost something precious at Christmas. Twenty years later, she’s about to lose her heart.
Lena Carver works as her physician brother’s medical assistant, housekeeper, and cook despite her disfigurement from a childhood accident. Each year, the Christmas holidays come with contradictions—cherished memories of a mysterious encounter and painful recollections of a great loss. Lena lives with the belief that she is beyond love’s reach, until a dark-eyed cowboy arrives broken, bruised, and bent on changing her mind.
Wil Bergman wakes in a stranger’s home with a busted leg, a bullet-creased scalp, and no horse. Trail-weary, robbed, and penniless, his dreams and plans for a future are suddenly unattainable. Forced to recuperate in the home of a country doctor, he finds himself at the mercy of a surgeon whose sister’s healing touch has power to stitch up his lonely heart and open his eyes to the impossible.
1888 – Colorado
Millie Cooper, fisherman’s-daughter-turned-nurse, flees a painful entanglement with the wealthy Drexel family who summered near her childhood home in Nantucket, only to encounter them again six years later in Glenwood Springs. The serenity of her mountain hideaway in a town with healing springs is disrupted when she faces caring for the elderly mother and the expectant wife of Stephen Drexel, the man she’d once loved—at the request of his brother John, the man who’d kept them apart. Will Millie forgive the wrongs she feels were done to her, or will she come to see them as a blessing in disguise that leads her to greater joys?
1883 – Colorado
While running from an angry buffalo, two friends, who always wanted more, reunite. Connor has returned home determined to pursue the woman he never stopped caring about. But Maggie wants to be a city doctor, and he is a rancher through and through. Will either be willing to give up their dream? Or will they both have to give up the love of a lifetime?
Found in Paperback in Hearts Entwined
1881 – Colorado
He doesn’t need her sass. She doesn’t need his approval. But they both need a second chance.
Abandoned by her faithless husband for the Dakota gold fields, Elizabeth Beaumont returns to her hometown determined to prove she’s not the impetuous girl she once was. Armed with a new skill and old determination, she’s intent on making it on her own. Discovering that the new sheriff lives downstairs in the same boarding house wouldn’t be nearly so frustrating if he’d stay out of her affairs, quit calling her Betsy, and stop making her wonder if she could love again.
Sheriff Garrett Wilson’s first attempt at law enforcement cost an innocent bystander his life, so he exchanged his deputy’s badge for a drover’s bedroll. Now he’s back wearing a star in a Front Range cow town, hunting an arsonist and falling for a woman who wants to know the secret behind his deepest scar. He can run again from his painful past, or he can stay and fight for the town that needs him and the woman who’s worked under his skin and into his heart.
1884 – Colorado
When Laura Booth’s dangerous ex-husband escapes from prison, she turns to the one man who can protect her: Owen Hamilton. Living with the widowed former lawman—who once helped put her ex in jail—and his adorable twin daughters on their Colorado ranch is a welcome respite. For the first time, Laura feels safe—but after her troubled past, she’ll never trust her heart again.
Owen would like to say only obligation draws him to Laura’s side. But in his gut he knows his feelings for the gentle beauty run deeper than duty—and it stops him cold. After guarding their wary hearts for years, can Owen and Laura give love a second chance?
1944 – Colorado
Despite her best efforts to go through the motions and the good fortune to have a husband stationed stateside rather than in the midst of the brutal combat unfolding in Europe and the Pacific, Christmas Eve is a less than festive time for innkeeper Naomi Lockhart. It’s been especially hard since she, her husband, Quenton, and their daughters restored her parents’ Colorado boarding house and turned it into a charming inn. Residing in the setting of the tragedy and haunted by a heartbreaking and terrible loss, Naomi can’t help but relive the Christmas Eve so many years ago when her infant child disappeared without a trace.
Gracie brushed aside comments about how little she resembled her parents for most of her life without really understanding why they made her feel so odd. A slip of the tongue by her grandmother brings the discovery that the people who raised her are not her birth parents and acts as a catalyst for the start of a search for her real identity. After a whirlwind romance with a young, Europe-bound GI and subsequent elopement in defiance of her affluent, traditional parents, Gracie flees Texas for Colorado, following one of the few clues that she has about her real identity. She finds herself alone and working as a waitress in blizzard-prone Colorado Springs, Colorado at the end of her pregnancy. Snow bound, she struggles to bring her child into the world as she becomes ever more confident that the innkeeper from across the road, who acts as a midwife of necessity, may hold the answers she seeks. Meanwhile, her wounded husband desperately tries to reach her side.
Set against the backdrop of the Second World War, this final novel from beloved writer Golden Keyes Parsons is an engaging story of love, loss and reunion.
1887 – Colorado
Sheriff Justice Gareau can make outlaws quake in their boots…yet coming face-to-face with Evangeline Benoit once again takes away all his composure. She broke their engagement, and his heart, to marry a wealthy older man. Despite his reluctance, Justice can’t avoid the widowed single mother of two when they’re collaborating on a Christmas village for the town’s children.
The loving boy Evangeline once knew has become an unyielding lawman. Forced to flee New Orleans over false allegations, Evie doubts Justice will take her side when the past follows her to Colorado. Especially when he and her troublesome son butt heads. But perhaps the spirit of Christmas will soften his heart and give them a second chance at love.
1883 – Colorado
Widower Luke Jeffries needs a mother for his three young children, whether or not they agree. When he meets Nellie McClain at the mail-order-bride agency, Luke thinks his problems are solved, but they’ve only just begun. Though the beautiful widow awakens his grieving heart, Luke won’t betray his cherished wife’s memory.
A marriage of convenience is exactly what Nellie wants, since she’s been wounded by love before and doesn’t plan to risk her heart again. But despite her chilly reception at Luke’s family’s simple Colorado cabin, her feelings for Luke and the children grow deeper every day. Can Nellie and Luke heal the pain in each other and finally make their family whole again?
1913 – Colorado
When sabotage threatens the Rudin Sugar Factory, Detective Jasper Hollock believes this will be his first real case. But dear Mr. Rudin—the only father Jasper has ever known—holds a different assignment for his private investigator.
“I’ve struck a deal with God, Jasper, and you’re my angel.”
Mr. Rudin charges Jasper to build a “case” of reasons for his employer to continue his life. If he fails, Mr. Rudin will end it in suicide on Christmas night.
As the incidents at the factory become life threatening, Jasper’s attempts at dissuading Mr. Rudin prove futile, and Jasper is left staring at the stark reality of his own soul. Time is ticking. Jasper must solve both cases by Christmas before Mr. Rudin, the company, and Jasper’s faith, are dragged to perdition. Will this be the Christmas Jasper truly discovers what makes life worth living?
1883 – Colorado
Clare Walsh isn’t too keen on marrying, but it’s the only way for her to keep her family home…and custody of her two younger brothers. So when rancher Noah Livingstone offers a union in name only, Clare reluctantly agrees. Accepting Noah’s strictly practical proposal has an unexpected catch, though—she’s actually falling for him.
Though Noah is drawn to vibrant, independent Clare, he knows romantic feelings will only complicate their marriage of convenience. But when secrets from his past threaten Noah’s fragile new family, he must make a difficult choice. Will Noah risk all his dreams to secure a real future with Clare?
1876 – Colorado
As a young girl, Rose Langtry feared her gruff, handsome rancher neighbor. Coming back to Colorado after five years, she’s outraged to find Morgan LeMasters ready to hang her brother for rustling and theft. But when the resulting skirmish leaves her injured, Morgan’s tender care turns her unease to unexpected closeness . . . and admiration.
Stopping Frankie Langtry and his gang has long been Morgan’s priority, yet he can’t resist Rose’s pleas for mercy. As brave and spirited as she is soft-hearted, Rose needs support to keep her family farm from going under, and a marriage of convenience will provide it. Morgan hardly dares admit, even to himself, his longing for a deeper, truer union. But her brother’s grudge is bringing danger back to Whispering Pines, and it’ll take forgiveness, courage—and a bond built on faith—to create a family and a future together . . .
1880 – Colorado
Love hadn’t brought her to Colorado, but it might be the one thing that keeps her there.
Mail order bride Mae Ann Remington won’t let circumstances get in her way. When someone else’s greed costs her everything—including her groom—she does the only thing she can in a new town with no money or friends. She asks a stranger to marry her.
Cattleman Cade Parker stops at the bank to withdraw cash for his sister, not find himself a wife. But that’s exactly what happens after a bank robbery leaves a farmer dead and his headstrong bride-to-be making a desperate business proposition.
Convinced he’s gone loco, Cade accepts the spirited young woman’s offer, and they stop by the church before heading to the ranch, his horses, and the herd. He’s soon adding to Mae Ann’s fine cooking skills by teaching her to ride, shoot, and do what he tells her. She manages the first two fairly well, but gets her back up at the third.
Cade struggles to keep his emotional distance from the stubborn gal whose gentle ways start drawing him in. But when a greedy neighbor challenges Mae Ann’s inheritance of her former intended’s run-down farm, Cade and Mae Ann drive to court at the county seat and into the jaws of a deadly storm. Not only must Cade fight to keep his new bride safe, he’s got to keep his heart from stampeding out of control.
Taking on snakes, scoundrels, and second chances is one thing, but falling in love wasn’t part of the deal.
1883 – Colorado
Hoping to overcome her reputation as Leadville, Colorado’s biggest gossip, wealthy socialite Flora Montgomery offers to help a miner care for an abandoned child. But her growing affection for the sweet boy’s handsome rescuer could be a problem. Especially since her parents insist she must marry for money.
Undercover mine owner George Baxter is digging himself into a dilemma. The once-spoiled Flora has become a delightful, generous woman, and she’ll be devastated by his deception. Yet if he can’t discover who’s sabotaging the mine, George will lose any chance of making a home for Flora and Pierre. Can the little boy who holds both their hearts help them lay claim to a new dream of family?
1882 – Colorado
Former lawman Zane Robinson never thought he’d wear a badge again—but to locate his missing twin brother, Zane’s taking on his identity as sheriff of Proud Bend, Colorado. There he discovers heiress Rachel Smith conducting her own search for a mother and child who’ve also disappeared from the small town. The cases could be connected, so Zane reluctantly agrees to team up with the feisty beauty.
Rachel can’t afford to be seen getting too close to Zane—it could impact her ministry for misguided young women. But as the investigation continues, she’s hopelessly drawn to the gruff yet honorable lawman. Though trust doesn’t come easily to Rachel or Zane, in searching for the missing will they risk losing their hearts?
1885 – Colorado
After two years, Tolley Northam returns home, transformed from a mischievous youth into an ambitious lawyer confident of winning his father’s approval at last. But he soon begins to wonder if the only way to do so is to marry family friend Laurie Eberly—a woman his father has always liked. If only she weren’t so adamant about refusing Tolley’s proposal…
Laurie’s childhood friend is now a handsome, accomplished lawyer with undeniable charm. But she can’t accept Tolley’s proposal; she believes it’s just to earn his father’s praise. First he’ll have to prove to her that he wants her for a wife not because his father thinks she’s the perfect match, but because he does.
