Posts with the custom taxonomy term Gerlach-Rita

Mercy’s Refuge by Rita Gerlach

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1620 – England/Holland

A young woman’s journey to the New World.

Inspired by William Bradford’s ‘Of Plymouth Plantation’, Mercy’s Refuge is a sweeping historical novel of romance and adventure in the year 1620. Mercy McCrea, orphaned as a child and raised by her aging grandparents, lives in poverty. The only thing keeping her and her family from starvation is to work as a kitchen servant for a rich nobleman.

When catastrophe strikes and Mercy’s life is in danger, she flees England for her uncle’s farm in Holland. There she meets Caleb, a carpenter, and finds refuge among the Separatists who fled the wrath of the English King. Beginning in Ipswich, a North Sea port town in Suffolk, England, the novel takes the reader on a voyage across the English Channel to Holland, and then aboard the Mayflower.

When Mercy and Caleb face the dangers of the sea, their faith and love for each other is strengthened by the strong bonds of a people whose courage forged a nation.

Homefront Heroines by Various Authors

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Patriotic Service Leads to Victories in Romance
 
Relive life on the American homefront as four women of the WWII era join the workforce and discover romance in surprising ways.
 
Moonlight Serenade by Rita Gerlach
1941, Washington D.C.
When Kate St. Claire takes over a sailor’s job at the Naval Yard in Washington, DC, she is thrown into a romance she never expected.
 
Only Forever by Lauralee Bliss
1943, Springville, New York
Marilyn and Arthur learn the hard way that it’s not the outside that matters, but the inward working of the heart that is precious to God and each other.       
 
Blue Moon by Johnnie Alexander
1943, Oak Ridge, Tennessee
After humiliating each other, a WOOPs officer and an Army Intelligence agent team up to protect a top-secret atomic bomb facility from sabotage.
 
Dream a Little Dream by Amanda Barratt
1945, Palm Springs, California
When an army nurse and a former film star are reunited at a wartime hospital, can they move beyond their past and into a future together?

Lessons on Love

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Something Old, Something New by Kathleen L. Maher
New York, 1840s
Her father’s sudden death makes Gilda Jacobs the new schoolmaster, but to teach Christian curriculum she partners with fire-and-brimstone revivalist Joshua Blake, who learns a lesson in love.
 
Love in Any Language by Susanne Dietze
Kansas, 1870
Mary Clarence teaches English to the children of Swedish immigrants, but when her favorite students’ widowed father, Kristofer Nilsson, is accused of robbery, she’s determined to clear his name.
 
In Desperate Straits by Carrie Fancett Pagels
Mackinac Island, Michigan, 1894
Desperate for work, Margaret Hadley dresses as a young man to secure a dray driver’s position. When soldiers at the fort threaten her, Mackinac Island’s newest teacher, Jesse Huntington, intervenes.
 
A Song in the Night by Rita Gerlach
Virginia, 1904
Karin Wiles longs to share the uplifting power of music with children. But when she seeks to improve a poorly run school and include orphans, Nathaniel Archer delivers harsh words of opposition from the school board.

The Erie Canal Brides Collection

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Seven romance stories take you back to the building of the Erie Canal and the opening of the Midwest to greater development.

Completed in 1825, the Erie Canal connected the Great Lakes to the Hudson River, and soon other states like Ohio created canals linking Lake Erie to the Ohio River. Suddenly the Midwest was open to migration, the harvesting of resources, and even tourism. Join seven couples who live through the rise of the canals and the problems the waterways brought to each community, including land grabs, disease, tourists, racism, and competition. Can these couples hang on to their faith and develop love during times of intense change?

The Way of a Child by Lauralee Bliss
Little Falls, New York 1817
Widower David Marshall has no interest in selling his farm to the Erie Canal project presented by agent Ray O’Neil and his daughter Melanie. But his sons Matthew and Luke have taken a peculiar liking to Melanie. What the children reveal paves the way to a surprising future.    
 
Wedding of the Waters by Rita Gerlach
Goshen Creek, New York. 1819
Charlotte Verger, a physician’s niece, is unexpectedly reunited with her first and only love, Blaine McKenna.  When word comes that the Erie Canal builders at the Montezuma Swamp, where Blaine is working as a surveyor, are stricken with malaria, Charlotte risks a journey to reach him.
 
Digging for Love by Ramona K. Cecil
Rochester, New York 1822
For budding artist Emily Nichols, the coming Erie Canal brings dreams of leaving Rochester for the art markets of New York City. As he builds the canal, Irish laborer Seamus O’Grady is building his American dream in Rochester. When hearts meld, divergent dreams and old prejudices threaten burgeoning love.
 
Return to Sweetwater Cove by Christina Miller
Sweetwater Cove, New York, 1825
Reverend Josiah Wells travels to his hometown to pastor the church and make restitution for his youthful sins. Betsy Bennett wants to honor her late husband’s memory and make sure Sweetwater Cove never discovers the secret she shares with Josiah. Can they leave behind the past and find love beside still waters?

Journey of the Heart by Johnnie Alexander
Circleville, Ohio, early 1852
Charity Sinclair secretly writes abolitionist pamphlets while thwarting architect Tavish Dunbar’s effort to redesign her father’s post office, a hidden stop on the Underground Railroad. When a slave-hunter captures a runaway, Charity vows to rescue the fugitive. But can she trust Tavish with her secret. . .and with her heart?
 
Pressing On by Rose Allen McCauley
Zoar, Ohio, 1856
As a child, Amanda Mack loved her life in Zoar, Ohio, where she was born to Separatists. Now an adult, she starts to chafe at its many restrictions. After meeting riverboat captain Daniel Jeremiah, they both must make decisions about their futures. Can she leave or will he convert or…?

The Bridge Between Usby Sherri Wilson Johnson
Albion, New York, 1859
John Hawkins steps back into Susannah Higley’s life just in time to save it. Despite her father’s longstanding disdain for John’s family, can Susannah and John settle the family feud and save her father’s struggling sawmill—and their chance for love? Or will the feud continue? 

The Runaway Brides Collection

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What is a woman of the 1800s to do when she feels powerless to choose her own spouse and marry for love—run!

Amy’s home is at stake if she doesn’t marry her neighbor. Delia’s father wants her to marry into a political family. Georgiana is posing as a wealthy man’s wife in order to hide from her groom. Callie is fleeing one wedding and racing to marry a stranger. Emily flees her wedding with the help of a mysterious coachman. Josey’s best friend leaves a letter proposing marriage unanswered in order to elope. Bernadine becomes the ward and pawn of her evil uncle. Where will each turn when they have only God to trust?

Seven women facing the marriage altar make the decision to flee, but who can they now trust?

The Victorian Christmas Brides Collection

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Faced with the daily extremes of gluttony and want in the Victorian Era, nine women seek to create the perfect Christmas celebrations. But will expectations and pride cause them to overlook imperfect men who offer true love?
 
Paper Snowflake Christmas by Vanessa Riley
1837 Framlingham, England
How can widow Ophelia Hanover give her son a perfect Christmas when his guardian, the Earl of Litton, arrives early to take permeant custody of the boy?
 
One Golden Ring by C.J. Chase
1855 Devonshire, England
Wounded soldier Tristram Nowell returns home to indulge his mother’s wish for a family Christmas–and encounters Marianna Granville. Can he forgive the former heiress who jilted him years before?
 
Love Brick by Brick by Kathleen L. Maher
1857 Elmira, New York
SarahAnn Winnifred overcomes orphanhood apprenticing with pioneering doctors. Rufus Sedgwick, relocating his English estate, seeks help for his ailing Mum. Christmas reveals the secret wish of both hearts–for love.
 
The Sugarplum Ladies by Carrie Fancett Pagels
1867 Windsor, Ontario, Canada and Detroit, Michigan
When Canadian barrister Percy Gladstone finds his aristocratic British family unexpectedly descending upon him for Christmas, he turns to American social reformer Eugenie Mott and her fledgling catering crew for help.
 
Star of Wonder by Susanne Dietze
1875 County Durham, England
This Yuletide, Bennet Hett, Viscount Harwood, offers Lady Celeste Sidwell matrimony and the Star of Wonder diamond necklace, as their fathers arranged. When the diamond disappears, will they find a greater treasure?
 
Father Christmas by Lorna Seilstad
Chicago, Christmas 1880
Widowed harpist Beatrix Kent believes love can only come once in a lifetime, but this Christmas, carpenter Hugo Sherman hopes to pull on the musician’s heartstrings and prove her wrong.
 
The Perfect Christmas by Erica Vetsch
1880s London
Melisande Verity might be in over her head trying to create the perfect Christmas window display, but if she succeeds, will she finally attract the attention of her boss, Gray Garamond?
 
A Christmas Vow by Gabrielle Meyer
London, England, Christmas 1899

Lady Ashleigh Pendleton is hosting a houseful of guests for Christmas when railroad executive Christopher Campbell unexpectedly arrives from America with a mysterious agreement signed by their fathers before their birth. 
 
The Holly and the Ivy by Rita Gerlach
1900. Small town along the Potomac near Washington DC
A glass ornament. Love letters tied in red Christmas ribbon. Lily Morningstar and British antiquities expert Andrew Stapleton are drawn into a family secret that binds their hearts together.

Beyond the Valley by Rita Gerlach

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Beyond the Valley: Daughters of the Potomac | Book 3beyondthevalley

1778 – Maryland

When Sarah’s husband Jamie drowns, her young life if shattered and takes a turn that she never expected. Pregnant and now widowed, she reaches out to Jamie’s family for help but they are unwilling. Instead they devise a plan to have her kidnapped. She is deceived and taken aboard a ship headed for the Chesapeake to be sold as an indentured servant, bound to unspeakable hardship and forced into the same harsh world she left.

Caught in the talons of servitude, she falls in love with a young conscientious doctor, Alex Hutton, who has arrived in Virginia to care for his widowed sister in law and two young nieces. Called back to serve in Washington’s army, he promises he will return for her, gain her freedom and wed her. Other plans were made for Sarah when her owner finds himself bankrupt and sells her the first chance he gets. She’s taken out into the frontier, captured by Indians, and faces unbearable hardship.

When the mistress of River Run along the Potomac encounters Sarah’s plight after she has escaped, Eliza Morgan pities her, and a way is made for Sarah to remain with her and care for Eliza’s young daughter, Darcy. Revolution has ignited in America, and together they endure many hardships which bring them together in friendship. But when Sarah learns that Zachary Halston, a local landowner, has seduced Eliza, she is troubled about what to do.

Grateful for Eliza’s kindness, Sarah is forever bound to keep silent. She promises Eliza to never reveal the secret that Ilene is Eliza’s child, even at the risk of living a life in shame if her master should ever discover the truth upon his return.

Trapped in Eliza and Hayward’s troubled lives, Sarah flees River Run. Will she make her way back to Alex and freedom as he searches the wilderness for her? Or will her hopes be crushed at the hands of the man who deceived her long ago in Cornwall when she faced destitution?

Beside Two Rivers by Rita Gerlach

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Beside Two Rivers (The Daughters of the Potomac, No. 2)besidetworivers

1797 – England

A tale of love won and love lost, and the faith to find it again.

In this dramatic saga that began in ‘Before the Scarlet Dawn’, Eliza’s daughter seeks to unravel a lifetime of memories and the absence of her parents, unaware that the young Englishman who loves her holds the answers. Her search takes her far from her beloved home along the Potomac, to a manor house in faraway England. Soon the secrets of the past slowly rise to the surface. Will she be reunited with the most important people in her life? Will Hayward and Eliza find peace and reconciliation? Will Darcy’s faith sustain her to make the difficult choices? Will the love she and Ethan share endure?

Before the Scarlet Dawn by Rita Gerlach

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Before the Scarlet Dawn: Daughters of the Potomac, Book 1beforethescarletdawn

1775 – Maryland

In 1775, Hayward Morgan, a young gentleman destined to inherit his father’s estate in Derbyshire, England, captures the heart of the local vicar’s daughter, Eliza Bloome. Her dark beauty and spirited ways are not enough to win him, due to her station in life.  

Circumstances throw Eliza in Hayward’s path, and they flee to America to escape the family conflicts. But as war looms, it’s a temporary reprieve. Hayward joins the revolutionary forces and what follows is a struggle for survival, a test of faith, and the quest to find lasting love in an unforgiving wilderness.

Surrender the Wind by Rita Gerlach

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Surrender the Windsurrenderthewind

Pre/Post Revolutionary War – England and Virginia

When Seth Braxton inherits his grandfather’s estate in faraway England after the Revolution, he inherits more than an isolated manor house. He wins the heart of Juleah Fallows, the daughter of a landed gentleman, and Seth’s sister’s best friend. They become entangled in a plot that leads to kidnapping, murder, and betrayal in a stirring tale of fidelity and forgiveness.

‘This book is one of the most romantic I’ve ever read. The love that is poetically described between Seth and Juleah was rousing. This alone makes this book a page turner. I loved this book.’
Annette Temple ~ ‘A Well-Watered Garden Blog’