Courting the Country Preacher Collection

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Every Preacher Needs a Wife, Right?

Being a preacher in the countryside is not for the faint of heart nor faith. Four inexperienced preachers face a myriad of challenges including those who figure a man of the cloth needs a wife. Can they meet the expectations of “helpful” congregants and be true to their hearts?

The Mountie’s Rival by Angela K Couch
Canada, 1907 — Tired of living in his twin’s shadow, Jonathan Burton is frustrated to find himself serving as a still wet-behind-the-ears preacher in the same community as his Mountie brother. How is he to find a wife when all the eligible women of the community seem enamored by his dashing brother in scarlet uniform?

Convincing the Circuit Preacher by Carolyn Miller
Australia, 1863 — As soon as Dorothea Maclean saw the country preacher, she knew Mr. Hammill was the man of her dreams. Now she just needs to convince her wealthy parents—and Mr. Hammill.

The Angel and the Sky Pilot by Naomi Musch
Minnesota, 1905 — A preacher with a checkered past sets off to win souls in the lumber camps like the “sky pilots” before him. But can he earn the respect of hard-living men—and still respect himself—after a local trader’s daughter joins the all-male congregation?

Mail Order Minister by Kari Trumbo
South Dakota, 1889 — Olive’s parents mail-ordered a preacher and prayed he’d be a husband for their daughter. The rest of the town—and Olive—have other ideas.

Bullseye Bride by Kari Trumbo

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early 1900s – South Dakota

When Kitty’s father disappears, she and her family must find a way to pay for their house.

Another payment missed and they lose everything. Kitty has one shot to save them, the winning prize would earn her freedom from a dastardly uncle, if only she had the chance to make it.

Thad is setting up the Deadwood annual shooting tournament and thinks he’s solved Kitty’s problem by setting up a women’s division. There’s no prize, but she can compete. With her continued pressure, he realizes there’s more to the story, but his hands are tied. If he allows a woman to compete against the men, all the donors could pull out and he would be a laughingstock.

Especially if she wins.
And, he’s not so sure she wouldn’t.

Can their new friendship bud into more if Kitty hides who she is to save her family or will they both lose everything if she’s found out?

Wherever the Road Will Lead by Kari Trumbo

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1900s – South Dakota

When she accidentally takes sides in a family feud that consumes a whole town, the consequences could cost Tamar her life.

A failed mail order bride, her empty purse leaves her out of choices. She’s forced to move to the Johlman ranch as a piano teacher to the owner’s two daughters. Despite her wealthy upbringing, the rural ranch with its two servants feels much more welcoming than her own home. Leo, the rancher’s son, makes her heart dance faster than a waltz.

Leo can’t believe the answer to his prayers just arrived on the train.

He needs to prove to his pa that he’s serious about ranching, which means being serious about life. A wife would prove to the world he’s ready to be a man. Trouble is, Pa just decided he wasn’t worth waiting on and disinherited him.

Now, Tamar feels a connection to Leo she’s never had before, but his father would never allow the union. Leo’s love for Tamar is growing but he’s got nothing left to offer her, except his heart.

Belle Fourche Legacy by Kari Trumbo

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1905 – South Dakota

Alice has always been the good daughter, the one who does what everyone expects. She promised Kent Douglas she would wait for his return even though her family has fought his for the past thirty years. Then he left and never contacted her again.

Five long years have gone by and Alice is an adult. Despite the occasional annoyance by the Douglas patriarch, they hear nothing from their neighbors. When word comes that Kent not only returned, but has been back for quite some time without contacting her, tensions rage. Alice wants revenge for her humiliation.

Kent was heavily scarred protecting Alice from a bomb, and he’s returned home with worse scars to his heart.

He went to school to become a doctor, but along the way found out the teachers thought he’d be better suited to a barn. No patient wants to look to a monster for hope. He never wanted to work on a ranch again, but now his training — the training he ran away and fought to have — will be in a barn.

He loves Alice Johlman like she’s half of his heart, but he can’t accept the failure he is and won’t force her to follow through on her promise from years before. If only he could forget her.

Battle for Her Heart by Kari Trumbo

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1901 – South Dakota

Hannah has learned the hardest love lesson.

Taken from her home and on the run, Hannah wants nothing more than to escape and return to her old life. The husband she loved, but who scorned her is now dead. But the man hired to hide her is vindictive and out for revenge.

Blake is a Pinkerton hired to find her. When he’s finally successful, Hannah isn’t the woman her family knew. She’s closed off, hurt, and guilt-ridden after putting her family through so much. She feels incapable of loving anyone again.

Can Blake not only return her to her family, but can he reconcile her wounded heart as well?

Laura’s Shadow by Allison Pittman

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1890/1970 – South Dakota

Family Secrets Spill One Conversation at a Time

1890
Young women growing up in DeSmet live by two rules: don’t go out in a snowstorm and don’t give your heart to Cap Garland. Young Mariah Patterson only managed to obey one. Orphaned and having devoted her youth to scrapping out a life with her brother Charles, Mariah finds herself with no interesting suitors or means of support. Throwing caution to the wind, she seizes an opportunity to lay her feelings at Cap’s feet, even though she knows Cap sees the world through the torch he carries for Laura Ingalls. Mariah is certain her love for Cap will be strong enough to break both bonds, and she’s willing to risk everything to prove it.

1974
Trixie Gowan is the fourth generation of living Gowan women residing in the sprawling farmhouse on the outskirts of De Smet. Well, former resident. She’s recently moved to Minneapolis, where she writes ads for a neighborhood paper edited by Ron Tumble. She might live and work in the city, but her co-workers still call her Prairie Girl. Thus the inspiration for her comic strip—“Lost Laura”—in which a bespectacled girl in a calico dress tries to make her way in the city. The name is a quiet rebellion having grown up in a household where she’d been forbidden to mention the name, Laura Ingalls. But when her great-grandmother Mariah’s declining health brings Trixie home for a visit, two things might just keep her there: the bedside manner of Dr. Campbell Carter and the family secret that seems to be spilling from GG’s lips one conversation at a time.

Valley of Promise by Kari Trumbo

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1900s – South Dakota

Armstrong has never had a choice in his life.

Pa has decided everything from who his friends are to when he would take over their huge cattle spread. He’s made plenty of enemies in Belle Fourche, SD along the way, especially their neighbors, the sheep ranching Johlmans.

When a judge arrives in town to look into all the misdeeds of both families, Armstrong’s carefully planned world begins to crumble, particularly when he meets the judge’s daughter. A woman who could have his heart, unless her father finds out what his family has been doing.

Dosha Cattrel’s father has threatened every man who’s shown interest. She’s given up hope of ever finding someone perfect enough to suit him, much less love her.

Her father brings her and a secretive Pinkerton agent to investigate a land war. She fully expects to be bored silly until she meets Armstrong, one of the very men under her father’s spyglass. What Armstrong doesn’t know is that she is related to the Johlmans, his fiercest enemies.

Can a forbidden love survive the light of day, or will secrets kill the growing love between them?

To A Brighter Tomorrow by Kari Trumbo

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1900s – South Dakota

What’s a woman to do when she isn’t accepted?
Anywhere . . .

By the age of sixteen, Josephine Littlebear determined she was better off on her own. Her father’s hatred of her heritage sent her, alone and independent, to the cow town of Belle Fourche, SD. For years she worked hard and kept to herself, but that changed when she saved a man, and his sheep, from a chance encounter with a bear. Now she’s faced with having something she’s never had before: a friend.

Gideon has always done what his father asked of him.
Until now . . .

Being the second brother, Gideon’s life has always been planned out for him. He was destined to marry someone who could help their sheep ranch and build a family legacy. But when he’s trapped by a hungry bear and a woman he’s never seen before rescues him, sparks fly. Trouble is, his father will never accept a half-Indian bride.

The Johlman ranch is under attack, and no one seems to know by whom. Their faith is tested when proven friends turn to enemies. When Gideon’s older sister makes a surprising choice that could cost the family everything, he must choose which is more important—the family that’s given him everything, or the love of his life.

In a Far-Off Land by Stephanie Landsem

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1931 – California/South Dakota

A story about the price of fame, the truth sacrificed on its altar, and the love that brings a prodigal daughter home.

As the Great Depression hits the Midwest, Minerva Sinclaire runs away to Hollywood, determined to make it big and save the family farm. But beauty and moxie don’t pay the bills in Tinseltown, and she’s caught in a downward spiral of poverty, desperation, and compromise. Finally, she’s about to sign with a major studio and make up for it all. Instead, she wakes up next to a dead film star and is on the run for a murder she didn’t commit.

Only two unwilling men—Oscar, a Mexican gardener in danger of deportation, and Max, a too-handsome agent battling his own demons—can help Mina escape corrupt police on the take and the studio big shots trying to frame her. But even her quick thinking and grit can’t protect her from herself. Alone, penniless, and carrying a shameful secret, Mina faces the consequences of the heartbreaking choices that brought her to ruin . . . and just might bring her back to where she belongs.

A Most Inconvenient Love by Ruth Logan Herne

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1890 – South Dakota

Sober businessman Seb Ward may have come from a wealthy lumber-baron family in Minnesota, but he knows that appearances can be deceiving, and that his illustrious family is pretty dysfunctional. Being in another state has provided the buffer he sought from his father’s misdeeds, but when a little boy shows up on a train… a little boy who looks enough like Seb to be his own child… Seb’s faced with a dilemma. Raise the boy as his own, or let his mother suffer the embarrassment of “a brother by another mother.” And when the boy takes a shine to the Rachel Eichas, the newly contracted school teacher, Seb can’t help but do the same. But Rachel was raised by an unloving, business-first father and there’s no way she’s looking for those same qualities in a husband. Can she see through Seb’s focus and drive to find the loving man within?

Last Chance Wife by Janette Foreman

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1878 – South Dakota

When six-time mail-order bride Winifred Sattler is stranded in Deadwood, Dakota Territory, she’s grateful to find a temporary position at Mr. Ewan Burke’s business until she can return home. Ewan is handsome, but stuffy and serious—her complete opposite. Unlike her new anonymous correspondent, Mr. Businessman, who appreciates her bubbly optimism.

To keep his mining company afloat, Ewan can’t be distracted by Winifred’s vivacious beauty. He needs a no-nonsense wife. Someone like Miss Thoroughly Disgruntled, the only respondent to his recent ad with whom he truly connected. In person, Winifred and Ewan don’t get along, but in their letters they’re falling in love. Will they discover a perfect match in each other?

The Widow’s Suitor by Rose Ross Zediker

widowssuitor The Widow’s Suitor

South Dakota

CORA ANDERSON ISN’T LOOKING FOR LOVE

The young widow is just trying to make a life on the prairie for herself and her newborn son. When handsome newcomer Luke Dow shows up at her cabin door, she soon relies on the man’s help with her homestead…and dares to dream of the future.

Luke came to the small South Dakota town to build a hotel and make his fortune. But he never expected to care for anyone, let alone the beautiful Cora and her baby boy. When Cora’s land claim is challenged by a neighbor, Luke will do all he can to protect her and her home—and claim her heart.

A Place to Belong by Lauraine Snelling

A Place to Belong (Wild West Wind)

1906 – South Dakota

As winter settles over the ranch, the Engstrom brothers are much on the mind of Cassie Lockwood. The way Lucas smiles at her should set her heart to tripping. But it doesn’t. Shouldn’t there be some attraction to him if they are going to be married? His vow to make her love him does not seem to be working, no matter how considerate and charming he is.

Ransom Engstrom is another matter. After Cassie’s train trip to a shooting competition, she realizes she misses Ransom more than Lucas. And then there’s the look she caught Lucas sending Betsy Hudson at church one Sunday. Are she and Lucas drifting apart?

Meanwhile, Ransom has discovered that he cares for Cassie but can’t bring himself to express his true feelings to her. When she leaves to join a Wild West show for the summer, will Ransom summon the courage to go after her?

Whispers in the Wind by Lauraine Snelling

Whispers in the Wind (Wild West Wind)

1906 – South Dakota

After fleeing North Dakota and the now defunct Wild West Show, Cassie Lockwood and her companions have finally found the hidden valley in South Dakota where her father had dreamed of putting down roots. But to her dismay, she discovers a ranch already built on her land.

Cassie’s arrival surprises Mavis Engstrom and forces her to reveal secrets she’s kept hidden for years. Her son Ransom is suspicious of Cassie and questions the validity of her claim to the valley. But Lucas Engstrom decides from the start that he is in love with her and wants to marry her.

Will Cassie be able to build a home on the Bar E Ranch and fulfill her father’s dream of raising horses, or will she be forced to return to the itinerant life of her past?

Friends and Enemies by Stephen Bly

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1891 – South Dakota

ROBERT FORTUNE IS THE LAST ONE TO COME HOME. Robert is not like his father, the legendary Brazos Fortune. Not a businessman like his brother Todd. Not a notorious retired gunslinger like his brother Sam. Nor the social darlings of the Black Hills like little sister, Dacee June. Hes a career soldier who no longer has a career. With the discipline of a West Point graduate, and the rock solid faith his long-departed mother, Robert moves his family to Deadwood to join the rest of the clan. And in Deadwood, Robert finds not only his placeas a railroad detectivebut a fistful of enemies, all seeking vengeance against him and his family.

The Last of the Texas Camp by Stephen Bly

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1895 – South Dakota

Dacee June Fortune’s mother died when she was eight, and for the next 23 years she stood at her father’s side. Even after she married, Daddy Brazos was her strength, her protection, and her idol. Now, daddy is dying.

The Long Trail Home by Stephen Bly

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1885 – Dakotas

The second son of Brazos Fortune, Samuel, is somewhat the lost sheep of the Fortune family. After he is run out of Texas, he ends up hiding out with his father and brother. Although he struggles to escape the consequences of his previous lifestyle, he refuses to talk about the past. Brazos has to deal with sending Samuel back to Texas to make amends or allowing him to have a new start in Dakota. To make things even more complicated, Samuel decides to marry a divorced woman with several children and a questionable reputation. Through it all, Samuel never gives up his Christian heritage.

Shadow of Legends by Stephen Bly

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1880 – Dakota Territory

BRAZOS FORTUNE HAS LEFT A TOWERING LEGACY. HIS SON TODD NOW STRUGGLES TO PROVE HIMSELF AND FIND HIS OWN IDENTITY IN THE SHADOWS OF LEGENDS. Life in the shadows. It happens to all of us. We stand so close to a dominant personality that our reflection can hardly be noticed. Someone more famous. More skilled. More powerful. Sometimes they are people we hardly know. Sometimes they are members of our own family. Brazos Fortune has left a towering legacy. His son Todd now struggles to prove himself and find his own identity in the Shadow of Legends. Todd Fortune must follow his father as he takes over the family business with his wife, a fast-paced city girl who’s not willing to settle into a small town lifestyle. A tale of daily hardships and hard-earned victories, Todd struggles to prove himself a committed husband and a courageous frontiersman in the wake of his father’s legacy. Cross-country chases, deadly showdowns, and budding romances weave the story of this second powerful novel in the Fortunes of the Black Hills series.

Beneath a Dakota Cross by Stephen Bly

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1875 – Dakota Territory

IN SEARCH OF A NEW LIFE OUT WEST, BRAZOS FORTUNE FINDS HIS FAMILY ENDANGERED BY THE VERY QUEST HE HOPED WOULD SAVE THEM. With these simple words, Brazos Fortune sets out on his journey in the first of Stephen Bly’s new Fortunes of the Black Hills series. When locals threaten the lives and property of his family. Brazos abandons his Texas homestead for a new ranch in the West he has seen in a dream. Its a war against corrupt lawmen, wild outlaws, and bitter winter weather as Brazos wrestles with his newfound hunger for gold and the burning desire to be reunited with his family. He must test himself against the untamed frontier, confront the greedy miners who try his Christian convictions, and find the new home God showed him Beneath a Dakota Cross.