Investigation of a Journalist by Danielle Grandinetti

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1931 – Wisconsin

A second chance to set the record straight, and rekindle a lost love.

Buck Wilson refuses to accept failure as his reward for all he has sacrificed, but he’s kept secrets for too long to be believed. With his freedom on the line, there’s only one person he trusts to mine for the true story: the woman he left one month before their wedding.

All investigative journalist Caroline Wagoneer wants is to shine a light on the truth wherever darkness threatens to obscure it. Which is the only reason she agrees to help her ex-fiance when he begs for her to go undercover in Crow’s Nest. What she discovers paints Buck in a whole new light.

With lies and rumor hemming them in, Buck and Caroline realize their love may be doomed on the altar of altruism. Unless love can truly conquer all.

Specters in the Glass House by Jaime Jo Wright

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1921/Present – Wisconsin

An ominous butterfly house. A sinister legacy. An untraceable killer.

In 1921, Marian Arnold, the heiress to a brewing baron’s empire, seeks solace in the glass butterfly house on her family’s Wisconsin estate as Prohibition and the deaths of her parents cast a long shadow over her shrinking world. When Marian’s sanctuary is invaded by nightmarish visions, she grapples with the line between hallucinations of things to come and malevolent forces at play in the present. With dead butterflies as the killer’s ominous signature, murders unfold at a steady pace. Marian, fearful she might be next, enlists the help of her childhood friend Felix, a war veteran with his own haunted past.

In the present day, researcher Remy Shaw becomes entangled in an elderly biographer’s quest to uncover the truth behind Marian Arnold’s mysterious life and the unsolved murders linked to an infamous serial killer. Joined by Marian’s great-great-grandson, can Remy expose the evil that lurks beneath broken wings? Or will the dark legacy surrounding the manor and its glass house destroy yet another generation?

The Baby and the Guardian by Danielle Grandinetti

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1929 – Wisconsin

A baby in danger, a man in turmoil, and a woman determined to save them both.

When her best friend is murdered, Eira Mae Pryce gains guardianship over her friend’s baby. A baby in danger.

Charged with the child’s protection, she must outrun a snowstorm, her grief, and a killer to seek refuge with the man who saved her life last Christmas.

All ex-sheriff Casper Yarwood wants for Christmas is to be left alone. With failure ringing in his ears, he retreated to his family’s cabin in the densely wooded portion of his former jurisdiction. But when his uncle’s secretary–and the woman he believes he failed–arrives on his doorstep with an endangered child, Casper cannot turn them away.

Casper and Eira Mae face impossible odds that require facing their pasts, sacrificing their futures, and ignoring their growing feelings for one another. But they’ll do so if it means they keep their charge alive long enough to experience his first Christmas.

Sheltered by the Doctor by Danielle Grandinetti

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1931 – Wisconsin

A fake relationship might keep her safe, but will it break their hearts?

Mindy Zahn can’t understand why her parents deserted the family farm, leaving her mute younger sister in her care. Until her mother’s cryptic warning to keep her sister safe becomes a life-threatening task.

Searching for that elusive something to ease his weary heart, Dr. Nick Matrone is drawn to the cheery Mindy. He would never presume to bring such a sweet woman into his beleaguered past, so friendship is all he can offer. Except, he doesn’t expect needing to save her life.

As the danger grows, they both must battle through physical and emotional wounds to have a hope of their counterfeit relationship becoming true.

Priscilla by Jenny Knipfer

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1946 – Wisconsin

ONE COOKBOOK CONNECTS THEM ALL…

In the post WWII era of 1946, Priscilla Hadley dreams of being a wife and homemaker, but there’s one big obstacle in her mind—Priscilla has been told she can’t cook to save her life. However, she’s out to prove that wrong, especially to handsome but annoying Aaron Johnson, her twin brother Jeremy’s friend and fishing buddy, who also happens to be the local police lieutenant.

In an effort to polish up her culinary shortcomings, Priscilla joins a local cooking club. A woman from the club gifts Priscilla a cookbook that could very well put her on the path to realizing her dreams. Much to their surprise, Priscilla and her family find much more than recipes within the cookbook’s pages. What will be its greatest blessing?

With an ailing father and the Wisconsin family farm to help keep afloat, in the absence of two brothers who died in the war, where will Priscilla find the time to learn to cook? Will she renew her faith in the presence of adversity or allow her present fears and past losses dictate her future?

Relying on the Enemy by Danielle Grandinetti

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1931 – Wisconsin

She’s protecting her children. He’s redeeming his past. But there’s nothing convenient about saving their patchwork family.

All widowed mother Marian Ward wants is to provide for her girls. However, she faces the dead of winter with no income and dwindling resources. Then she overhears a nefarious conversation, putting her life and that of her children in immediate danger.

Aiming to make amends to the Wards, Gilbert steps in when the threat to Marian escalates. It costs him dearly. Either lose his career or marry her, and be tied to his past until death do them part.

He leaves the decision to Marian, who will do anything to protect her girls, even marry the son of the man who ruined her family. How will their fledgling trust prove strong enough to fulfill their vows as winter tightens its grip and desperation stalks at the door?

Escape with the Prodigal by Danielle Grandinetti

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1930 – Wisconsin

Only a Christmas miracle will save an unwed mother and the lumberjack protecting her.

Since her late fiancé was killed in a supposed logging accident, Meredith Hughes knows her only safe choice is to keep her unexpected pregnancy hidden, especially from her father. But Supervisor Emyr Hughes, demands his daughter remain at the logging camp with him through the winter, leaving Meri at his mercy.

Patrick Martins has no interest in responsibility and going up to the lumber camp is a chance to get away from Crow’s Nest and his hovering grandmother, nosy great-uncle, and drunk of a father. If only his older brother wasn’t at the camp, too.

Though Patrick doesn’t expect to be taken with his boss’s daughter, when Meri’s volatile father learns of her pregnancy, Patrick refuses to let harm come to Meri and her unborn child, even if he has to sacrifice his life and that of his brother in order to save her.

The Lost Boys of Barlowe Theater by Jaime Jo Wright

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1915/Present – Wisconsin

It promises beauty but steals life instead. Will the ghosts of Barlowe Theater entomb them all?

Barlowe Theater stole the life of Greta Mercy’s eldest brother during its construction. Now in 1915, the completed theater appears every bit as deadly. When Greta’s younger brother goes missing after breaking into the building, Greta engages the assistance of a local police officer to help her unveil the already ghostly secrets of the theater. But when help comes from an unlikely source, Greta decides that to save her family she must uncover the evil that haunts the theater and put its threat to rest.

Decades later, Kit Boyd’s best friend vanishes during a ghost walk at the Barlowe Theater, and old stories of mysterious disappearances and ghoulish happenings are revived. Then television ghost-hunting host and skeptic Evan Fisher joins Kit in the quest to identify the truth behind the theater’s history. Kit reluctantly agrees to work with him in hopes of finding her missing friend. As the theater’s curse unravels Kit’s life, she is determined to put an end to the evil that has marked the theater and their hometown for the last century.

Refuge for the Archaeologist by Danielle Grandinetti

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1930 – Wisconsin

Will uncovering the truth set them free or destroy what they hold most dear?

With her health in shambles and her archaeological career on the line, Cora Davis retreats to Crow’s Nest and the home of her great aunt to heal. She doesn’t think much of the missing memories from between the earthquake that caused her dizzy spells and her trip home. Until she begins remembering the danger that sent her fleeing her last dig and the person responsible.

After a decade as a ranch hand, Silas Ward returned to Crow’s Nest to provide for the women in his life. That same protective instinct propels him to Cora’s aid. But when finances dwindle, the lies and greed of others threaten to ruin his family. Unless Silas can walk the thin line of compromise. A choice that might cost him Cora’s affection.

As winter’s chill threatens, will Crow’s Nest prove a refuge, or will both Cora and Silas have no choice but to sacrifice their chance at happiness to save those they love?

The Vanishing at Castle Moreau by Jaime Jo Wright

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1870/Present – Wisconsin

A haunting legend. An ominous curse. A search for a secret buried deep within the castle walls.

In 1870, orphaned Daisy François takes a position as housemaid at a Wisconsin castle to escape the horrors of her past life. There she finds a reclusive and eccentric Gothic authoress who hides tales more harrowing than the ones in her novels. As women disappear from the area and the eerie circumstances seem to parallel a local legend, Daisy is thrust into a web that could ultimately steal her sanity, if not her life.

In the present day, Cleo Clemmons is hired by the grandson of an American aristocratic family to help his grandmother face her hoarding in the dilapidated Castle Moreau. But when Cleo uncovers more than just the woman’s stash of collectibles, a century-old mystery and the dust of the old castle’s curse threaten to rise again . . . this time to leave no one alive to tell the sordid tale.

Confessions to a Stranger by Danielle Grandinetti

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1930 – Wisconsin

She’s lost her future. He’s sacrificed his. Now they have a chance to reclaim it—together.

While fleeing for her life, Adaleigh Sirland’s rescue of a child introduces her to a family who provides her safe harbor. When her identity comes under threat of exposure, she must choose between running once more or helping the man who teaches her to hope again.

First mate David Martins is intrigued by the mysterious woman taken in by his grandmother, but she wrestles with a troubled past. When his estranged father is arrested for murder, can David put aside his own struggles in time to discern which secret threatens Adaleigh before it kills them both?

Season of My Enemy by Naomi Musch

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1944 – Wisconsin

Only last year, Fannie O’Brien was considered a beauty with a brain, and her future shone bright, despite the war pounding Europe. With her father’s sudden death and her brothers overseas, Fannie must now do the work of three men on their 200-acre farm—until eight German prisoners arrive and, just as Fannie feared, trouble comes too. Someone seems intent on causing “accidents,” and Fannie is certain the culprit is one of the two handsome older Germans—or possibly both. Can she manage the farm, keep the prisoners in line, and hold her family together through these turbulent times?

A Strike to the Heart by Danielle Grandinetti

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1933 – Wisconsin

She’s fiercely independent. He’s determined to protect her.

When a routine mission becomes an ambush that kills his team, Craft Agency sniper Miles Wright determines to find the persons responsible and protect the woman he rescued. But the fierce independence that led Lily Moore to leave her family’s dairy business for the solitary life of a dog trainer and the isolation of her farm don’t make that easy. Neither does his unwanted attraction to her. Meanwhile, escalating incidents confirm that she’s far from safe.

Lily fears letting the surprisingly gentle retired marine into her life almost as much as she fears whoever is threatening her. As Wisconsin farmers edge toward another milk strike, one that will surely turn violent, it becomes clear that the plot against Lily may be part of a much larger conspiracy. When the search for her abductor leads close to home, she must decide whether to trust her family or the man who saved her life.

The Souls of Lost Lake by Jaime Jo Wright

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1930/Present – Wisconsin

To save the innocent, they must face an insidious evil.

Wren Blythe has long enjoyed living in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, helping her father with ministry at a youth camp. But when a little girl in the area goes missing, an all-out search ensues, reviving the decades-old campfire story of Ava Coons, the murderess who is believed to still roam the forest. Joining the search, Wren stumbles upon the Coonses’ cabin ruins and a sinister mystery she is determined to unearth.

In 1930, Ava Coons has spent the last several years carrying the mantle of mystery since the day she emerged from the woods as a thirteen-year-old girl, spattered with blood, dragging a logger’s ax. She has accepted she will never remember what happened to her family, whose bodies were never found, and that the people of Tempter’s Creek will always blame her for their violent deaths. And after a member of the town is murdered, and another goes missing, rumors spread that Ava’s secret is perhaps more malicious than previously imagined.

Two women, separated by time, must confront a wickedness that not only challenges who they are but also threatens their lives, and the lives of those they love.

A Heart for the Sailor by Terri Wangard

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1944 – Wisconsin

Working as a Winnie the Welder during World War II, Evelyn builds submarines. She’s good at her job, but men begrudge women taking jobs in heavy industry. She dreams of the day her sailor comes home and the life they’ll have, but does Jerry dream about her? When a typhoon threatens the US Fleet in the Pacific, Jerry and his shipmates aboard the Tabberer rush to the aid of their fellow sailors. The typhoon prompts a greater awareness of what he wants in life. First, though, they have to survive.

To Stand in the Breach by Danielle Grandinetti

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1933 – Wisconsin

She came to America to escape a workhouse prison, but will the cost of freedom be too high a price to pay?

Large animal veterinarian Katy Wells takes her patients’ welfare personally, so it’s no surprise when she stands up to angry farmers planning a milk strike or takes in an injured draft horse to save its life.

But after a visitor from the past discovers her location and reveals a threat, she must choose between her work and her freedom, and whether to trust a man to keep her safe.

In a Grove of Maples by Jenny Knipfer

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1897 – Wisconsin

Betsy and Edward face the perils of newlywed life and all that comes to divide lovers.

In 1897 newly married Beryl and Edward Massart travel more than one thousand miles from Quebec to farm a plot of land in Wisconsin that they bought sight-unseen. An almost magical grove of maples on their property inspires them to dream of a real home built within the grove, not the tiny log cabin they’ve come to live in.

Misunderstandings and tempers get the better of them when difficulties and troubles arise. Just months after they wed, Edward leaves pregnant Beryl in the midst of the coming winter to tend the farm and animals while he goes to be a teamster at a northern Wisconsin logging camp.

Will Beryl and Edward walk into the future together to build their house of dreams in the grove of maples, or will their plans topple like a house of sticks when the winds of misunderstanding and disaster strike?

The Storm Breaks Forth by Terri Wangard

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1917 – Wisconsin/France

World War I rages in Europe, and now the United States joins in. Peter Bloch heads to France with the Wisconsin National Guard, but his wife Maren is the one under attack. She’s German born, and anti-German hysteria is running high. Simple suggestions for coping with wartime measures lead Maren into an active role in the community, but her service doesn’t help deflect suspicion from her. Zealous patriots target her with a vengeance. Peter caught the eye of a major who seems intent on using him as a spy. He’s been fortunate to avoid injury so far, but these activities are likely to get him killed. Peter and Maren dream of the day they will be reunited, but more and more, that day appears to be a mirage.

The Love Coward by Naomi Musch

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1947 – Wisconsin

Tulla Johanson waited the entirety of WWII for Burke Delgard to safely return and make her his wife, but her dreams of their life together on the farm crumble, when he walks over her heart and out of the church on their wedding day. Thank heaven for friends like Joan and Walter and now Van.

War buddy and would-be best man Steven “Van” Vandreel has come to town for the wedding, never anticipating he’d have to offer a hankie and a ride home to Burke’s humiliated fiancée. She seems like a real sweet girl, but Van has no intention of getting between Burke and his jilted bride. Having carried his own secrets home from the war, he’s determined to keep them barred inside, even if Tulla might hold the key to unlocking them.

When Burke realizes his mistake and determines to win Tulla back, and even old pal Walter turns friendship to pursuit, Van is forced to face his own growing feelings for the pretty farmer’s daughter. Still, can he commit to her any better than Burke did or give her the kind of dream-come-true Walt offers? Or might keeping his longings at arm’s length prove Van to be just another love coward?

Haunting at Bonaventure Circus by Jaime Jo Wright

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1928 – Wisconsin

The Bonaventure Circus is a refuge for many, but Pippa Ripley was rejected from its inner circle as a baby. When she receives mysterious messages from someone called the “Watchman,” she is determined to find him and the connection to her birth. As Pippa’s search leads her to a man seeking justice for his murdered sister and evidence that a serial killer has been haunting the circus train, she must decide if uncovering her roots is worth putting herself directly in the path of the killer.

Present Day
The old circus train depot will either be torn down or preserved for historical importance, and its future rests on real estate project manager Chandler Faulk’s shoulders. As she dives deep into the depot’s history, she’s also balancing a newly diagnosed autoimmune disease and the pressures of single motherhood. When she discovers clues to the unsolved murders of the past, Chandler is pulled into a story far darker and more haunting than even an abandoned train depot could portend.

The Black Rose by Naomi Musch

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1893 – Wisconsin

Logging has reached its golden era in the growing state of Wisconsin, and twin sisters Jesilyn and Corianne Beaumont enjoy a comfortable life with family in the bustling, Great Lake city of Superior—until jealousy incites Jesi to seduce Cori’s fiancé, certain she can claim his heart. When things don’t go as planned, a flight and fall from grace lands her in a boom town brothel where a fresh start is denied her.

Camp preacher Paul Winter longs to offer hope in the carousing lumber and mining towns of northern Wisconsin, but his successes have been few, and he’s begun to question his calling. Then his ministry is challenged in an unexpected way when he meets a lost and broken red-head he calls Pie Girl. Though willing to offer rescue, he’s never had to battle his own longings quite this way before.

Meanwhile, stung by Jesilyn’s betrayal, Corianne finds refuge in refusing to forgive, but bitterness might separate her from a second chance at happiness.

When tragedy causes fresh sparks between them, will love fail forever? Or is there a way for both women to begin new lives—and find budding love blooming in places neither of them expects?

Tranquility Point by Pamela S. Meyers

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1916 – Wisconsin

Hannah Murphy is determined to make the summer of 1916, the best it can be before she heads off to law school in the fall. Like her mother and grandmother before her, she is inclined to “break the mold” when it comes to societal expectations of a young woman of means. Her mother was the first woman in town to wear bloomers, and Hannah becomes the first to ditch swim dresses in favor of a practical swimsuit that allows freedom to move through the water.

At the first gathering of the summer, she reacquaints with tall, handsome Ted Bauer, also an aspiring attorney. Ted, who is of German descent, had a huge crush on Hannah when he was in eighth grade, and she was in sixth. He’s no longer the gangly boy she remembers and is quite appealing. With Geneva Lake as their backdrop, their summer romance escalates, until the dark cloud of the Great War can no longer be ignored. Although the U.S. has not yet joined the fray, people of German descent are seen with mistrust, and Ted enlists with the British Army to take the heat of discrimination off his family. With the future on hold, Hannah bids her fiancé farewell as he goes to war. Only God knows if she will ever see him again or if they will ever be able to recapture what they had those few short summer months.

The Brightest Hope by Naomi Musch

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1924 – Wisconsin

Five years after the Great War…

Holly Allen is a well-adjusted war widow with a knack for running the family press. She’s over the days of waiting for a white knight to ride in and sweep her away from her cares. Besides, if Hugh Phelps is a knight, he’s certainly a black one—with his prison record, personal demons, and the ghosts of war that haunt him.

When Holly hires Hugh, despite her reservations, it isn’t long before she sees the man he could really be, and as Hugh finds his niche at Allen’s Printing, he finds his lady boss equally appealing. Despite the attraction, however, Holly won’t let herself fall for a faithless man, and Hugh isn’t on gracious terms with God.

Then, just when new beginnings seem possible, old heartaches from the war come calling. Now it might only be in letting go of everything dear that they both discover what real love is.

Shelter Bay by Pamela Meyers

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1893 – Wisconsin

Adventure girl, Maureen Quinn, isn’t yet sure of her life’s direction, but she knows she isn’t cut out to be a bookkeeper for the town’s undertaker. Wearing her stylish new bloomers, she suffers a bicycle accident in the middle of downtown and her long-time crush and fellow childhood mischief maker, Preston Stevens, comes to her rescue. He’s back in the area and he couldn’t have shown up at a better time. It isn’t long before they become inseparable and she’s sure he’s the man God has for her.

Unlike his older brothers who are shackled to desk jobs at their father’s financial services company, Preston yearns to see the world. What better person to do that with than Maureen? But after being expelled from Yale, because of a prank that brought embarrassment to the family, his dad has issued an ultimatum: Enlist in the military or join his brothers in the family business. He signs up with the U.S. Life Saving Service, a division of the Coast Guard, reasoning the time spent on the shores of Lake Michigan, keeping people safe, is far better than being stuck in a landlocked encampment. After his two-year stint, he intends to live out his dream of world travel before settling in Lake Geneva. But it isn’t long before life-altering events occur affecting both his and Maureen’s lives forever.

The Curse of Misty Wayfair by Jaime Jo Wright

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1908/Present Day – Wisconsin

Left at an orphanage as a child, Thea Reed vowed to find her mother someday. Now grown, her search takes her to Pleasant Valley, Wisconsin, in 1908. When clues lead her to a mental asylum, Thea uses her experience as a post-mortem photographer to gain access and assist groundskeeper Simeon Coyle in photographing the patients and uncovering the secrets within. However, she never expected her personal quest would reawaken the legend of Misty Wayfair, a murdered woman who allegedly haunts the area and whose appearance portends death.

A century later, Heidi Lane receives a troubling letter from her mother–who is battling dementia–compelling her to travel to Pleasant Valley for answers to her own questions of identity. When she catches sight of a ghostly woman who haunts the asylum ruins in the woods, the long-standing story of Misty Wayfair returns–and with it, Heidi’s fear for her own life.

As two women across time seek answers about their identities and heritage, can they overcome the threat of the mysterious curse that has them inextricably intertwined?

The Deepest Sigh by Naomi Musch

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1915 – Wisconsin

Seventeen year old Marilla Eckert has been in love with Langdon Prescott, her family’s hired hand, since she was fourteen years old. Determined to win him, she’s blissfully unaware of the secret passion he feels for her older sister Delia. But when Delia weds a longtime beau, Lang settles for Marilla and marries her anyway, despite his continued longing and intent to someday win her sister away from her husband. It isn’t long before Marilla realizes where Lang’s devotion truly lies, yet she presses on, giving everything she has to offer, convinced she can still gain his love.

Then America steps into the Great War. The men are sent a world away to fight, and Marilla’s cares, coupled with the lack of her husband’s favor, finally wear her thin. When heartache and disaster strike on every front, and Marilla’s hour of need leads her elsewhere for comfort, will all of them wind up too broken to ever find their hearts’ true homes?

The Reckoning at Gossamer Pond by Jaime Jo Wright

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1907/Present Day – Wisconcin

For over a century, the town of Gossamer Grove has thrived on its charm and midwestern values, but Annalise Forsythe knows painful secrets, including her own, hover just beneath the pleasant faade. When a man is found dead in his run-down trailer home, Annalise inherits the trailer, along with the pictures, vintage obituaries, and old revival posters covering its walls. As she sorts through the collection, she’s wholly unprepared for the ramifications of the dark and deadly secrets she’ll uncover.

A century earlier, Gossamer Grove has been stirred into chaos by the arrival of controversial and charismatic twin revivalists. The chaos takes a murderous turn when Libby Sheffield, working at her father’s newspaper, receives an obituary for a reputable church deacon hours before his death. As she works with the deacon’s son to unravel the mystery behind the crime, it becomes undeniably clear that a reckoning has come to town–but it isn’t until another obituary arrives that they realize the true depths of the danger they’ve waded into.

Two women, separated by a hundred years, must uncover the secrets within the borders of their own town before it’s too late and they lose their future–or their very souls.

Rebecca’s Song by Dawn Kinzer

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1905 – Wisconsin

Rebecca Hoyt’s one constant was her dedication to her beloved students. Now, a rebellious child could cost her the job she loves. Without her teaching position, what would she do?

Detective Jesse Rand prides himself in protecting the people who ride the railroads. But, when his own sister and brother-in-law are killed by train robbers, the detective blames himself. Yet, another duty calls—he must venture to Riverton where his niece and nephews were left in the care of their beautiful and stubborn teacher, Rebecca Hoyt. They need to mourn and heal, but Jesse is determined to find his sister’s killers. Rebecca is willing to help care for the children, but she also fears getting too close to them—or their handsome uncle—knowing the day will come when he’ll take them back to Chicago.

Will Jesse and Rebecca find a way to open their hearts and work together? Or will they, along with the children, lose out on love?

Safe Refuge by Pamela S. Meyer

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1871 – Wisconsin

In two days, wealthy Chicagoan, Anna Hartwell, will wed a man she loathes. She would refuse this arranged marriage to Lyman Millard, but the Bible clearly says she is to honor her parents, and Anna would do most anything to please her father–even leaving her teaching job at a mission school and marrying a man she doesn’t love. The Great Chicago Fire erupts, and Anna and her family escape with only the clothes on their backs and the wedding postponed. Father moves the family to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, where Anna reconnects with Rory Quinn, a handsome immigrant who worked at the mission school. Realizing she is in love with Rory, Anna prepares to break the marriage arrangement with Lyman until she learns a dark family secret that changes her life forever.

Suddenly a Frontier Father by Lyn Cote

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1873 – Wisconsin

Mason Chandler is home to meet his mail-order bride—six months too late! Little wonder Emma Jones wants to honor his letter releasing her from their agreement, especially when Mason has returned from his father’s deathbed with two adopted girls in tow. And the dark secret he’s hiding makes the homesteader feel unworthy to woo anyone.

As the new schoolteacher in Pepin, Wisconsin, Emma can support herself without a husband. Yet she’s touched by Mason’s kindness to his half sister and her orphaned companion. Taking the little girls under her wing comes naturally to Emma—and they dearly want her for their mama. Can Mason break free of his past to fight for their surprise family?

Broken Chain by Julia David

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1881 – Wisconsin

Benjamin Graham is a wanderer, going wherever the wind may blow, only to find himself out of wind, money, and unfortunately, his new horse. With only one prospect for a job, he lands on the Von Keller’s dairy farm. Finding little motivation for milking cows, his only interest lies with their middle daughter, Nadine.

Restless, yet wanting to prove reliable, he agrees to take a journey to find the Von Keller’s oldest daughter, Margaret. Missionary, teacher, and crusader, she has convictions and fervor to serve the Lord at any cost; now it seems even to her last breath.

Desperately, Ben relies on what little he has as she wavers between life and death. As he comes to terms with his new role, he finds an increasing attachment to this astonishing young woman. One starlit evening, his desires collide with hers and he finds his own future dangling in the balance. What kind of game is he playing with these sisters? He should be disowned by this family, but there is one he’s falling in love with. A broken chain, pulled from Margaret’s neck, burns in his pocket. Can he do the right thing or the honorable thing? Is it too late?

Reckless to reliable. Friendship to love. A past pointing to a future. God’s truth-the breaker of all chains.

The House on Foster Hill by Jaime Jo Wright

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1906/Present – Wisconsin

Kaine Prescott is no stranger to death. When her husband died two years ago, her pleas for further investigation into his suspicious death fell on deaf ears. In desperate need of a fresh start, Kaine purchases an old house sight unseen in her grandfather’s Wisconsin hometown. But one look at the eerie, abandoned house immediately leaves her questioning her rash decision. And when the house’s dark history comes back with a vengeance, Kaine is forced to face the terrifying realization she has nowhere left to hide.

A century earlier, the house on Foster Hill holds nothing but painful memories for Ivy Thorpe. When an unidentified woman is found dead on the property, Ivy is compelled to discover her identity. Ivy’s search leads her into dangerous waters and, even as she works together with a man from her past, can she unravel the mystery before any other lives–including her own–are lost?

Frontier Want Ad Bride by Lyn Cote

Frontier Want Ad Bride

1873 – Wisconsin

Mail-order bride Judith Jones has barely arrived in Pepin, Wisconsin, before she’s whisked away to prepare for her wedding to Asa Brant. Though something about Asa seems so familiar, how do two strangers become husband and wife? Especially when Judith senses Asa’s hidden sorrow. His kindness in helping two young orphans could win her heart…if only he’d open up to her.

Determined to start over after four years of brutal war, Asa moved away and sent for a mail-order bride. He had no idea the woman answering his ad would be the sister of his former soldier in arms. The less he reveals, the fewer painful memories there are to confront. But Judith’s compassion—and two loving children—might just show them the path to true happiness…

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Daughters of Deliverance by Lorry Lutz

daughtersofdeliverance Daughters of Deliverance

1886 – Wisconsin

In 1886, thirty-one year old Katharine Bushnell gives up her medical practice to work with women living on Chicago’s Hell’s Half Acre and in the brutal lumber camps of Wisconsin. Her love for God and passion to see women released from bondage lead her to risk her own freedom and reputation for their sakes. Secretly, she visits these women to learn first-hand of the daily trials and torments they endure.

Crushed to see women mistreated, Kate prepares a report of her findings concerning the white slave trade in Wisconsin and throughout the Midwest. When Wisconsin’s governor demands Kate appear before the legislature to defend her damaging reports, she becomes the center of great controversy. Will they believe her report? Will they pass a law prohibiting sex with a girl under sixteen? Will they punish the notorious den keepers?

Or will they brand her a liar?

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Hope’s Design by Dawn Kinzer

Hope’s Design

1904 – Wisconsin

In 1904, Hope Andrews, an aspiring fashion designer, struggles with leaving New York City. But with no job, her parents leaving the country, and an abusive ex-fiance refusing to accept their broken engagement, Hope doesn’t have much choice but to give in to her parents’ wishes that she move far away and live with her cousin indefinitely.

Talented Benjamin Greene can’t deny his passion for painting, but guilt over a painful incident in his past keeps him from sharing his gift. Instead, he devotes much of his days to helping his younger sibling rebuild a farm inherited from a great-uncle. Only his brother is aware that Ben spends his spare time in a studio on their property.

In the small rural town of Riverton, Wisconsin, Hope and Ben can’t help but be thrown together. But as feelings for each other deepen, tension thickens over how talent should be used. Their mutual passion for art brings them together, but will it also drive them apart?