1884 – Montana
Flora Kinsley has always been a red-headed rebel who delights to ride madly across the country. After being orphaned at age four, she has always had an insatiable desire to run. But when her wild riding leads her into trouble, she finds herself lost and stranded in a snowstorm. She takes shelter in the home of a bachelor rancher.
Kade Thomas has lost enough loved ones because of foolish choices and risky behavior. The last thing he needs is to be involved with a wild rebel. But being stranded unchaperoned with Flora for two nights gives her preacher father plenty of reason to insist they marry. Knowing that if he forces Flora into marriage against her wishes, it would make for a miserable situation, he begs for a chance to persuade Flora she wants to marry him.
Will this pair find that love is awaiting them? Or will the truth destroy any chance of love?
1883 – Michigan
Anna Wilson is determined to be the first female lighthouse keeper at Thunder Bay Island in Lake Huron. As her uncle nears his retirement, she makes herself indispensable at the lighthouse, doing everything but manning the tower.
Russian immigrant Maksim Ivanov is shipwrecked on an island when the James Thompson runs aground in a storm. The shipping line rescues the crew, but Maksim is stranded. At least there are a pair of old aunties who speak his language. He works to help the elderly lighthouse keeper, earning his way until he can get off the island.
The handsome and capable newcomer could steal Anna’s dream out from under her. Or he could provide a new one.
1868 – Nevada
Union army officer Cameron Scott is used to being obeyed, but nothing about this journey to Lake Tahoe has gone as expected. He’s come to fetch his daughter and nephew, and seek revenge on the people who killed his brother. Instead he finds himself trapped by a blizzard with two children who are terrified of him and stubborn but beautiful Gwen Harkness, who he worries may be trying to keep the children.
When danger descends on the cabin where they’re huddled, Cam is hurt trying to protect everyone and now finds Gwen caring for him too. He soon realizes why the kids love her so much and wonders if it might be best for him to move on without them. When she sees his broken heart, Gwen decides to help him win back their affection–and in the process he might just win her heart as well.
1850 – Missouri to California
Previously released in the The Westward Christmas Brides Collection
Only the brave—or foolhardy—would attempt a cross-country journey late in the season. Three wagons meet up in Independence, Missouri, in April 1850, and their owners decide to keep forging ahead despite many setbacks and delays. December finds them in the Sierra Nevada Mountains when a sudden snowstorm traps them, obscuring the trail.
Cynthia Cooper is traveling with her mother and the man she has promised to marry. But as Christmas is upon them and they are hunkered down in a small cabin, she is forced to reevaluate her reasons for planning to marry fellow-traveler Walter Prentice. When a widowed father heading to a California ranch and a gold prospector both show an interest in Cynthia, she weighs her dreams for marriage alongside her responsibility to care for her mother. Can love win over her timid heart?
1955 – Tennessee
During a snowstorm, Betty Tanner finds herself stuck with her estranged husband. Spending Christmas with Glenn wasn’t what she had in mind, and her mind reluctantly travels back three decades to their first Christmas together, when another snowstorm caused her to wreck her car outside the Tanner home …
1954: Stranded with the Tanners over Christmas, Betty is forced into the company of Glenn, who had spurned her for years. But as the snow falls outside, the walls between Betty and Glenn begin to crumble, revealing a side of him she never knew existed. A side she longs to know better.
Pride and bitterness can make a beast out of anyone. And the hardships they face in their relationship are of their own making. But can following Christ’s ways lead Betty and Glenn to the reconciliation they long for?
A.M. Heath invites you to spend Christmas with the Tanners in a dual-timeline novel loosely inspired by Beauty and the Beast. You’re sure to fall in love again and again.
1833 – Canada
Adrien Lockman is through with the political unrest and bloodshed in his home country of France, so he sets off to the Canadian territory’s mountain frontier, in search of a place where a man can live his own life in peace. The last thing he expects to find is a woman, half-starved and half-frozen in a shack nestled among the towering peaks of the great Rocky Mountains.
Mary Standish thought she’d finally found a place where she was accepted, trapping with her husband for the Hudson Bay Company. But when he dies after a gruesome grizzly fight, she determines to carry on their work. After all, life in these remote mountains is better than enduring the scorn and snubs of “civilized” folk. When she’s forced to face a winter harder than any she’s endured yet, her stubbornness may just be the death of her. Until a stranger appears at her ramshackle door.
Adrien had planned to explore the mountain country all winter before he settles down to build a farm in the spring, but he can’t leave this woman to die in the elements. Even though she seems desperate for him to go. As Mary regains strength, she’s torn between wanting to save her dignity, and craving the respect of this man who’s slipped past her defenses. As the winter worsens, the truth becomes all too real–the only way they’ll survive is together.
1867 – Nevada
When Trace Riley finds the smoldering ruins of a small wagon train, he recognizes the hand behind the attack as the same group who left him as sole survivor years ago. Living off the wilderness since then, he’d finally carved out a home and started a herd–while serving as a self-appointed guardian of the trail, driving off dangerous men. He’d
hoped those days were over, but the latest attack shows he was wrong.
Deborah Harkness saved her younger sister and two toddlers during the attack, and now finds herself at the mercy of her rescuer. Trace offers the only shelter for miles around, and agrees to take them in until she can safely continue. His simple bachelor existence never anticipated kids and women in the picture and their arrival is unsettling–yet enticing.
Working to survive the winter and finally bring justice to the trail, Trace and Deborah find themselves drawn together–yet every day approaches the moment she’ll leave forever.
1885 – North Dakota
Lena Stevens has lived through more than her share of troubles. After losing her mother and father when she was young, Lena learned that every kindness came with obligation. Now a widow with a small child, Lena has lost the one thing she had left: her house. She has no desire to be a burden on her neighbor, even if the man was foolish enough to promise her late husband to watch out for her. But when propriety demands a marriage, Lena makes Anker vow to annul it come spring.
Anker has longed for a wife–but not like this. A forced marriage. A pretend marriage. He will do what he must to protect Lena and Charlie throughout the winter. But as days stretch into months, his admiration for the spirited young woman begins to turn to something else. Something more…
Anker and Lena both had their reasons for wanting a temporary marriage. But when spring arrives, will they regret their vow to end the union?
1873 – Utah
No women are allowed at the Batchwell Bottoms mining camp—yet Dr. Sumner Havisham headed West seeking a job there. When an avalanche strands her and several mail-order brides, she’s up against strict rules—and stern mine superintendent Jonah Ramsey. But nothing will stop her—especially from helping Jonah, who needs her healing in more ways than one.
For Jonah, his job is a refuge from his past. He has good reasons to stay far away from the spirited Sumner, especially since he thinks he has nothing to offer. But as tensions rise, her caring and skill ignites a love he’d never thought he’d find. Can they save the dreams they’ve worked so hard for—and claim a life together?
1949 – Minnesota
Five near-strangers. One snowstorm. A Christmas that none of them will ever forget.
Dottie Morgan has no desire to share her home or her heart over the Christmas holidays. After all, her Christmas spirit froze over when Dottie lost her son in World War II. Alone and bitter, she’d like nothing more than to hide and let the Christmas season pass her by.
After serving as a mechanic the Army’s motor pool, Violet Hart returned home to a community that didn’t quite know what to do with her. She’s not a soldier, but she’s not the girl-next-door, either. She’s resigned herself to being the spinster of Frost, Minnesota.
Former soldier Jake Ramsey is on a mission—return the letters written by Violet to his best friend, lost in battle. But Jake has been in love with Violet for years—about as long as he’s been keeping a secret that just might break her heart.
And then there’s Gordon Lindholm, the farmer from across the field who harbors his own grief—and love—for the woman he can’t forget.
When a blizzard of the decade traps Dottie in her home, along with Violet, Jake, Gordon and a wandering child in need of rescue, the strangers must band together to survive. And in doing so, they just might discover the magic of Christmas and a miracle that will heal all their hearts.
1866 – Wyoming
The Wyoming mountain country seems like the perfect place for Zeche Reid to find himself. When a blizzard sends him scrambling for cover, he stumbles upon a lady and her professor father holed up in a remote cabin. His protective instincts won’t let him desert them to continue his travels, especially when the father’s haunting memories from the War of Secession put his daughter’s safety at risk.
Fighting her own nightmares after the war, Greta Michelly is trying to settle into this rugged mountain land, but her bad memories are nothing compared to the demons that haunt her father. The haven they’ve found in these Rocky Mountains seems to be the solace he needs to find peace—until a mysterious sojourner appears on their cabin doorstep. She can’t help but be drawn to the wild aura that surrounds the man, but that strength seems to be that very thing that intensifies her father’s struggles.
As Zeche is torn between his craving to protect Gretta and the awful realization that he’s the one putting her in more danger, he’s forced to make a difficult choice. But when a run-in with an elk changes his plans and Gretta is faced with a danger Zeche is powerless to control, Zeche has to find a way to protect her at any cost. Even at the cost of his heart.
1882 – Colorado
On the run with two small children and a third due within weeks, Adeline Spencer fears the approaching blizzard will seal their fate. An abandoned cabin is an answer to her prayers. She hopes it will shield them from both the storm and the enraged brother-in-law hot on her tail. But when a stranger knocks at the door, she is convinced they have been found by one of Ward’s lackeys.Blamed for the death of his friend, Sheriff Jonah Hale is determined to prove himself worthy of his badge, even if it means riding into a blizzard to check on a crazy miner. When Jonah reaches the cabin, he’s caught off guard by a pretty and very pregnant young woman wielding a skillet. Bound to a chair while the storm rages, and as Christmas settles in around them, he must find a way to earn Adeline’s trust…and perhaps her heart.
1913 – Washington
Seattle Debutant Sofi Andersson will do everything in her power to protect her sister who is suffering from shock over their father’s death. Charles, the family busy-body, threatens to lock Trina in a sanatorium—a whitewashed term for an insane asylum—so Sofi will rescue her little sister, even if it means running away to the Cascade Mountains with only the new gardener Neil Macpherson to protect them. But in a cabin high in the Cascades, Sofi begins to recognize that the handsome immigrant from Ireland harbors secrets of his own. Can she trust this man whose gentle manner brings such peace to her traumatized sister and such tumult to her own emotions? And can Nei, the gardener continue to hide from Sofi that he is really Dr. Neil Galloway, a man wanted for murder by the British police? Only an act of faith and love will bridge the distance that separates lies from truth and safety.
1902 – Wyoming
Stranded!
Bear Creek sheriff’s deputy Matt White is used to being the rescuer, not the rescued. But now the hurt lawman’s marooned on Catherine Poole’s remote homestead. The little girl he’d known briefly as a child is all grown up—and tugging at his heart.
Isolated from the world around her, Catherine’s spent her whole life caring for her ailing grandfather. The last thing she needs is a cowboy stranded in her home. Let alone the memories he dredges up of a past she’s tried to put behind her. But can this deputy be her chance to finally move forward and find true happiness?
1900 – Wyoming
A blizzard traps rancher Davy White in his family’s secluded cabin with Rose Evans…and she’s nine months pregnant! Help is miles away, and Davy must work to keep them both alive. As the storm rages outside, he comes to care for the vulnerable widow. Enough that he’s willing to offer her his name—against his family’s objections.
Rose will do anything for her baby, but she’s recently widowed. She doesn’t know if she can trust the feelings she has toward Davy. And she refuses to come between him and his family. But the more time they spend together, the less she can resist the comforting, caring cowboy.
1856 – Wyoming
Beryl’s father is badly injured, and the wagon train leaves her and her little brother behind and at the trading post. They are at the mercy of the trading post manager, his wife, and their adult son, James. Winter is cruel and fraught with danger, especially when new supplies are needed and the trader must leave for several months. Grieving after her father’s death, Beryl sees that James loves her young brother. Soon she comes to care for James too. Young Sam loves Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, but he begins to imagine another Christmas story. Come spring, Beryl will have to decide whether she and Sam will continue on to Oregon or go back East.
1800s – Colorado
Charles McIntyre owns everything and everyone in the lawless, godless mining town of Defiance. When three good, Christian sisters show up, stranded and alone, he decides to let them stay–as long as they serve his purposes…but they may prove more trouble than they’re worth.
Naomi, angry with God for widowing her, wants no part of Defiance or the saloon-owning, prostitute-keeping Mr. McIntyre. It would seem, however, that God has gone to elaborate lengths to bring them together. The question is, “Why?” Does God really have a plan for each and every life?
Based on true events, A Lady in Defiance deftly weaves together the relationships of the three sisters and the rowdy residents of Defiance.
1885 – Nebraska
Nettie is arrested doing God’s work.
When Nettie Franklin shares her temperance views with the local saloon customers, she lands herself in one of Mesquite, Nebraska’s two jail cells. And there’s no help from the town’s only judge–who happens to own the saloon.
Nettie’s only escape is through marriage to Riley O’Connor, a man she barely knows. Her temporary husband can both infuriate and fascinate her. As the weeks pass, Nettie sees that God may be using the situation to bring needed changes to her life.
Can a marriage of convenience bear all things–including love? Will God’s work include making this temporary marriage a permanent arrangement?
