Posts with the custom taxonomy term 1880-1900 (US Turn of Century)

Mail-Order Misfire by Davalynn Spencer

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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.

Christmas Next Door

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1880s – Texas

Visit an Old West Texas town where a mysterious benefactor leaves gifts each Christmas, but also where four pairs of neighbors battle over hearsay, secrets, and mysteries.
 
THE MARSHAL NEXT DOOR by Vickie McDonough (1885)
The marshal’s deputy claims he’s seen the marshal’s young sisters snooping around businesses where there have been recent thefts. Marshal Yates can’t believe his sisters might be the thieves and seeks out a woman to mentor the impetuous teenagers. But when evidence is found against his sisters, will he have to arrest them at Christmastime?
 
THE SPINSTERS NEXT DOOR by Susan Page Davis (1886)
Rachel Tanner’s family harbors secrets that may lead her and her aunts to financial ruin. When Stephen Worth rents a house on the Tanner property, he gets to close to family business, insisting Rachel open a locked box her dead father guarded closely. Can the schoolmaster persuade Rachel to defy her aunts and open the box—or will she remain alone with a tangle of unanswered questions?
 
THE OUTLAW NEXT DOOR by Vickie McDonough (1887)
Dane McDermott, a reformed outlaw born into a gang of thieves, has buried his past deep. As respectable business owner Dane has finally met the woman of his dreams. But when his father shows up, will it ruin his chances for love with the preacher’s daughter?
 
THE GUNSLINGER NEXT DOOR by Susan Page Davis (1888)
Alice Singer’s new neighbor has her worried. He’s a retired gunslinger with delusions that he is Ben Franklin and needs a printing press to produce his almanac. Enlisting the postmaster’s help, Alice seeks to understand her odd neighbor, his many packages, and mysterious visitors. Is he really just a harmless old fellow?

Something New by Joanne Bischof

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(Repackaged novella once featured in the historical compilation, Heirloom Brides)

1893 – Virginia

After waiting four years for her best friend to return from sea, Wren Cromwell’s dream of building a life with Tate Kennedy has wilted during his unexpected absence. Then, just as suddenly as he departed the mountain of their childhood, he returns, bringing with him tales of Norway’s icy fjords and his time aboard ship on the North Sea. As spring unfurls around them, so unfolds a new hope in Wren’s heart, and a new chance at love on the horizon. But with Tate’s longing for exciting voyages still alive, will he vanish to the high seas again, or will this land he’s returned to, and Wren’s steadfast love, be enough to nurture his adventurous spirit?

Rancher’s Bride by Linda Ford

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1884 – Montana

Tilly Kinsley carries physical and emotional wounds home to Glory, Montana Territory, after being rejected by the family she hoped to become a part of. The town is familiar—and so is the gossip mill. Uncomfortable with the curious stares she constantly receives, she volunteers to care for two young girls on a ranch out of town. The ranch gives her a place to hide. But she can’t escape the notice of the girls’ stepfather.

Lance has had a difficult time since his wife died. Her daughters hate him, and he doesn’t know why. He wonders if he’s doing the right thing in keeping them. Out of sheer necessity, he accepts Tilly’s offer of help. He doesn’t want another wife… but he can’t ignore the woman with the haunted eyes.

Caring for the girls, dealing with a crazed bear, struggling to save an injured colt, and enduring the disapproval of Lance’s father forces them to work together. Can this unlikely pair find healing and hope together?

Four Dreams of You by Sondra Kraak

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1893 – Washington

Unfulfilled dreams have left Grace Thomas vowing not to let her imagination roam wild again. Resigning herself to the goal of owning a dress shop, she accepts a position as a housekeeper at Monaghan Lumber Camp in order to earn funds. The plan is simple, easy, and safe. But Torin Monaghan is not. The reclusive brother who seems indifferent to her presence is ironically the one stirring up her imagination.

Torin Monaghan will not be deterred from his passion to preserve the beauty of nature. Even if it appears as if he’s going against his family. Even if the quirky and wistful seamstress invading his space is proving a distraction. To his frustration, Grace Thomas is not easily dismissed, and neither are the ways she’s opening his eyes to a different sort of beauty.

When past threats bring new trouble to Pine Creek, Torin and Grace must become vulnerable—to each other and their community—and through risk, discover that reality is more fulfilling than their dreams.

The Gunslinger Next Door by Susan Page Davis

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1888 – Texas
 
An elderly man reputed to be a retired gunslinger has moved into the house next door. Enlisting the postmaster’s help, Alice Singer seeks to understand her odd neighbor, his many packages, and his mysterious visitors. Is he really just a harmless old fellow?

 

The Spinsters Next Door by Susan Page Davis

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1886 – Texas

Rachel Jones’s family harbors secrets that may lead Rachel and her aunts to financial ruin. Can the schoolmaster persuade Rachel to defy her aunts and open a locked box–or will she remain alone with a tangle of unanswered questions?

Cowboy Preacher by Linda Ford

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1884 – Montana

Clara Redd has a secret. The little boy that everyone believes is her brother is really her son. She lives in fear that her son’s father will find her and claim Louie.

Alex Keystone has recently graduated from seminary and has come to Glory, Montana to help the overworked Preacher Kinsley. His family legacy is being a preacher. He doesn’t need any distractions as he prepares to live the life his father and grandfather have molded him for. But his heart is drawn to Clara as they spend time together. He senses her hurt and wishes he could help her.

But can Clara learn to trust him, trust God, trust love enough to be honest with him about her past and the danger that threatens? Or will learning the truth destroy all of them?

The Lady and the Lawman Collection

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Lawmen and Ladies of the Old West Team Up to Track Down Outlaws
 
Mistaken Marshal by Crystal L. Barnes
Texas, 1875
First day on the job, Marshal Beau Bones accidentally interrupts a robbery and arrests an outlaw who is disguised as a man. Just as Jo Ross is hiding the God-fearing girl her parents raised, Beau is hiding that he can’t shoot and doesn’t deserve the town’s respect. Is there any way for Beau to free Jo without losing the faith the town has placed in him?
 
On Track for Love by Vickie McDonough
Missouri, 1875
A new job and a move to a new state put Railroad Agent Landry Lomax on track to meet Cara Dixon—a spirited woman holding a derringer on a train robber. This stubborn woman is not one he wants around his young sister, but then they end up in the same St. Louis boardinghouse. But could Cara’s gumption help him trap a gang of train robbers?
 
Love Conquers Oil by Annette O’Hare
Texas, 1901
When a murderous bank robber threatens Fern Fisher’s life, she accepts a mail-order bride inquiry and heads for Beaumont, Texas. Only problem is the proposed groom, Jesse Stewart didn’t send for her. His memaw did. Will drilling for oil together produce a “gusher” of love, or will their pasts trigger a “blowout” for their fledgling relationship?
 
Rocky Mountain Regrets by Kathleen Y’Barbo
Colorado, 1889
While posing as her niece’s mother, Eloise Broderick travels to Colorado to find her brother with the help of Zeke Potter, a man renowned for tracking skills. But when Zeke realizes the man Eloise seeks is the same man he blames for his family’s death, will he use Eloise to get vengeance?

Yours Truly, Thomas by Rachel Fordham

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1883 – Iowa

For three years, Penny Ercanbeck has been opening other people’s mail. Dead ends are a reality for clerks at the Dead Letter Office. Still she dreams of something more–a bit of intrigue, a taste of romance, or at least a touch less loneliness. When a letter from a brokenhearted man to his one true love falls into her hands, Penny seizes this chance to do something heroic. It becomes her mission to place this lost letter into the hands of its intended recipient.

Thomas left his former life with no intention of ending up in Azure Springs, Iowa. He certainly didn’t expect a happy ending after what he had done. All he wanted to do was run and never look back. In a moment of desperation, he began to write, never really expecting a reply.

When Penny’s undertaking leads her to the intriguing man who touched her soul with his words, everything grows more complicated. She wants to find the rightful owner of the letter and yet she finds herself caring–perhaps too much–for the one who wrote it.

Thimbles and Threads

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Enjoy four historical romances that celebrate the arts of sewing and quilting. When four women put needle and thread to fabric, will their talents lead to love?

Bygones by Mary Davis
Texas, 1884
Drawn to the new orphan boy in town, Tilly Rockford soon became the unfortunate victim of a lot of Orion Dunbar’s mischievous deeds in school. Can Tilly figure out how to truly forgive the one who made her childhood unbearable? Now she doesn’t even know she holds his heart. Can this deviant orphan-train boy turned man make up for the misdeeds of his youth and win Tilly’s heart before another man steals her away?
 
The Bridal Shop by Grace Hitchcock
Charleston, South Carolina, June 1886
Alice Turner, the owner of one of Charleston’s finest bridal shops, is determined never to be dependent on a man for anything after the disgrace of her father’s prison time. When her best friend requests Alice to be her maid of honor, she reluctantly sets aside her feelings on marriage and dons a stylish bridesmaid’s gown, never intending to catch the eye of the handsome groomsman. Will he be able to convince her to open her heart again and finish the quilt once intended for her father?
 
Mending Sarah’s Heart by Suzanne Norquist
Rockledge, Colorado, 1884
Sarah doesn’t need anyone, especially her dead husband’s partner. With four brothers to mentor her boys and income as a seamstress, she seeks a quiet life. If only the Emporium of Fashion would stop stealing her customers and the local hoodlums would leave her sons alone. When she rejects her husband’s share of the mine, his partner Jack seeks to serve her through other means. But will his efforts only push her further away?
 
Binding Up Wounds by Liz Tolsma
Regent, Wisconsin, 1865
Melissa Bainbridge is a quirky designer of rag dolls who raises raccoons and never really fit into the small farming town. When Lance Witherspoon arrives in town to thank her for the Sanitary Commission quilt she made that saved his life, she is shocked to learn Lance is a Confederate. Can she and Lance confront the town’s prejudices – along with their own?

Cowboy Groom by Linda Ford

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1884 – Montana

Stella’s fragmented childhood made her vow that her own children would know the security of putting down roots. With her husband dead, she can’t manage the farm on her own. Without help, she is in danger of losing her homestead…and her dream.

Bruce and his Aunt Mary were only supposed to be passing through Glory, Montana. Bruce owes everything to his aunt. She’s the only one who believed him when malicious rumors threatened. Her fragile health requires they stay in Glory, but without a livelihood, how can Bruce support them both?

A marriage in name only would be advantageous for both Bruce and Stella. Aunt Mary sees what they don’t and forecasts they will soon fall in love. Is it possible that living together, working together, and sharing their past in quiet evening hours will make it happen? Or will the lessons of their past keep them from seeing that they are perfect for each other?

Fashioning the Future by Kay Moser

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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?

This Healing Journey by Misty Beller

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1880 – Montana

She’s never left her home in the mountain wilderness of the Canadian Rockies—until now. Little did she realize this journey would change her life in every way.

The mountain wilderness of her family’s home in the Canadian Rockies is all Hannah Grant has ever known. Now at the age of twenty-four, she’s on a journey to help her father to find the son he gave up for adoption three decades before. This is Hannah’s chance to discover the life she’s missed out on so far—and hopefully find a husband along the way. But she certainly doesn’t plan to fall for the first man she meets.

Years in the cavalry provided Nathaniel Peak with more than his share of violence and adventure. That life behind him, he wants nothing more than to settle down in the beautiful Montana mountains and raise his own stock—in peace. The last thing he expects is the savagely wounded child who shows up in his barn. Nor the woman he comes to rely on for the girl’s care.

Hannah can’t help but fall in love with the brave Indian child who so desperately needs her, but no matter what, she can’t let herself fall for the man whose past choices go against everything she believes in. As the situation grows worse, Hannah and Nathaniel are forced to make a heart-rending decision to save the girl’s life. Little do they imagine, the choice they make could spell disaster for them all.

Mail-Order Refuge by Cindy Regnier

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1889 – Kansas

Rand Stafford isn’t looking for true love. He’d ridden that trail until his fiancée left him with a shattered heart. What he needs now is a wife to help him care for his orphan nieces. Desperate, he sends an advertisement to a Baltimore newspaper and hopes for the best.

Fleeing her former employer who would use her to further his unlawful acts, a newspaper advertisement reads like the perfect refuge to Carly Blair. The idea of escaping the city, the intrigue, and the danger to hide herself on a cattle ranch in Kansas is her best shot for freedom.

But its sanctuary comes with a price–a husband. While marrying a man she doesn’t know or love means sacrificing her dreams, it’s better than being caught by the law.

More Than Words Can Say by Karen Witemeyer

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1896 – Texas

After fulfilling a pledge to a dying friend, Zacharias Hamilton is finally free. No family entanglements. No disappointing those around him. Just the quiet bachelor existence he’s always craved. Until fate snatches his freedom away when the baker of his favorite breakfast bun is railroaded by the city council. Despite not wanting to get involved, he can’t turn a blind eye to her predicament . . . or her adorable dimples.

Abigail Kemp needs a man’s name on her bakery’s deed. A marriage of convenience seems the best solution . . . if it involves a man she can control. That person definitely isn’t the stoic lumberman who oozes silent confidence whenever he enters her shop. Control Zacharias Hamilton? She can’t even control her pulse when she’s around him.
When vows are spoken, Abigail’s troubles should be over. Yet threats to the bakery worsen, and darker dangers hound her sister. Can she put ever more trust in Zach without losing her dreams of independence?

Cowboy Father by Linda Ford

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1884 – Montana

Adele is the eldest Kinsley daughter. She’s always been the responsible one. Even when her marriage fell apart and she found out her husband was a thief. When her husband is killed in the midst of a robbery, she flees to Glory, Montana with her year old son, hoping to escape her past and her dead husband’s partner. She never expected to meet Ethan, a single father to two orphaned children.

Ethan’s boss lost a considerable amount of money in the last heist and has offered Ethan a generous reward if he recovers it. He suspects Adele and needs to get close to her to discover what she did with the money. But the closer he gets, the more he falls for the lovely widow.

After being burned once, can Adele open her heart to love again? Will Ethan discover the secrets of Adele’s past? Or will his mission to find the missing money come between them?

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.

An Unusual Adventure by Anne Perreault

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1880 – Middle East

She needed more than her small town could give her.

Judith Stone longs for an adventure, something to challenge her busy mind and her thirst for more. Austin Harding, her childhood friend, and the boy she has secretly loved all her life, returns after several years of absence and offers her exactly that. She jumps at the chance to spend her life with him and to see places of wonder. Along the way, they are met with unexpected danger.

Austin Harding is about to take the trip of a lifetime, and he’s decided to make Judith part of it. As they embark on their journey, he quickly finds out that trying to keep her safe is not as easy as he thought.

Judith and Austin find themselves in the thrall of an unusual adventure, set in the barbaric middle east. Will they make it out alive?

A Love to Have and to Hold by Linda Ford

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1884 – Montana

Josie Kinsley was adopted when she was twelve. There are things in her past she doesn’t want anyone to know, things that drive her to seek security. She only wants to be a self-sufficient, independent young woman. She refuses the interest of the many cowboys who enter the home.

Walker Jones’s family was broken up when he was a kid. He has no use for secrets. He ends up at the Kinsley home when he is robbed and pistol whipped. He overhears Josie telling someone that if she ever married, it would not be a homeless, penniless cowboy. Which is exactly what he is. And the very reason a former love interest refused him.

Both Josie and Walker know the other person is not what they need. Walker senses Josie harbors a secret. And yet, as they spend time together, he is attracted to her strong spirit and her loyalty to her adopted family. Josie sees in him a man who is hard working, kind, and fun to be with. But he is a wanderer and she wants a permanent home.

Will the truth destroy their growing affection or will they learn that it is not the past that matters but what the future promises?

Mail-Order Mishaps

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Dreams of Finding Mr. Right Go Wrong in the Old West
 
The Bride’s Dilemma by Susan Page Davis
Wyoming, 1883
Eve Martin arrives in Cheyenne to learn that man she came to marry is in jail, accused of a violent murder. Should she get on the next eastbound train, or has God brought her here to help save Caleb Blair’s life?
 
Romancing the Rancher by Linda Ford
Montana, 1886
Amelia expects a safe home for herself and her niece as mail-order bride to Zach Taggerty. Only Zach has never heard of her, and the last thing he needs is more complications in his life.
 
The Marriage Sham by Vickie McDonough
Texas, 1888
Mail-order bride Zola Bryant is devastated. Her newlywed husband is dead. But even worse, they were never truly married because the man who wed them was an outlaw not a preacher. What will she do now that her life and reputation are in tatters?
 
The Galway Girl by Erica Vetsch
Kansas, 1875
A mail-order mix-up sends Irish lass Maeve O’Reilly to the Swedish community of Lindsborg, Kansas. Will Kaspar Sandberg consider it a happy accident or a disaster to be rectified as soon as possible?

The Daughter’s Predicament by Mary Davis

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1893 – Washington

Can a patient love win her heart?

As Isabelle Atwood’s romance prospects are turning in her favor, a family scandal derails her dreams. While making a quilt for her own hope chest, Isabelle’s half-sister becomes pregnant out of wedlock and Isabelle–always the unfavored daughter–becomes the family sacrifice to save face. Despite gaining the attention of a handsome rancher, her parents are pressuring her to marry a man of their choosing to rescue her sister’s reputation.

A third suitor waits silently in the wings, hoping for his own chance at love. Isabelle ends up with three marriage proposals, but this only further confuses her decision. A handsome rancher, a stranger, and an unseen suitor are all waiting for an answer. Isabelle loves her sister, but will she really allow herself to be manipulated into a marriage without love? Will Isabelle capitulate and marry the man her parents wish her to, or will she rebel and marry the man they don’t approve of? Or will the man leaving her secret love poems sweep her off her feet?

Black Coat by Julia David

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1881 – Minnesota

Beautiful and independent Nadine has made a few too many mistakes. Now abandoned and far from home, she has nothing left but a black coat to wrap around her lies and desperation.

In 1881, intellectual Hayes Sullivan has one job as the local commissioner for the railroad, joining the east coast to the west. One night, running from his own complicated past, he succumbs to something unusually irrational and breaks down a door at the Silver Holiday Saloon. Crumpled in a smoke-filled room is a young woman presumably dead. After pulling her to safety, he stays with her into the night until he can find out who is responsible for her. The very information she refuses to reveal to anyone.

How long can Nadine hide her dark, scandalous lies to the people who have shown her such forbearance? How long can she sneak behind buildings to avoid the law or worse, Hayes Sullivan? Without a doubt, Hayes knows someone is tormenting this mystifying young woman. Yes, he needs her help, but beyond that why can’t he stay clear of her? Hating the illogical passion of the heart and his own behavior, he allows her into his own protected life.

Will haunting pasts suffocate believable futures?

From a Distance by Diana Brandmeyer

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1880s – Illinois

He wants independence. She longs for safety. Will an orphan girl bring them together?

Beginning a new life, Shanna Becket, secures employment at the Children’s Society Agency. Her first assignment brings her dangerously close to her abusive stepfather. What she didn’t count on is the distraction of a handsome stranger who sends her heart fluttering.

A second son who is second-best, Aidan hopes that his latest venture is his ticket to independence from his overbearing father. His travels bring him in contact with the lovely working-class, red-headed Shanna she steals his heart. His father won’t approve.

When a sick orphan brings them together, Shanna is forced to place her well-being in Aidan’s hands. Finally, a possibility of love for this spinster. But can she trust he is the man he says he is?

The Honey Bride by Diana Brandmeyer

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1886 – Illinois

Afraid of her own shadow and now she’s in charge. He can’t get her to notice him, it’s time to ride out of town.

A tragic barn fire takes Katie’s father and leaves her with a debt she can’t pay. To save her family she must save her farm, but how when she can’t talk to people?

Pete has pined for Katie a long time, but he can’t even get a smile from her. He’s given up on settling down and is ready to ride out of town. When lightning strikes the Tucker’s barn, he offers to help Katie with the farm and hopes to win her heart.

Can Katie overcome her shyness and learn to trust Pete?

The Honey Bride is a sweet Christian historical novella is set in Trenton, Illinois in the late 1800s. If you like stepping back to a simpler time then you’ll love Diana Lesire Brandmeyer’s poignant tale.

Outlaw Heart by Vickie McDonough

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1894 – North Dakota

Deputy Marshal Brett Wickham is ready to retire from law enforcement and settle down.                          

But when his brother Taylor is killed in a bank robbery, Brett pins his badge back on and goes hunting for the Sallinger gang. Then a bear attack lands him right in the middle of the outlaws’ hideout. Anna McFarland, aka Lottie Sallinger, tends Brett’s wounds. She seems too sweet and innocent to be an outlaw. But looks can be deceiving. When his heart is drawn to Lottie, Brett fights the attraction. Can he do his job when everything within him wants Lottie to be innocent?

Anna McFarland is lonely now that her twin brother has married and moved away. She contemplates moving to Bismarck and looking for work, but when a stranger is wounded while saving her from a bear attack, she has her hands full caring for him. The handsome stranger intrigues her. When he recovers, he accepts a job on the ranch. One day he escorts her to town, and they discover a group of ragtag orphans. Somethings seems off at the home for orphans, and they work together to investigate the situation. Anna quickly falls for Brett, but he sends her confusing signals. When Brett accuses her of being an outlaw, Anna is devastated and loses all hope of winning his heart. Why did God send him to her if they weren’t meant to be together?

Matchmaker Bride by Diana Brandmeyer

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1887 – Illinois

She’s the best matchmaker in town… Or is she?

Emmie Mueller is ready to join her family in Kansas as soon as her grandmother sells the boarding house. Her grandmother won’t leave until the bachelors living in the boarding house have a new home. Emmie has a plan to use her matchmaking skills to find wives for the men. Tables are turned when the bachelors attempt to match her with the newest man in town.

Renewing Love by Linda Ford

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1884 – Montana

Eve Kinsley was devastated when Cole Carter walked away from her two years ago to go to the gold fields of northwest Montana. She has her pick from many suitors, but instead spends her time and energy helping those in need. This takes her to a newcomer’s home to care for two elderly sisters. To her shock, she discovers it is Cole’s home. Even worse, those feelings she thought were dead spring to life again.

Cole Carter had loved Eve, but knew she wouldn’t choose him over her family. When she arrives to help with his mother and aunt, he is forced to accept her help temporarily. Only she is even more beautiful and desirable then she was two years ago and brings light and joy to his home.

As they are forced to spend time together, they both discover past misunderstandings and a deeper knowledge of what motivated the other to act.

Will the challenges they face make them see how suited they are for each other or will their differences again come between them?

Anywhere With You by Gina Welborn and Becca Whitham

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1888 – Montana
 
Heiress Colette Vanderpool-Vane needs to prove she’s outgrown her impetuous ways before her parents will allow her to open her beloved art museum. But when the solutions she proposes aren’t enough, her father tasks her with a mission that demands she keep her life in Denver a secret. It’s a clandestine train adventure that brings her face to face with an intriguing stranger . . .
 
Jakob Gunderson has always come in second in matters of the heart. Hired to protect young ladies rescued from the streets of Helena as they journey to a better life, he is drawn to their lovely, free-spirited chaperone. He’s finally someone’s number one. When their train ride ends, Jakob proposes marriage. But then he learns the secrets Colette’s been forced to keep.
 
How can Colette say yes? But—with their hearts on the line—how can she say no?

 

Daughters of Northern Shores by Joanne Bischof

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1895 – Virginia

Aven Norgaard understands courage. Orphaned within an Irish workhouse, then widowed at just nineteen, she voyaged to America where she was wooed and wed by Thor Norgaard, a Deaf man in rural Appalachia. That the Lord saw her along the winding journey and that Aven now carries Thor’s child are blessings beyond measure. Yet while Thor holds her heart, it is his younger brother and rival who haunts her memories. Haakon–whose selfish choices shattered her trust in him.
 
Having fled the Norgaard orchard after trying to take Aven as his own, Haakon sails on the North Atlantic ice trade, where his soul is plagued with regrets that distance cannot heal. Not even the beautiful Norwegian woman he’s pursued can ease the torment. When the winds bear him home after four years away, Haakon finds the family on the brink of tragedy. A decades-old feud with the neighboring farm has wrenched them into the fiercest confrontation on Blackbird Mountain since the Civil War. Haakon’s cunning and strength hold the power to seal many fates, including Thor’s–which is already imperiled due to a grave illness brought to him at the first prick of warfare.
 
Now Haakon faces the hardest choice of his life. One that shapes a battlefield where pride must be broken enough to be restored, and where a prodigal son may finally know the healing peace of surrender and the boundless gift of forgiveness. And when it comes to the woman he left behind in Norway, he just might discover that while his heart belongs to a daughter of the north, she’s been awaiting him on shores more distant than the land he’s fighting for.

Tender Hope by Amanda Cabot

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1881 – Texas

As far as Thea Michener is concerned, it’s time for a change. With her husband murdered and her much-anticipated baby stillborn, there is nothing left for her in Ladreville. Having accepted a position as Cimarron Creek’s midwife, she has no intention of remarrying and trying for another child. So when a handsome Texas Ranger appears on her doorstep with an abandoned baby, Thea isn’t sure her heart can take it.

Ranger Jackson Guthrie isn’t concerned only with the baby’s welfare. He’s been looking for Thea, convinced that her late husband was part of the gang that killed his brother. But it soon becomes clear that the situation is far more complicated than he anticipated–and he’ll need Thea’s help if he’s ever to find the justice he seeks.

A Love to Cherish by Linda Ford

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1884 – Montana

After surviving a horrible train accident, Victoria Kinsley can never be sure of her age–or her identity. She was adopted by the Kinsleys and has never recalled her life prior to the accident. How can she embrace her future without knowing her own past?. She is guarded around strangers and keeps men at arm’s length. Until Reese Cartwright shows up.

Reese recognizes Victoria the moment he sees her. He’s been hurt in the past by a woman who was less than honest and cares deeply about truth and honesty. He’ll bide his time and learn if this young woman is truly the missing Constance Hayworth.

As Reese spends time with Victoria and her family in his quest to discover the truth, he finds himself attracted to Victoria. When the Hayworths whisk Victoria away, will these two face the truth, confront their pasts and accept a future filled with love?

Miss Wylde in The White City by Grace Hitchcock

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1893 – Illinois

While attending the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893, Winnifred Wylde believes she witnessed a woman being kidnapped. She tries to convince her father, an inspector with the Chicago police, to look into reports of mysterious disappearances around the White City. Inspector Wylde tries to dismiss her claims as exaggeration of an overactive imagination, but he eventually concedes to letting her go undercover as secretary to the man in question—if she takes her pistol for protection and Jude Thorpe, a policeman, for bodyguard.

Will she be able to expose H. H. Holmes’s illicit activity, or will Winnifred become his next victim?

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?

Tomorrow’s First Light by Naomi Rawlings

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1885 – Texas

Marrying a stranger to keep the woman’s siblings out of an orphanage is one thing, but when more children than expected pour out of the stagecoach, what’s a man to do?

Nervous about meeting her fiancé for the first time, Ellie Spritzer’s lifelong hope of finding love is about to end—or rather, begin. She never imagined her quest for love would take her to the other side of the country with all eight of her siblings in tow, but after her mother dies unexpectedly, what choice does she have? At least the man she’s been writing for the past year is still willing to marry her and take in her siblings… or so she thinks until she arrives in the dusty town of Twin Rivers, Texas.

Growing up an orphan, Sam Owens never had a place to call home or a family to love. So if his wife-to-be needs to bring three of her siblings with her, he has no complaints about having a ready-made family. But his mail-order-bride doesn’t arrive with three. She arrives with eight.

Sam can’t make himself turn away children in need. But as a beginning rancher, he doesn’t have the resources to care for so many people. When sinister forces threaten the things Sam and Ellie both hold dear, can they figure out how to keep their fledgling family together, or will they lose the very things they cherish most?