When the opportunity arises via a newspaper ad, she and her best friend slip away from their oppressive fathers and head for Richmond. Neither can relax until they’re far away from their tiny hometown. With wealthy young widow Lydia Harrison’s help, Josephine and six other young women have a new life waiting in Tarnation, Texas. Michael Buchanan is fairly content running his mercantile and being mayor of Tarnation. The town is dusty and tiny, but it’s growing. He believes it holds all he needs to be happy—except a wife. There are no available women in town, but he hopes Lydia Harrison’s Bride Brigade will offer a woman he can wed. He is immediately attracted to Josephine. But Josephine has every reason to mistrust men in general and politicians in particular. Will her misgivings ruin her chance at happiness?

    Brenna and her family are Irish immigrants. Rebecca travels with her large family from Iowa. Emily is a young bride traveling with her husband Ernest. Six months and two thousand miles later they reach their destination much changed from who they were when they started. Daily life on the wagon train is challenging. Cholera is rampant, crime not unheard of, and death is an ever present visitor. Their hopes and fears are realized in unforgettable experiences of love and loss. Through it all they form a bond with each other that will last a lifetime and encompass the vast and untamed regions of the heart.

    By the age of twenty-five, he’d planned to have his own ranch. Instead, he’s forced to beg for a job, destroying his dreams of having a family he can provide for and protect. Betrayal and loss bring him to a cabin on Pinto Creek in the high Colorado Rockies. Just before winter hits, he finds a broken-down wagon in the snow with precious cargo inside. Perhaps, his luck is about to change. Susana Jamison doesn’t feel so lucky. Despite being rescued by Elisha, she is challenged to the limit of her strength, both physically and spiritually, when faced with the brutal conditions of frontier living and the dangers she encounters. Can she hold on to her faith in the midst of this desperate situation, especially when she’s forced to marry a man she’s doesn’t love? An inspirational historical western romance, Cabin On Pinto Creek is the first in the Cedar Ridge Chronicles. NOVELS BY A J Hawke CEDAR RIDGE CHRONICLES Cabin on Pinto Creek, 1 Joe Storm No Longer a Cowboy, 2 Colorado Morning Sky, 3 Colorado Evening Sky, 4 (Publishing September 2014) OTHER NOVELS Mountain Journey Home Caught Between Two Worlds Born in Spur, Texas into a multi-generational Texans family, A J Hawke has lived and traveled throughout the American West as well as other parts of the world and enjoys reading, writing, friends, family, and being a Christian.

     Diamonds of the Marquess Lady Emily Dove doesn’t know whom to trust. Her true identity must never be known. The Viscount’s Promise A mystery that surrounds Julianna’s family could lead her to the man that steals her heart. If you love clean and wholesome, Regency romances with strong heroines, mystery, and love, then the Ladies and their Secrets Regency Romance Collection will warm your heart.

    The good news is she's traveled to Pittsburgh and found a good job as a schoolmistress. The bad news is, the school's owner, the portly, whiskey-breathed Mister Murphy, has developed wandering hands, and Mrs Murphy's preparing to leave to visit her sister for a month in New York.Ruby sees an advertisement in the Matrimonial News and takes a desperate chance, writing away to the handsome Six-feet-four James Drinkwater.Will James be the answer to Ruby's plight? Is the handsome Montana man all that he seems? Or will someone else come to Ruby's rescue, so together they can find true love?The Come-By-Chance series consists of:Book 1 - RubyBook 2 - EmilyBook 3 - VioletBook 4 - KateBook 5 - Rose ~ Due out December 2014 ~Book 6 - Emmy-Lou ~ Due out January 2015 ~

    Lewis and Sarah Jordan, parents to Sam Lewis, the core character of The Lewis Legacy Series. Prelude gives insights into Sam’s family history in this involving, heartfelt story of family, friendship, and love. A story of never letting go of our dreams, and how faith, sacrifice and trusting our lives to the Lord’s guidance will always triumph over our human fears, temptations, insecurities and frailties. On April 24, 1962, U.S. Air Force Captain Samuel Lewis returns home to small Rockbridge, Texas. Six years older than Sarah, Sam is the boy who moved four doors down when she was ten. A teenager who nicknamed her Tomboy and teased her like an older brother. That boy is now a fully grown, incredibly handsome man who makes her heart race, but what does she know of love or life? In another year, she’ll be able to save the five thousand dollars she needs to attend nursing school in Austin. Besides, everyone in Rockbridge expects Sam to date her older sister, Tess, the prettiest girl in town with the beauty queen titles to prove it. Not to mention Tess announces her intention of marrying Captain Lewis. After his return stateside, Sam Lewis finds Sarah Jordan occupying his favorite pondering spot at Thornton’s Creek. After his years away from home, first at the Air Force Academy and then serving in the Air Force, Sam finds himself unexpectedly drawn to Sarah. The sassy, funny girl he used to tease has grown up into a beautiful, charming woman with wit and intelligence who challenges him more than any other woman he’s ever met. Sarah’s frequent reminders that she’s leaving Rockbridge, along with her encouragement to date any other girl in town, unsettle him. During the eventful summer of 1962, their friendship grows deeper and blossoms into love. Sam knows he can’t hold Sarah back from achieving her dreams. Besides, he has no plans to leave town since he’s stepped into place beside his father as the vice president of Rockbridge Savings & Loan. Sam's heart is torn. All seems hopeless when she tells him it’s her dream to work as a nurse on mission fields across the world. When an unexpected financial gift gives Sarah the needed funds to enter nursing school in the fall, she faces saying good-bye to Sam earlier than expected. Are Sam and Sarah destined to be together or to spend their lives apart? Can these two find a place where their hearts can meet or does the Lord have a much better plan that only He can design? Prelude releases on December 19, 2014.

    Think like a lady. Act like a man. Banished to the dusty cow town of Misery, Wyoming for an alleged affair, Grace Hendrick is facing the hardest decisions of her life. If she tries to return to Chicago, her husband promises to whisk their four-year-old son off to a boarding school and Grace will never see him again. She has no choice but to play along, at least temporarily. But in order to survive--and to save her son--she needs money. Misery, however, isn't brimming over with jobs for respectable women. Stubborn and proud, Grace refuses to consider prostitution. Since she'd rather die than give her husband that kind of victory, she forges an audacious plan. If she has to live in a man's world, she'll live as a man. Thad Walker is the middle son of the oldest, most successful cattle baron in Wyoming and he always puts ranch work first. One chance meeting with Grace Hendrick, though, batters his resolve like a hail storm in July. When Grace's brother Greg Henderson gets hired by a local widow lady, Thad figures the kid is the straightest path to Grace's heart. Friendship and love blossom, but so do the lies. Eventually, deceit catches fire and threatens everything Grace and Thad hold dear. Set against the backdrop of the Johnson County War, 1891 Wyoming will prove more explosive than the mean streets of Chicago.

    Lieutenant Luke Brady could make falling in love easy…except he’s going to war. There’s one thing that can keep a thread tied between them—letters. But the suave Dr. William Keller enchants Grace with his charm and proposes marriage. She must choose between them. Will she settle for comfort and safety or risk losing everything on the Normandy beaches?

    Now, with some domestic skills and education under her belt, she is ready to leave Creede, Colorado for a fresh start. When she is given the chance to go to Sanctuary, Montana to open a library for the town, she jumps on it with arms wide open. Before she leaves she is challenged to open her heart to the possibility of love and marriage in her new town. Agreeing to be open she leaves never dreaming any man would want a former soiled dove. Jake Lockwood made a vow eight years ago after his second attempt to marry a mail-order-bride ended in failure. He was done seeking a bride. He’d wait for destiny to bring the right woman to him. When he meets the lovely yet broken Fiona Chauncey he knows she’s meant for him. But when his brother seems to object and a bride from his past arrives to force him to wed it looks like his dreams may once again crash around him. Can a woman with a secret past and a rancher with melding outsiders really get an honest chance at love and marriage? Will Jake listen to those around him and loose Fiona? Can Fiona trust that Jake is a man of his word and that his love is true? She isn’t sure she can. All she knows is this is supposed to be Fiona’s Fresh Start.

    He is good-humored, charming and married to a beautiful young woman, whom he adores. Everything goes perfect in his life, until a dramatic incident changes it all... After finding his wife dead, and being accused for her murder, John will have to run away, change his identity and find the real killer. But in order to stay alive he will need something more than his own powers... Will he find the right person in the right moment or will he get lost in the dangerous road for redemption?Ardelia is young, full of life and craving for life experiences. Bored of the mundane-hosting endless teas, she's suffocating in the lifestyle her class is imposing on her. But when a terrible truth about her family comes to light and a malicious man keeps making her suffer, she will make the crucial decision to escape from it all. She will then board in despair on a ship to America in order to meet her future husband as a mail order bride, hoping for a better life. Are things going to be the way she was dreaming of there or will she get trapped into a new circle of lies and deception? As new secrets will be revealed and Arelia will start wondering if she can ever really trust anyone, John will have to make difficult choices... Will he let his wife to aid him with her affection and make himself complete once again? And is their emerging love enough to keep them safe during their risky pursuit of justice?"A Dangerous Road to Salvation" is a historical western romance novel of approximately 80,000 words. No cheating, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed happily ever after.

    On her own for the first time, will she find the place where she belongs? Being a bounty hunter was all Milo thought he could ever be. Baggage from his past keeps him from the one thing his heart desires; a family. Will Kitty and Milo find common ground? Will the law bring them together or will their pasts and fears keep them apart?

    He also grew up observing the powerful and tender love shared by his parents. Determined to find that same kind of love in his own life, he is holding out for a woman who can see more in him than a marriage that will give his future wife prestige and great wealth. After more than a decade of searching for the right woman, Erich may have finally found a love beyond anything he’d imagined. But his happiness and the stability of the country is at risk when a long-dormant evil comes to the surface in Horstberg, threatening his life and that of his young nephew, who is Erich’s heir. While Erich tries to remain confident that he will live long enough to claim his right to serve his country, he is haunted by premonitory dreams that imply his life will come to a tragic end. As a force of extremist revolutionaries force Horstberg to the brink of war, the entire du Woernig family must flee into hiding for the sake of their own survival. Only when everything is on the line does Erich come to fully understand what truly matters. Please note that Book Five, the final book in the Horstberg Saga will be available for preorder on April 6th and will be released May 4th.

    Shane lands face-down in the mud for his trouble, and there’s talk of shooting him. America intervenes and finds herself in an unexpectedly personal conversation with the blue-eyed preacher. Certain she has angered God in the past, she shies away from Shane. Addie Martin, another widow, invites America to help in her cook tent in Virginia City, the new mining town. Even with Addie’s teenage son helping with America’s baby, life is hard. Shane urges America to depart for a more civilized location. Neither Shane’s persuasions nor road agents, murder, sickness, or vigilante violence can sway America. Loyalty and ambition hold her fast until dire circumstances force her to confront everything she believes about herself, Shane, and God. Based on actual historical events during a time of unrest in America, Hills of Nevermore explores faith, love, and courage in the wild west.

     Caroline Harper has everything she could want--wealth, position, the attention of an eligible bachelor. When her brother’s news destroys all of that, Caroline must decide what kind of life she wants to create for herself. As the Harpers make their way along the grueling thousands of miles of Oregon Trail, Caroline discovers strength, poise and potential she didn’t realize she possessed. Strength that perhaps was not in a spoiled city girl at all. But will it be enough to survive and bring Caroline and her brother all the way to Oregon?

    Dr. Dane Logan, a former street waif who has been adopted by a doctor's family in Cheyenne, puts his lifelong dream to work filling this need. His renown as a surgeon spreads throughout the frontier, even while his love grows for the beautiful Tharyn, an orphan he lost contact with when he left New York City as a child. Will happiness in love ever come to Dane - or will the roving Tag Moran gang bring his hopes to a dark end?Showdown in Cheyenne 1880. The frontier is uneasy. Tag Moran and his vicious gang are roving the West, robbing banks and stagecoaches. Dr. Dane Logan, a former street waif adopted by a doctor’s family in Cheyenne, is gaining renown for his delicate surgical skill. Dane’s situation becomes precarious when an unfortunate death turns Tag into his bitter enemy. If outlaws come between the tall young surgeon and his childhood love, who’ll be left to see another sunrise? Story Behind the BookAlways planning ahead for what we will write for Multnomah Publishers, JoAnna and I decided to follow the ORPHAN TRAIN trilogy with one about a medical doctor in the Old West, so we came up with the idea of a trilogy called FRONTIER DOCTOR. We introduced a teenage boy in the final ORPHAN TRAIN book who has a burning desire to one day become a physician and surgeon. This first book in this trilogy keys in on this young prospective doctor. Seeing history through this young doctor’s eyes will deeply touch your heart and make these books impossible to set down. We also think you’ll find this new trilogy filled with our faith—gained from so many years of serving the Lord and trusting His written Word.