She was frightened, her face bruised, yet her inner beauty and bravery were immediately apparent. And there was no way in hell he was leaving her alone to face a roomful of rowdy cowboys and whatever desperate circumstances had brought her there in the first place.But how he got from those first thoughts to making her his wife was something he was still wrestling with the next day.... He knew he'd put his life on the line to protect her. But would a man who knew nothing about being a husband ever be able to give Katie the happy ending she so deserved?

    Homesless and hungry, Maddie's only chance of survival is by working at a Texas brothel. But widower Charles Lawson sees more in Maddie than a one-night stand. Charles marries Maddie to give her a chance at life and to give his children a caring mother . . . because he knows he's dying.

    In Blue Belle, Montana, everyone knew better than to mess with the Claybornes. The brothers had once been a mismatched gang of street urchins—until they found an abandoned baby girl in a New York city alley, named her Mary Rose, and headed west to raise her to be a lady. They became a family—held together by loyalty and love if not by blood—when suddenly they faced a crisis that threatened to tear them apart....Trouble came to town with one Lord Harrison Stanford MacDonald. Armed with a swagger and six-shooter, he cut a striking figure—but it soon became apparent to Mary Rose that he was too much of a gentleman to make it in her rough-and-tumble town. She asked her brothers to teach him the basics of frontier survival, which he acquired with ease. And soon he possessed a deep and desperate love for Mary Rose. She returned his affection wholeheartedly... until MacDonald revealed a secret that challenged everything she believed about herself, her life, and her newfound love. Now her search for identity and meaning would begin, raising questions that could only be answered if she listened to the truth within her heart....

    But when she first set eyes on her hero's ramshackle ranch in the wilds of the Texas brush country, and met his utterly impossible brothers, Rose decided even George's earth-shattering kisses weren't compensation enough for the job ahead of her.Never in her life had she seen a place more in need of a woman's touch, or men more in need of a civilizing influence. The Randolph brothers were a wild bunch—carving an empire out of the rugged land, fighting off rustlers and Mexican bandits—and they weren't about to let any female change their ways...not until George laid down the law and then lost his heart to the beguiling spitfire who'd turned all their lives upside down.

    Left with three children, he's desperate to find a mother for them. Ten year old Jenny does her best to care for two year old Ty, and fourteen year old Luke works the ranch with his father, losing himself in dime novels to ease the pain of his mother's passing. Brant's options are limited since eligible women seldom pass through Two Rivers, much less settle in the small Texas town. In desperation, he places a classified advertisement for a mail order bride. Marrying a woman he'll come to know through a newspaper advertisement scares the bejesus out of him, but at this point, he's out of options.Abigail Mary Vaughn always dreamed of having her own family, but caring for her elderly parents, as well as working as a teacher to help with finances, ended that dream. Her parents are now dead and she's faced with the reality of her lonely existence. After reading Mr. Samson's advertisement in the Philadelphia Inquirer, she garners enough courage to respond. Since she is considered an old maid at the age of thirty-eight, she'll more than likely spend the rest of her life wondering "what if" unless she does something unconventional.Sensual love scenes.

    Knowing that she can save the life of a condemned man by offering to marry him, Rosie Mulvehey opts for a marriage of convenience to ex-cavalry man Bowie Stone, who promises to save her rundown farm as his part of the agreement.

    But still, she can't help thinking that something about this strong, silent farmer could be the key to leaving her troubled past behind...and making a worthy wager with her heart.

    But when a strange twist of fate—and a poker game he'll never forget—leaves an innocent little girl in his care, Duel vows to defend his new family to his very last breath. If only he knew a single thing about taking care of babies.Just as Duel swears his life can't get any more complicated, a beautiful woman stumbles into the light of his campfire, desperate for help. Jessie Foltry is hungry, tired, and running for her life. She agrees to help Duel care for the child in exchange for his protection, even as she fights to guard her broken heart. But Duel will do whatever it takes to make Jessie see that the Texas plains have more than one kind of knight, and perhaps their salvation is closer than either of them could have dreamed.

    Asa dreams of a place of his own, a wife, and the respect that comes with both. Marrying Elizabeth may have started as a means to an end, but nothing in Asa's wildest dreams prepares him for the excitement of unleashing the carnal woman beneath his wife's prim and proper exterior.

    She'd married young, hoping to put down roots in a safe haven, but her husband had shattered her naiveté, and made her fear for her beloved daughter's safety until the day he died.When she first met her new neighbor, Zachariah McGovern, all she saw was danger. But Zach saw much more. He saw beauty, he saw tenderness. He knew he could rescue Kate Blakely from her past - if only she would let him. What Zach couldn't know, however, was the price that had to be paid to save the woman he loved.

    Her free-spending husband expects nothing less. But now he has died, leaving her unprotected, heavily in debt, and pregnant. As any single woman doesn't remain so for long in Divide, Montana, Cassie wonders if marrying one of the local cowboys might be her only choice. After seeing her choices, she then wonders if joining her husband might be even better.Red Dawson has always had a soft spot in his heart for Cassie, even though most of the townspeople see her only as a silk-clad china doll. When she's left a widow, only one thing keeps him from immediately sweeping her off her feet—she's a nonbeliever.As the other cowboys lay claim to Cassie, the most powerful rancher in the area steps forward to demand what he thinks rightly belongs to him... and the property that goes with her. Red struggles with figuring out what to do, but decides he can't allow Cassie to suffer a fate worse than death and marries her himself.Will Red win over this seemingly fragile and spoiled china doll's heart... and survive her unique brand of ranch help in the meantime? Will Cassie find true love with her cowboy—and his God—when she exchanges smooth silk for coarse calico?

    But after President Lincoln signs the Homestead Act offering free land, she reluctantly agrees to her restless father's plan to move west. Along with her sister and toddler son, the small family joins a wagon train setting out on the Oregon Trail. The journey is fraught with adversity and heartache, eventually changing the travelers' destination, as well as their lives. When the group begins to homestead, Emma finds herself alone with four children in the raw, untamed west. She learns to draw on an inner strength she didn't know she possessed and renews her faith along the way. But will Emma be able to come to terms with the death of her husband and embrace a new love in this rough land?Gruff rancher, Seth Summers doesn't feel Montana in the 1860s is a safe place for women and children. He's experienced enough personal tragedy to confirm the fact. But a pretty new neighbor, who works harder than most men, gradually gets under his skin. Without even knowing it, he begins to long for a feminine presence on his ranch and in his life. Can he win the heart of the attractive widow?You're invited to come along on a pioneer adventure filled with danger and excitement, heartache and romance! Building Fences, Mending Hearts is sure to touch your emotions, leaving you alternately weeping and smiling.

    Her widowed mother and baby sister are depending upon her for their survival back home in Boston. And the self-appointed mayor of the rugged mountain community is counting on Miss Cooper to prove herself a fitful teacher for the young and old alike. Lord Alexander Barnes is determined to bring a bit of English civility to the wild terrain of Emerson Pass. Using his own resources, the widower and father of five builds a schoolhouse and recruits a young teacher from the east to provide an education for both the adults and the children in his rapidly growing mining town. But when the lovely, and much younger than anticipated, Miss Cooper arrives to town, Lord Barnes finds himself providing more than just employment when the boarding house proves to be an unsafe accommodation for the school mistress. As Miss Cooper takes a room in the Barnes' home, the five Barnes children are delighted. They are sure Miss Cooper is the perfect woman for their lonely father. But when a friend of the Englishman turns up dead, the hope for progress in the untamed town seems immediately lost. Can Miss Cooper and Lord Barnes bring change to the closed-minded locals? And will their endeavor open their hearts to something more? The first installment of USA Today bestselling author Tess Thompson's historical romance series brings a touch of whimsy and an extra dash of mystery to Edwardian romance. Readers will fall in love with the courageous Miss Cooper and swoon for the magnanimous English Lord as they struggle to save their exciting new world at the turn of the 20th Century.

    Then he beheld the exotic Spanish beauty called Santana, and the rugged New Englander was forever lost. In her dark, luminous eyes he saw all that was beautiful and irresistible about this rich and fertile country -- all that he wished to possess yet did not fully understand.BUT NOTHING AND NO ONE COULD KEEP THEM APARTWith every beat of her innocent heart Santana knew that this tall, handsome, blue-eyed American was the only man she could ever love. But between Santana and Will stood a lifetime of tradition -- and a powerful and ruthless Spanish don who would kill any man who dared to covet his intended bride. Now, as Will's dream of Lassater Mills becomes a reality, he will risk everything to make Santana his own. And though love cannot protect them from vengeful enemies or the fires of change raging across this land, it may give them the strength to face an uncertain future, and in the midst of tragedy the courage to begin anew...

    Housekeeping for Daniel Beckham, a widower who invoked the town's wedding ordinance to rescue Jolie from the gallows, is better than the alternative...but understanding the silent stranger who is now her husband might just about kill her.Daniel doesn't believe in Jolie's innocence. And despite his willingness to marry the pretty, defiant "outlaw" on the spot, the prosperous farmer had little to say to her after "I do." But for Jolie, their arrangement of convenience soon deepens into a rich and vibrant attraction that sets her trembling with desire in Daniel's presence. Somehow, she would win his love, body and soul. Unless the desperados on her trail shatter the fragile, trusting bond of husband and wife....Linda Lael Miller's beloved novel of the American West shimmers with the unbridled passion of two adventurous hearts!