Book picks similar to
Christmas at Holly Hill by Martha Rogers


christmas
christian-fiction
historical-fiction
romance

Wings of a Dream


Anne Mateer - 2011
    While she waits for the Great War to end and Arthur to return to her so they can pursue all their plans, her mother's sister falls ill. Rebekah seizes the opportunity to travel to Texas to care for Aunt Adabelle, seeing this chance to be closer to Arthur's training camp as God's approval of her plans. But the Spanish flue epidemic changes everything. Faced with her aunt's death, Arthur's indecisiveness, and four children who have no one else to care for them, Rebeka is torn between the desire to escape the type of life she's always led and the unexpected love that just might change the dream of her heart.

Threads of Hope


Andrea Boeshaar - 2012
    Will she have the courage to stand up for what is right—even against her own family? The year is 1848, and Kristin Eikaas has sailed from Norway to make a new life for herself in Wisconsin. It doesn’t take long for her Uncle Lars to warn her about the Sundberg family. When she asks why, Lars tells her that Karl Sundberg’s second wife is an Indian who “casts evil spells on the good people of this community.” Having just left the old country where superstitions abound, Kristin believes her uncle and heeds his warning. On the day after her arrival, the family attends the wedding of a fellow church member. At the reception that follows, Kristin meets Sam Sundberg and thinks he’s charming. Still, she can’t help but remember her uncle’s warning. After coming to the rescue of Sam’s half-sister, Kristen is ostracized by her family and the entire community and sent to work at the only place that will take her in—the Sundberg farm. When she learns of Sam’s true nature, his benevolence toward others, his care and concern, she’s finally able to lay her belief in superstitions to rest and put her entire trust in the Lord. Furthermore, she can’t help but fall in love with Sam, the man who helped her understand this truth. She knows her uncle will never approve of the match. Will she have the courage to follow her heart? SERIES DESCRIPTION This series, set between 1848 and 1900, depicts the lives of three generations of the Sundberg family who have settled in Wisconsin from Norway. Although the Sundberg men choose different vocations—farming, shipping, railroading—it’s the women who keep their husbands’ hearts woven together in the fabric of time for one cause: to honor the God of heaven while working toward prosperity in America, the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Full Steam Ahead


Karen Witemeyer - 2014
    Though she loves him, Nicole's father has always focused on what she's not. Not male. Not married. Not able to run Renard Shipping.Vowing to find a suitable husband to give her father the heir he desires before it's too late, Nicole sets out with the Renard family's greatest treasure as her dowry: the highly coveted Lafitte Dagger. But her father's rivals come after the dagger, forcing a change in Nicole's plans.After a boiler explosion aboard the Louisiana nearly took his life, Darius Thornton has been a man obsessed. He will do anything to stop even one more steamship disaster. Even if it means letting a female secretary into his secluded world.Nicole is determined not to let her odd employer scare her off with his explosive experiments, yet when respect and mutual attraction grow between them, a new fear arises. How can she acquire an heir for her father when her heart belongs to another? And when her father's rivals discover her hiding place, will she have to choose between that love and her family's legacy?

An Endless Christmas


Cynthia Ruchti - 2015
    Trapped with his family, they learn that love looks different than either imagined. Both in their eighties, Dodie and Wilson Binder celebrateevery Christmas as if it were their last. This year, their grandson Micah is planning to ask his girlfriend, Katie, to marry him so they can celebrate with the whole family. But things go very wrong when she says "no." Now they are stuck. Too many people, too much snow, and too little room should be a recipe for disaster. But sometimes too much is just enough. Especially when it's Christmas.

All She Ever Wanted


Lynn Austin - 2005
    But an unexpected invitation from her sister unwittingly draws her back to that sleepy New York town, her own daughter in tow.A trip meant to salvage her relationship with her daughter changes course as Kathleen reexamines her own childhood. But even more enlightening are the stories of Eleanor, her once-vibrant mother, and Fiona, the grandmother she barely knew.The more Kathleen learns, the more answers she seeks concerning her family's mysterious past. Yet with the past exposed, Kathleen is torn between her need to forgive and the urge to forget.

A Quilt for Christmas


Sandra Dallas - 2014
    Eliza is confident that he will return home, and she helps pass the months making a special quilt to keep Will warm during his winter in the army. When the unthinkable happens, she takes in a woman and child who have been left alone and made vulnerable by the war, and she finds solace and camaraderie amongst the women of her quilting group. And when she is asked to help hide an escaped slave, she must decide for herself what is right, and who can she can count on to help her.

Angel of the Cove


Sandra Robbins - 2012
    Before she can start school in New York, however, her brother sends her to Cades Cove, deep in the Smoky Mountains, to spend a summer apprenticing to the local midwife. Anna is determined to prove herself and then head to the big city.But nothing could have prepared Anna for the beauty of the Cove, or the community and friendships she finds there. And she certainly wasn't prepared for Simon Martin, the handsome young minister, or the feelings he arouses in her. Has God's plan for Anna changed? Or is she just starting to hear Him clearly?

The Christmas Box


Richard Paul Evans - 1993
    So I record it now for all future generations to accept or dismiss as seems them good. As for me, I believe. And it is, after all, my story." So begins "The Christmas Box, " the touching story of a widow and the young family who moves in with her. Together they discover the first gift of Christmas and learn what Christmas is really all about. "The Christmas Box" is a Christmas story unlike any other.

The Christmas Swap


Melody Carlson - 2020
    But the young teacher and struggling musician sure can't find that in sunny Arizona. Luckily, there's someone living in a perfect mountain home in the Colorado Rockies looking to make a vacation trade this year.Tyler Prescott is an in-demand songwriter and talented musician who put his own singing career on hold to write songs for celebrity acts to perform. When his mother convinces him to do a vacation trade for Christmas, he never imagined one of the houseguests would be so sweet--or so strikingly pretty. Naturally, he decides to stick around, and, to get better acquainted, he poses as the house's caretaker. But when Emma's friend Gillian discovers his true identity and sets her sights on him, thingsget . . . messy.Fan favorite Melody Carlson is back with another delightful Christmas tale to warm your heart on those cold winter evenings.

Sixty Acres and a Bride


Regina Jennings - 2012
    Only now the county is demanding back taxes and the women have only three months to pay.Though facing eviction, Rosa falls in love with the countryside and the wonderful extended family who want only her best. They welcome her vivacious spirit and try to help her navigate puzzling American customs. She can't help but stand out, though, and her beauty captures attention. Where some offer help with dangerous strings attached, only one man seems honorable. But when Weston Garner, still grieving his own lost love, is unprepared to give his heart, Rosa must decide to what lengths she will go to save her future.

Distant Dreams


Judith Pella - 1997
    the railroad. Frustrated by society's expectations upon her gender, she longs to study more masculine subjects and is thrilled when her father grants her a tutor.James Baldwin arrives to serve as Carolina's teacher, but of more importance, he is to court Carolina's beautiful older sister, Virginia. Will expectations--and Virginia's southern charm--elicit the hoped-for proposal? Or will James and Carolina dare to acknowledge the mutual interests and feelings growing between them?

A Heart Adrift


Laura Frantz - 2022
    Chocolatier Esmee Shaw is fighting her own battle of the heart. Having reached her twenty-eighth birthday, she is reconciled to life alone after a decade-old failed love affair from which she's never quite recovered. But she longs to find something worthwhile to do with her life.Captain Henri Lennox has returned to port after a lengthy absence, intent on completing the lighthouse in the dangerous Chesapeake Bay, a dream he once shared with Esmee. But when the colonial government asks him to lead a secret naval expedition against the French, his future is plunged into uncertainty.Will a war and a cache of regrets keep them apart, or can their shared vision and dedication to the colonial cause heal the wounds of the past? Bestselling and award-winning author Laura Frantz whisks you away to a time fraught with peril--on the sea and in the heart--in this redemptive, romantic story.

My Heart Remembers


Kim Vogel Sawyer - 2008
    Despite eight-year-old Maelle's desperate attempts to keep her siblings together, each child is taken by a different family. Yet Maelle vows that she will never stop searching for her brother and sister... and that they will be together one day in the future. Seventeen years later, Maelle is still searching. But the years have washed away her hope... and her memories. What are Mattie and Molly doing now? Where has life taken them? Will she ever see her brother and sister again?

Christmas Stitches: A Historical Romance Collection: 3 Stories of Women Sewing Hope and Love Through the Holidays


Judith McCoy Miller - 2018
    But can love also be stitched into their lives?  A SEAMLESS LOVE by Judith Miller 1894 – Pullman, Illinois Hannah Cushman possesses a special talent for embroidered fancywork and design which secures her a position in the Dressmaking and Millinery Shop in the Pullman Arcade near Chicago where she encounters childhood friend Daniel Price. Daniel is disappointed to learn Hannah is being courted by a detective with the Pinkerton Detective Agency. With two men vying for her attention, will Hannah seek God’s direction or ignore the warning signs He sets before her?  MENDING HEARTS by Stephanie Grace Whitson 1899 – Nebraska Rachel Ellsworth expects her stay with two maiden aunts in a conservative Mennonite village to be temporary—until a letter breaks her heart. Raised Methodist and encouraged to pursue fashion, design, and watercolor painting, Rachel finds temporary solace in quilting and in helping care for two motherless children. But when she and the children’s widowed father begin to notice one another, Rachel must face the idea that giving her heart to Levi Herr will mean giving up the arty things that have always defined her.  PIN’S PROMISE by Nancy Moser 1900/1906 – Summerfield, England Penelope (Pin) Billings and Jonathan Evers have loved each other since they were children, promising to one day get officially engaged. Both have distinct talents: Pin for sewing dresses and teaching others to sew and Jonathan—a doctor right out of school—in helping the people of the village. As adulthood nears and the time to fulfill their promise seems right, a tragic event pulls them apart, making both question their future. Will they discover they are stronger together than apart?

The Innkeeper of Ivy Hill


Julie Klassen - 2016
    Its coaching inn, The Bell, is its lifeblood--along with the coach lines that stop there daily, bringing news, mail, travelers, and much-needed trade.Jane Bell lives on the edge of the inn property. She had been a genteel lady until she married the charming innkeeper who promised she would never have to work in his family's inn. But when he dies under mysterious circumstances, Jane finds herself The Bell's owner, and worse, she has three months to pay a large loan or lose the place.Feeling reluctant and ill-equipped, Jane is tempted to abandon her husband's legacy and return to her former life of ease. However, she soon realizes there is more at stake than her comfort. But who can she trust to help her? Her resentful mother-in-law? Her husband's brother, who wanted the inn for himself? Or the handsome newcomer with secret plans of his own . . . ?With pressure mounting from the bank, Jane struggles to win over naysayers and turn the place around. Can Jane bring new life to the inn, and to her heart as well?