As he struggles to make a dent in the icy exterior of the townspeople he wonders if his efforts will be wasted--then he meets Matilda, and everything changes.From the moment they meet Danny finds himself entranced by her ambition, and Matilda is captured by his passion and determination. But life in Bear Creek is difficult for outsiders and despite the attraction, their blossoming romance could end in tragedy.How can Danny choose between the chance at love and his life's dream? Will Matilda lose her independence if she admits how she feels?Grace Cranfield dreams of freedom from high-society and the suitors her parents push onto her. When all seems lost, she finds a chance at hope when she spots an ad in the church from a Montana rancher looking for a wife.Left alone after the sudden deaths of his brothers, Malcolm Wilson longs for someone to help build a new life from the rubble of his old one. Grace is charming and kind, and as sparks fly she finds herself on a train speeding towards a new home, but also a world like nothing she's ever known.Will Grace be able to find a place in this new world and discover who she truly is? More importantly, will she survive long enough to get the chance?All Mayme Ruble wants is to feel like she belongs. When she comes across an ad from a farmer looking for a wife, she feels a glimmer of hope--a chance to start over and maybe even find love.Thomas Harris has spent most of his life running his farm, and now it's time for him to marry. Mayme's kind, honest response strikes a chord with him and there is instant chemistry. She leaves her hometown with tentative optimism that a new chapter in her life is about to begin.Despite Thomas' warmth and the welcoming townspeople, Mayme struggles to shed her self-consciousness. All seems well, until disaster strikes in Bear Creek and Mayme is forced to make a decision: will she step up and be the woman she hopes to become? Or will she lose this chance at happiness once and for all?When Rachel Maxwell discovers that her home - and her hand in marriage - have been sold to notorious poker player, Salis Dangerfield, her world is thrown into turmoil. Despite the stories swirling around town, Rachel has no plans to give in easily.Salis is a ruthless businessman and highroller. But right now, he's just a man in search of a safe haven. Faced with distrust from both his wife and the locals, it seems as though he and his young sister will never find their footing in Bear Creek.Rachel soon discovers the kind man behind the facade and Salis thinks he may have finally found the peace he's been looking for.Will Salis be able to overcome his demons? Can he and Rachel find a way to be together even when the whole world is against them?In Bear Creek Brides: Books 9-12, you will discover four captivating stories of vulnerability, danger, and determination as these four brides navigate peril and heartache to hold onto the chance for true love.

    

    Tragically widowed and with a young son to look out for, she finds herself beholden to her husband's family and their grip is chafing. Having come from Scotland, she knows the mountains and the fresh air will be a tonic for her and her son, Bailey, but will the wilds of Montana be far enough away for her to be free of the Mitchell's clutches? Tom Greening loves his land, loves his cattle, and loves the single life. But, when his housekeeper decides to take matters into her own hands to find him a bride he finds himself intrigued, and even begins to think he might just be the marrying kind after all. But Tom has a secret, and it has haunted him for too long. Will it ruin everything and take from him the family he never knew he wanted?

    Her father has passed away and her hands are abandoning her like rats from a sinking ship. Worse, neighboring cattle baron Jess Fairbanks is making a play for the Diamond D and Audra, whichever he can get his hands on first. Audra grudgingly accepts that the mere presence of a husband will keep her men working, and Fairbanks under control. It seems a perfectly reasonable idea, then, to ask her uncle, who is the town attorney and a matchmaker of sorts, to find her a groom—a “proxy” who will take her orders and dish them out to the men. Dillon Pine is in jail for a conspiracy charge, but because of certain mitigating factors he’s deemed a good risk for an unusual form of probation: serving as Audra’s husband. After a year, he can abandon her and she won’t tell. By then, she will have proven to the cowboys she’s a competent rancher, and the cattle man next door will be looking elsewhere for a wife. But when word gets out that Dillon came to Audra via Evergreen’s matchmaker, he’s dubbed a “male order bride.” The resulting jokes at his expense are constant and brutal. Just how much abuse can Dillon’s pride stand? When Audra discovers her father’s death was no accident, she realizes her new husband is in danger, too. And she cares . . . quite a lot, it turns out. To save Dillon, she may have to let go of the one thing she’s fought her whole life to keep.

     Bound for the West as a Mail Order Bride, Nantucket Murray is carrying a secret that could end her chance for a new life in Benson Creek. Gilbert Snyder had sounded kind enough in his letter, but how kind will he feel when he discovers his new bride can barely speak without stammering? All too familiar with the sting of angry words, Nan has hoped for a gentle man with which to start her new life. One who will not mind her stammer. So when her first sight of her husband-to-be is him in a fight in the dusty street, she’s ready to turn around and run straight back East. But this volatile man also shows moments of great kindness, and she wonders if perhaps he can be trusted after all. Gilbert Snyder has finally gotten the ranch he’s always dreamed of, but his Mail Order Bride has left him confused and dismayed. He may be loud, but he’s not dangerous, yet she seems to shy away from his very words. If he’s not the man for her, then maybe he needs to let her go to find someone who is. Can Gil find a way to calm his temper, and can Nan summon the strength to help him? Find out in this fifth book in the Benson Creek Mail Order Bride series!

     Kate decides to become a governess and she and her sisters are delighted when she is hired by the Duke of Chelmsford, who agrees to let the Sawyer sisters live on the estate. But the Duke has his own motives for his decision. When he tries to force himself upon her younger sister, Kate threatens to kill him. Two days later, the Duke is dead and his grandmother wants a quick trial and hanging, with Catherine on the end of the rope. But the new Duke, Marcus Creighton, the black sheep of the family, is unconvinced that the lovely, gentle governess is a murderess and he’s determined to solve the murder and save Catherine from the gallows. As he delves deeper into past family secrets, his efforts to save the woman he has fallen in love with puts his own life in danger.

    A caring Civil War captain. Can they overcome reconstruction and his cruel mother to find a loving marriage?Texas, 1867. Georgie O’Rourke left Tennessee after the Civil War took everything from her. But when she answers a mail order bride ad, she never thought her arrival would surprise her new husband. It was the handsome captain’s mother who sent in the ad, and the mentally unstable matriarch may also take Georgie to her breaking point…Captain Parker Eastman’s responsibilities haven’t ended after the Confederate Army surrendered. While he agrees to marry Georgie and welcome her into his ranch, he feels he has no choice but to leave her with his mother so he can stop land grabbers on the range. But over a month away may do more damage to his new wife than he ever anticipated…With Georgie at the mercy of Mother Eastman, she questions whether she’ll survive the war’s aftermath. When Parker returns home, can he somehow regain his wife's trust to reclaim a marriage of admiration and love?Tattered Hearts is the first book in the Mail Order Brides of Spring Water series of historical western romance novels. If you like suspenseful but sweet relationships, Civil War heroes, and twists you won’t see coming, then you’ll love Kathleen Ball’s tale of frontier affection.

    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?

    What she doesn’t know is that she is about to become a mail-order bride, too. 1881 Oregon Melissa Eversoll Burgess’s hope of a wonderful life with her first husband went up in smoke the day she married him. Not only was his abuse difficult to take, but she also learned that he was deeply involved in crime—on the very day he died. Now that they’re both widowed, Melissa and her mother are ready to start over in a place called Hope Hollow. When she is introduced to a handsome farmer and informed that she is to be his mail-order bride, she doesn’t know whether to hug him…or slap him. Garret Pearce came to Oregon three years ago to claim land and nurse a broken heart. Though he’s smitten with Melissa from their very first meeting, he’s not about to fall into that trap again. That is, until it becomes obvious she needs his protection. Entering a marriage of convenience may not have been in his plans, but now that he’s got a wife—and a pretty one at that—he realizes that keeping his heart from being torn in two is going to be the challenge of his life. One that he just might lose. Will Melissa and Garret get a second chance at love? Welcome to Hope Hollow, Oregon, a place where hope abounds for the downtrodden and weary, and where peace and love abide amidst life’s trials. ***Warning: sensitive topics such as domestic abuse and familial suicide are mentioned as past experiences for Melissa and her mother in the story, though the author has made every effort to keep the focus on the development of the main characters' relationship with each other in this sweet romance.

    She agrees to have nothing to do with the man she has married.Damaged by war, Tyler Dean only wants to be left alone. To save his ranch he marries a woman by proxy, never wanting, or expecting to see her.When someone plots to steal her unborn baby, Ruth must flee. With no one to trust and nowhere to hide, she throws herself on the mercy of her reclusive, mysterious husband.Will he help in her hour of need? Or will he send her away?

     ** A clean historical novella ** Book 1 of The Texas Brides Series unravels the mystery of Jude McCann. Jude travels to the desolate desert flats along the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas, to marry Alma Goodkind. The Goodkind Ranch runs just fine since Clarence Goodkind broke his back falling off his horse. His three daughters, Alma, Amelia, and Allegra, manage the herds, guard them in their pastures, brand the young calves, and drive the cattle to the sale yards. They do all the jobs of cattle punching on the ranch without any help from anyone. All of that changes when eldest sister, Alma, decides she wants to get married and orders herself a mail-order husband. Alma and Jude McCann get married in the little adobe church in Eagle Pass. But the minute they come home to the ranch, their plans for happily ever after run off the rails. Jude joins the sisters on the range, and conflicts develop in their approaches to managing the ranch. Alma’s new marriage puts her loyalty to her sisters to the test. At the same time, her bond with her sisters strains her budding romance with Jude. Can their marriage survive, and can the ranch survive so many competing interests and personalities? Worst of all, the sisters’ father, Clarence, instantly detects that Jude is hiding something, a secret that threatens to push this family to its limits and shatter the peace they’ve worked so hard to build.

    He slips his own letter into the packet before it is mailed out to the churches in Richmond, Philadelphia and Chicago seeking his own bride. When the stage arrives with the brides Joshua finds his didn’t make the trip. However, his heart has chosen another, his intended’s best friend. Can he help her overcome her guilt at stealing her friend's beau, or are they destined for heartache? Can he truly prove he loves her and make her The Pastor’s Replacement Bride? In Chicago, Hattie Long is about to end her indentured service as a cook's helper in one of the upscale brothels in Chi town. The gangster who owns the brothel informs her that when her service is up he will take her under his wing and show her how to please his customers and make her his star attraction. At the advice of her pastor's daughter with the same name as her tells her about a group of women going west to become mail order brides including herself. They arrange for her to join them. But on the day of departure Hattie’s friend is struck down with scarlet fever. When the brides arrive in Sanctuary her friend’s beau, Pastor Joshua Bryce, decides to court her to escape a forced marriage by the deacons. Soon trouble follows and Hattie has to escape her past. Can she finally find her happily ever after as the Pastor’s Replacement Bride?

     When Macey Declan inherits her grandfather’s odd, crumbling Irish castle, she not only has to decide what to do with it, but now she’s fighting against the land-grabbing real estate agent across the street. Billionaire Levi Richardson has one more property to secure to complete a years-long urban expansion project designed to bring this sleepy small town into the modern era: the Declan mansion. He needs a wrecking ball and quick. Levi didn’t plan on Macey’s refusal to sell, but when his client increases the offer and Macey is even more determined to keep it, he finds himself switching tactics and helping her paint instead. Uncovering the castle’s old secrets together, Macey and Levi begin to put aside their differences and learn that maybe her grandfather knew what they needed all along.

    Instead, she’s faced with a very difficult choice: Go home or escape to the town of Belle Fourche, to the only friend she has left. Izzy heads toward freedom, clinging to the hope that ranch life will help her heal from her time with a beast. When she agrees to teach Conrad to read, his quiet attention starts to heal her broken heart.Conrad Oleson is illiterate, a humiliation he tries unsuccessfully to hide from his family. He takes no liking to the idea of his brother’s intervention by way of a pretty teacher coming to call. When Izzy reveals her painful past, he can’t say no. If learning to read brings him closer to her, he’ll do it. But can he teach her he’s ten times the man her husband was?Get this bestselling, sweet romance filled with heart and home. Scroll up now to get your copy.This book was originally published in the Timeless Love: Romantic Stories That Span the Ages collection.

    With the help of her fiancé’s caring best friend, it’s sure to draw much-needed tourist revenue to Cape Hudson, a town rich in southern history.However, it’s Spring House, the caretaker’s cottage on the grounds, that holds the most intriguing history for Megan. In a cache of old letters, she’s drawn into the captivating life of a young woman who embarked on her own dream adventure a century ago. With each one, Megan is swept away into her enthralling world—and all its secrets. But Megan has secrets too.Now, as one woman’s past unfolds in each revealing letter, Megan will discover more about herself and about the emotional tides of family that can be weathered with those you love and trust the most.