Book picks similar to
A Wagon Train for Brides by Kent Conwell


westerns
friendship
historical-western-romance
rural-life

Water, Stone, Heart


Will North - 2009
    He teaches architectural theory but has never built a building. He writes about “The Anatomy of Livable Places”– communities where form and material are in harmony–but has no sense of where he belongs. He is capable of deep, tender emotions but is unable to express them. When his wife leaves him for another man and excoriates his cautious nature in the process, Andrew is like a house shaken off a faulty foundation. Sifting through the rubble, he must figure out what should be salvaged and what should be scrapped. Escaping from the predictable routine of his university life in Philadelphia, Andrew travels to England and channels his pain into a weeklong course on building stone walls. In the village of Boscastle, he discovers a magical landscape of dizzying cliffs, jagged coastline, lush valleys, and hills lined with stone hedges that have stood the test of time. At the Stone Academy, Andrew immerses himself in the grueling task of piecing together rock into intricate walls. Under the tutelage of his weathered instructor, he learns there is more to laying stone than hard labor. And he soon falls under the spell of Boscastle’s rhythms and quirks, which include a weekly sing-along, a museum devoted to witchcraft, and a colorful group of residents ranging from a precocious nine-year-old girl who communes with nature to an offbeat reverend who has been known to give referrals to the town witch.Moved by the warmth and connectedness of the village, Andrew begins to shed his sheltered self. But his willingness to open his heart is tested when he falls for Nicola Rhys-Jones, an American expatriate seeking to escape a history of abuse. Thorny, sarcastic, and sexy, Nicola is an artist who paints tranquility panels for hospitals. But her life before Boscastle has been anything but peaceful. As their verbal sparring veers into darker territory, Andrew grapples with his status in Boscastle. Is he just a tourist on holiday or does he now have a stake in the village that has welcomed him? Readers new to Will North’s work as well as fans of The Long Walk Home will be swept away by this bittersweet novel about love, loss, and the power of nature to alter our lives.

Safe Havens Bundle


Sandy James - 2015
    *Contains adult language and sexual situations. Saving Grace (Book 1) Grace Riley is on the run—from her past and from her fears. The victim of a violent rape at the hands of a rich politician’s son, she must “disappear” to escape his constant attempts to recapture her. Moving from cattle drive to cattle drive as a cook, she avoids her tormentor for nearly twenty years. When she discovers that the brother she gave up for adoption after their mother died in childbirth was orphaned at an early age, she is frantic to verify that he’s safe. She tracks him to a cattle ranch in Montana. Widower Adam Morgan owns the Twin Springs ranch, but finds himself falling into a life of loneliness. Although he enjoys spending time with his grown daughter and the two men he rescued when they were living on the streets, he longs to meet a woman he can love. Living in the Montana territory where men greatly outnumber women makes finding a new wife difficult. Weary of working cattle, he is ready to make some changes in his life. Grace falls ill on her journey, but she manages to make it to the Twin Springs ranch where her brother is supposed to be living. Adam takes her in, concerned for her health and the reason she’s searching for one of his adopted sons. Their chemistry is immediate and intense, but can Grace heal from her past of pain and fear? When her secrets are finally revealed, can Adam forgive her deceptions and learn to love again? Runaway (Book 2) Forced to flee her abusive fiancé, Cassandra Shay’s disappearance into Montana territory is delayed when she discovers her fiancé and uncle’s plot to murder her illegitimate brother and another innocent cowboy. Ty Bishop hates the Shays, but accompanies Jake Curtis to meet Jake’s newfound uncle, Derrick Shay. Ty’s suspicions are confirmed when he and Jake are imprisoned and left to drown. After Cassie frees them, the men travel with her for her own protection. When they arrive in Montana, the locals are horrified to discover a Shay in their midst, but Ty is drawn to Cassie like no other and is determined to win her heart. Despite her strong attraction to Ty, Cassie knows she must keep her distance to protect him from the hired guns the Shays send to retrieve her. But their love will not be denied, and they must fight for justice before forging their future together. Redeemed (Book 3) Sold into prostitution, Sara Fuller robs a client and flees to her brother in White Pines, Montana. Anxiously awaiting his mail order bride, rancher Caleb Young is delighted when a beautiful woman steps off the stagecoach. A series of misassumptions soon finds the two taking their marriage vows. When Sara discovers she isn’t Caleb’s intended bride, she hides her scandalous past and sets out to prove she can be a good wife. Caleb adores Sara but suspects her of hiding something very important. Despite Sara’s secrets, their love grows and a child is conceived. When Caleb’s real bride arrives, their troubles begin, only to be compounded by the appearance of the man Sara robbed. Now the two lovers must discover whether their love is strong enough to survive the forces threatening to tear them apart.

Grizzly Killer: The Making of a Mountain Man


Lane R. Warenski - 2017
    After a grizzly kills his pa, Zach struggles to survive a cold and brutal winter alone. After killing a rouge grizzly and fighting hostile Indians on his own, he becomes known as Grizzly Killer and is respected throughout the West. Along with his dog, Jimbo, whom the Indians call the Great Medicine Dog, he finds Running Wolf, an injured Ute warrior, and together they fight off a hostile war party. They rescue two Shoshone sisters from the brutality of a French trapper and take them as wives. After Zach saves Running Wolf’s beautiful sister, Shining Star, he is expected to take her as a second wife, but his Christian beliefs conflict with the Indian traditions, and he struggles within himself to accept the Indian ways. Set in the rugged Uinta Mountains of Northern Utah, this is a story of survival against nature and hostile Indians and the clash of cultures between the Indians and mountain men that were the first to brave this uncharted wilderness, seeking their fortune from the pelts of the beaver.

Sourdough Creek


Caroline Fyffe - 2012
    With a spirit of adventure, and a need to stay safe, she departs a dying Nevada town for the golden opportunities that await in California--along with a new life. When charming Sam Ridgeway shows up, claiming to know her uncle, and offers her protection in her travels, she has no idea there is an ulterior motive involved.

The Contract Surgeon


Dan O'Brien - 1999
    When Crazy Horse finally agrees to surrender to the United States, mistrust and treachery on both sides foster further conflict, and he is gravely wounded. McGillicuddy declares the chief his patient and struggles through a long night to keep him alive. Set in the sprawling Great Plains during the most tragic period in its history, this tale of bravery, justice, and love weaves a tapestry of time and events into the account of a single day--the last in the life of Crazy Horse--to reveal the secrets surrounding America's past.

Mustang Wild


Stacey Kayne - 2007
    But his stolen kiss scatters her senses and, quicker than a whirling dust devil, they're wed!To her relief, Tucker's keen to fix the marital slipup--and then he tells her the deed she holds belongs to him, and him alone. Maybe she shouldn't rush to have their marriage annulled. No man, no matter how good-looking, is going to swindle Skylar out of the one thing she yearns for most--a home.

The Cowboys


William Dale Jennings - 1971
    Will Anderson, a flinty old rancher, has a huge herd of cattle ripe for market when his regular hands, inflamed by gold fever, desert him. In desperation, he hires the only "men" available for the perilous 400 mile drive - a pack of scraggly schoolboys. Through skill and harsh discipline, Wil Anderson whips them from greenhorns into seasoned cowhands. But before the long drive is over, the boys discover that the price they must pay for manhood is a terrible one- murder and revenge! the stunning, heartbreaking climax of this extraordinary story will surprise you - and perhaps even sock you.

Whippoorwill


Sharon Sala - 2003
    But here she was, like most of the other lost souls who'd come West, looking for something better, and in her case, wishing for a second chance. She knew the odds were against her, but it didn’t stop her from yearning.There was a ritual from her childhood that she performed each evening as the sun was going down. She would step out onto the balcony off her bedroom above the saloon, lift her face to the heavens to search for the Evening Star, then stand quietly in the growing shadows and listen for the call of the whippoorwill.It came from a memory of her mother who had died when she was ten. Always, she was sitting in her mother’s lap outside their clapboard house watching night fall across the land. They would sit on the front step with their bare feet planted firmly in the still warm dirt while enjoying the first cool breezes of evening. As they sat, they would search for the first star and wait for the call of the whippoorwill. Her mother had told her the bird was searching for its mate, but Letty had yet to meet a man who was worth the call. However, the memory was one of the few good ones she had left. Two years after her mother's untimely death, her father was killed by a Comanche hunting party. Letty survived by hiding in a hollowed out badger hole. That was the last time fate showed her any kindness. At twenty-seven, she was well past the marrying age and nearly too used up to care. Yet she didn't stop wishing, and she didn't stop dreaming about a different sort of life.Then one day, something happened in Lizard Flats that had never happened before. Word began to spread throughout the area that a real preacher from back East was coming to perform a wedding. The news set off a whole series of unforeseen events. Caught up in the excitement of the occasion, Letty couldn’t help but think that a change was coming for her, too.

A Distance Too Grand


Regina Scott - 2019
    What she doesn't realize is that the leader of the expedition is none other than the man she once refused to marry.Captain Ben Coleridge would like nothing more than to leave without the woman who broke his heart. He can't afford to be distracted during this survey, which is a screen for another, more personal mission, one he cannot share with any member of his team.As dangers arise from all sides--and even from within--Meg and Ben must work together to stay alive, fulfill their duties, and, just maybe, rekindle a love that neither had completely left behind.

Jubilee Trail


Gwen Bristow - 1950
    Garnet Cameron, a fashionable young lady of New York, is leading a neat, proper life, full of elegant parties and polite young men, yet the prospect of actually marrying any of them appalls her. Yearning for adventure, she instead marries Oliver Hale, a wild trader who is about to cross the mountains and deserts to an unheard-of land called California. During Garnet and Oliver's honeymoon in New Orleans, she meets a dance-hall performer on the lam who calls herself Florinda Grove and is also traveling to California. Along the Jubilee Trail, Garnet and Florinda meet kinds of men never known to them before, and together they make their painstaking way over the harsh trail to Los Angeles, learning how to live without compromise and discover both true friendship and true love.

The Anti-Prom


Abby McDonald - 2011
    Popular Bliss was having the perfect prom until she found her BFF and boyfriend making out in the back of a limo. Bad girl Jolene wouldn’t be caught dead at the prom, yet here she is, trussed up in pink ruffles, risking her reputation for some guy - some guy who is forty minutes late. And shy, studious, über-planner Meg never counted on her date’s standing her up and leaving her idling in the parking lot outside the prom. Get ready for The Anti-Prom, Abby McDonald’s hilarious, heart-tugging tale about three girls and one unforgettable prom night.

Killing Crazy Horse: The Merciless Indian Wars in America


Bill O'Reilly - 2020
    It’s 1811 and President James Madison has ordered the destruction of Shawnee warrior chief Tecumseh’s alliance of tribes in the Great Lakes region. But while General William Henry Harrison would win this fight, the armed conflict between Native Americans and the newly formed United States would rage on for decades.Bestselling authors Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard venture through the fraught history of our country’s founding on already occupied lands, from General Andrew Jackson’s brutal battles with the Creek Nation to President James Monroe’s epic “sea to shining sea” policy, to President Martin Van Buren’s cruel enforcement of a “treaty” that forced the Cherokee Nation out of their homelands along what would be called the Trail of Tears. O’Reilly and Dugard take readers behind the legends to reveal never-before-told historical moments in the fascinating creation story of America.This fast-paced, wild ride through the American frontier will shock readers and impart unexpected lessons that reverberate to this day.

Wings of the Hawk


Charles G. West - 2000
    But he was saved by a pair of grizzled old fur trappers, and he learned to fend for himself and live off the land.When Jim finally returns home to St. Louis, he finds that there was more to his father's murder than he'd thought. Though the Indians did the killing, someone else did the planning--someone too close for comfort. Now young Jim must untangle a thick web of lies, and when the dirty dealings come to light he will come face-to-face with a murderer. But if he tastes the vengeance owed him, it won't be as the boy everyone knew as Jim--it will be as a man named Trace McCall...

The Overmountain Men


Cameron Judd - 1991
    On the land that has become his home, a mountain paradise the Cherokee call Tanisi, Joshua must face his destiny of being a leader in the bitter fight for land and power between the Cherokee, settlers and British royalty, or he will lose the only place he can call his own. In an age of revolution in the deep wilderness of the rugged frontier Joshua must test his loyality, strength and will to survive. THE OVERMOUNTAIN MEN is just the first chapter in an epic saga of love, hate and war form one of the leading authors of frontier fiction, Cameron Judd. They are the men and women who forged a nation, conquered nature and found freedom...THE OVERMOUNTAIN MEN.

Etta and Otto and Russell and James


Emma Hooper - 2015
    I've never seen the water, so I've gone there. I will try to remember to come back.Etta's greatest unfulfilled wish, living in the rolling farmland of Saskatchewan, is to see the sea. And so, at the age of eighty-two she gets up very early one morning, takes a rifle, some chocolate, and her best boots, and begins walking the 2,000 miles to water. Meanwhile her husband Otto waits patiently at home, left only with his memories. Their neighbour Russell remembers too, but differently - and he still loves Etta as much as he did more than fifty years ago, before she married Otto.