Book picks similar to
If Only by Tracie J. Peterson


historical-fiction
heartsong-presents
christian
christian-fiction

Coming Home


Jennifer Vander Klipp - 2019
    And avoid Seth Blake. Becca dreads seeing her girlhood crush to whom she confessed her love before she went off to college. Embarrassed by her childish behavior, she can only hope Seth has forgotten and will see her as a woman. She plans to return to school as soon as possible and make a life for herself. Rumors of ghosts, accidents at the camp, and overheard conversations convince Becca that her brother’s death was no accident. Despite evidence that she’s the next target, she puts her own feelings and college aside to stay and uncover the truth. Seth is happy to see Becca, but as a grown woman she’s a stranger to him, stirring up feelings he can’t identify. When he finds a piece of evidence implicating him in Thomas’s death, he struggles with helping Becca find answers while keeping her from learning he could have prevented it. As the stakes get higher, Seth must keep both of them alive long enough to offer a future to this grown woman he’s fallen in love with.

The Bride Bargain


Kelly Eileen Hake - 2008
    So she strikes a bargain with an aging storekeeper that in exchange for finding a bride for his son Clara can have his house to run a boardinghouse. But Dr. Saul Reed is not interested in getting tied down to Buttonwood in the middle of nowhere, and he certainly has no plans for marriage. Can he shake his determined matchmaker, or will he strike a new bargain with Clara?

The Prisoner's Wife


Susan Page Davis - 2006
    Jack knows he’s innocent, and the unscrupulous constables will seize his land when he’s dead. He asks Lucy Hamblin, the only girl he ever loved, to marry him in the jail. Her father broke them up four years ago, but now her father is dead. Will Lucy be willing to grant his last request and become the widow Hunter? This book won the short historical category of both the Inspirational Readers’ Choice Contest and ACFW’s Book of the Year Contest for 2007. It was favorite historical of the year among Heartsong readers for 2006.

Night at the Opera


Stacy Henrie - 2018
    A kaleidoscope of senses. A night she'll always remember.From USA Today bestselling author Stacy Henrie, comes NIGHT AT THE OPERA, An American Heiress novel.NIGHT AT THE OPERA--1908--When American heiress Gwen Barton aids an injured gentleman in an opera box in London, she shares a kiss with the stranger that changes her life. More determined than ever to be herself, in spite of the limp she’s sustained since childhood, she will marry for love and not a title. She also resolves to learn the identity of the man she helped—and kissed. Surely he can’t be the irritating Avery Winfield, though. But as circumstances continue to throw Gwen and Avery together, she begins to wonder if there is more to this man than she first thought.While most of London only knows him as the nephew of a duke, Avery Winfield is actually working for the Secret Service Bureau to ferret out German spies from among the ton. It’s a profession that gives him purpose and a reason to remain a bachelor. But the more he interacts with Gwen Barton, an heiress from America, the more he begins to question his plans and neglected faith. Then he learns Gwen is the young lady from the opera box who helped him. Now his most important mission may have nothing to do with saving Britain from danger and everything to do with risking his heart for the woman he met that night at the opera.AMERICAN HEIRESS SERIES:Night at the OperaBeneath an Italian Sky (April 2019)Among Sand and Sunrise (October 2019)Other books by Stacy Henrie:LOVE INSPIRED HISTORICALA Cowboy of ConvenienceThe Rancher’s Temporary EngagementThe Outlaw’s SecretThe Renegade’s RedemptionLady OutlawThe Express Rider’s LadyOF LOVE AND WAR:Hope at DawnHope RisingA Hope RememberedA Christmas Hope

Runaway Heart


Jane Peart - 1994
    When her cousin proves less than hospitable, Holly is forced to find her own way in this very alien and sometimes hostile culture.

Timber Ridge Reflections


Tamera Alexander - 2009
    Join photojournalist Elizabeth Westbrook, schoolteacher Molly Whitcomb, and ranch owner Rachel Boyd as they seek to fulfill their dreams and hopes in an untamed land where every advancement is hard-fought, every opportunity is cherished, and where love has the power to change lives.

From Dust and Ashes: A Story of Liberation


Tricia Goyer - 2003
    Helene is the abandoned wife of an SS guard who has fled to avoid arrest. Overcome by guilt, she begins to help meet the needs of survivors. Throughout the process, she finds her own liberation--from spiritual bondage, sin, and guilt. Readers will be intrigued and touched by this fascinating story of love, faithfulness, and courage amidst one of the darkest chapters of mankind's history.

Where He Leads


Angela Castillo - 2019
     Compared to an arranged marriage to the odious Bernard Regent, a prairie schooner on the Oregon Trail doesn't seem like such a bad trade to Amethyst Kent. When desperate Martha Davis reveals her need for a mother's helper on the trail, Ami decides to up and leave the pampered life she's always known for a land of freedom. But trail life is hardly a tea party, and Ami must draw from the deepest wells of her faith to survive. With the sunset always before her, and Shiloh Talon, a handsome trail scout, guiding the way, she might just make it through.

Dakota December / Dakota Destiny


Lauraine Snelling - 2012
    Sheriff Caleb Stenesrude climbed over the gate in a blizzard and reached up in time to catch the woman as she fell. To his astonishment, a small child, hanging on for dear life, fell with her. Under his breath he thanked the good Lord for bringing them this far and for a dog with a nose and ears to beat all. As the North Dakota storm continued to scream outside the house on the edge of town, Caleb tried to tend to the near-frozen mother and boy. When the woman let out a piercing cry of labor, Caleb realized this would be a Christmas Eve like no other. In the days after, Caleb and the town of Soldahl took Johanna Carlson and her two children into their hearts, but Johanna kept her distance, afraid to tell anyone the truth about her life. Dakota Destiny As folks in Soldahl reel from the war, Pastor Moen’s daughter, Mary, struggles to live with shocking news about the man she loves that arrived by telegram: We regret to inform you that Private First Class Willard Dunfey is missing in action and presumed dead. Thru months of agonized waiting, news came to Soldahl on Tuesday, November 11, 1918 that Victory Day had come. Does she have reason to hope? This volume includes the fourth and fifth books of the Dakota Series featuring the intertwining lives of five inspiring women, all who lived in the early 1900s in the immigrant community of Soldahl, North Dakota.

Bride By Choice


Mary L. Briggs - 2012
    Clues to her past are few, but questions are many as she struggles to remember her past and trust God to reveal her true identity. A task made more difficult by her growing attraction to the man who rescued her. Jared Murphy is a man who lost his heart to the wrong woman and vowed it would never happen again. Until the moment he and his aunt rescued an injured young woman from a nearby creek bank. Half-drowned, she has no memory of her name or her past--or the reason why someone tried to kill her. In his quest to help her, can Jared set aside his wounded pride and learn to love again?

Playing by Heart


Anne Mateer - 2014
    But then a shocking phone call from her sister, Jewel, changes everything.With a heavy heart, Lula returns to her Oklahoma hometown to do right by her sister, but the only teaching job available in Dunn is combination music instructor/basketball coach. Lula doesn't even consider those real subjects!Determined to prove herself, Lula commits to covering the job for the rest of the school year. Reluctantly, she turns to the boys' coach, Chet, to learn the newfangled game of basketball. Chet is handsome and single, but Lula has no plans to fall for a local boy. She's returning to college and her scholarship as soon as she gets Jewel back on her feet.However, the more time she spends around Jewel's family, the girls' basketball team, music classes, and Chet, the more Lula comes to realize what she's given up in her single-minded pursuit of degree after degree. God is working on her heart, and her future is starting to look a lot different than she'd expected.

That First Montana Year


Donna L. Scofield - 2015
    But she's a minister’s daughter and pregnant. To save embarrassment for the families, and hoping a fresh start will help them become the sweethearts they were before, B’Anne agrees to leave everyone and everything she knows and go with Will to the Montana Territory. They hope Will's uncle Hiram, whom he has never met, will guide them in their homesteading. Uncle Hiram welcomes Will, but treats B’Anne coolly until he realizes she isn’t a “frills and furbelows” girl. Although Will seems to care for B’Anne, she loses her confidence when she discovers a letter from Will's former sweetheart. Will's secrecy threatens to build a wall between them. Spring arrives, and with it the promise of renewal. But is B’Anne's hope for a fresh start enough to sustain the young couple through the years of hard living under that big Montana sky?

The Governess 3


Ellise C. Weaver - 2013
    But her biggest challenge will be their father; masterful and strong in everything—especially his kiss. Poor and without dowry—and even worse—now orphaned, Miss Carly Blakemore is thrown into the Victorian world without aid. Carly is forced to seek a position as governess in the house of Lord Huntington, the Earl of Dunfordshire—a man alone in his own right—and under suspicion for the tragic murder of his well-known and adulteress wife. His governess’s honesty and forthrightness quickly offend his noble person, and he finds himself reeling from her constant evaluation of his lack of parenting skills. However, in the midst of his resentments, he finds himself strangely drawn in by her very no-nonsense ways that drive him to madness. Carly stands her ground in head-to-head battles of will that take her to the brink of dismissal. Carly and the earl continually fight the feelings growing between them. Both are oblivious to the clouds of deceit and intrigue that are growing around the manor house, some bent upon removing the beautiful, headstrong governess permanently. A final desperate chase leads to an interception of a ship upon the high seas headed for the Mediterranean and a secret society of white-slave traders, opening the way for this book’s sequel.

Westward the Dream


Judith Pella - 1999
    descends into the Civil War, photographer Brenton Baldwin travels west with his sister Jordana, taking pictures of the developing lands and in search of their sister. Along for the trip is young Caitlan O'Connor, who has just arrived from Ireland. Will they make it to California to find their family despite the danger that looms ahead? And can early romance grow into love in the face of trials and tragedy?

A Bride for the Texas Ranger


Charlotte Dearing - 2019
    He must, however, work a deal with her. She needs money to save her ranch and he needs access to the spring on her property. Seems simple, right? But nothing’s ever easy with Pearl. The woman is steely and stubborn, but she’s lovely too, with a carefully concealed, vulnerable side. As much as he tries not to notice, thoughts of Pearl distract him plenty. She stirs all sorts of protective notions. He yearns to shield her from the dangerous outlaws that lurk in the nearby canyons. When whispered rumors turn into deadly threats, Levi vows to do whatever it takes to keep Pearl safe.