Showing results by author "Janice Cole Hopkins" in All Categories

Candace Joyner gets to her destination as a mail-order bride, only to find that her intended owns a saloon with working girls upstairs. Learning that he might eventually expect her to work for him, she hides under the tarp of a mountain man's wagon when he leaves town with his winter supplies. She's watched Jude Mason, and he appears to be kind, and most likely a Christian. She'd rather take her chances with him than with the dictatorial, unscrupulous saloon owner. But life on the mountain in the winter is tougher than she imagined.

When Sadie Alexander’s employer dies, she knows she’ll need to leave the household. Desperate, she sees an ad in a newspaper for a bride, so she mails a hastily written letter and travels to California on a wagon train. When she arrives, Mr. Laird is away with his construction business, and his older friend has been left to meet her.

When Dana Field’s father died, leaving her all alone, she talked the new farmer in the area and his mother into letting her work on their farm. He needed the help, she needed to stay busy, and her cake baking didn’t fill enough of her time. However, many of the townspeople didn’t think it was a proper task for an unmarried woman.

Boone Malone’s father and brothers were town drunks. When Boone gets drunk and does some things he would have never done sober, he thinks he has their tainted blood, and decides never to marry or have children.

Simon Carlson couldn’t learn to read and therefore failed at school. Thanks to his bitter father, most people see him as a simpleton or worse. When a new schoolteacher comes to Flagstaff, she treats him as a normal person, even after she finds out that he can’t read or write. She soon has problems of her own, however.

Brooke Bennett had the best news ever. After years of trying, she and David were going to have a baby. She knew her husband would be just as thrilled as she was and she prepared him a special celebratory supper, dressed up, and waited for him. However, he never came home. Later that night, she clutched a note she found on her pillow into a crumpled mess not believing what he’d written. David was leaving her and the megachurch where he’d been the senior pastor. They'd hit some snags in their marriage, but something like this had never crossed her mind.

Joanna Dobson comes to stay at the King Ranch because Magnolia, her mother, was Abby King’s cousin. Joanna is immediately interested in Grayson Fox, but the recent death of his parents has him questioning if he ever wants to marry. In the meantime, Adele Mead is caught in a rough situation in Maryland. When she rescues a hurt man, she falls hard for him, but she has a difficult time convincing him he’s the right man for her. When she does, they must flee. Can they all find the happiness they so desperately long for in the aftermath of the Civil War?

Laura Holt goes home to Cactus Creek to care for her ailing father whose health is failing after years of drinking. She’s longed for her desert home for 14 years. To her surprise, her childhood infatuation with Logan King has not faded as much as she thought. But Logan is struggling with problems of his own after losing his first wife in a fire, and her father wants her to marry the saloon owner, although Laura doesn’t. As the situation worsen, Laura finds herself going to her favorite fishing spot by the creek to find peace, but it’s still Logan’s favorite place, too.

After Aileas rejects him, Brady Shape leaves Wyoming and wanders to Texas. He gets a job at Double G Ranch and becomes their temporary foreman. However, he never feels comfortable in the job, although he’s determined to catch the cattle rustlers before he leaves. He can’t seem to forget Aileas either. When he meets Nora Joseph, she needs rescuing from a desperate situation. He’s determined to see her situated before he leaves Sagebrush, but somehow, she talks him into taking her with him. The only place he can think to take her is back to Aileas in Wyoming.

On his deathbed, Solomon’s father asks him to move West and hide his Jewish heritage. With misgivings, he does so. However, his life in Nebraska doesn’t turn out as he expected. He’s kidnapped and robbed of all his money. A helpful pastor takes him to the farm of a young woman who’s known for helping those in need, but even as he hides his secret, she inspires him to deepen his Christian faith. However, with some people suspicious of him, he has no idea what his future might hold.

After his invalid father dies in Tennessee, Inman Lowe sells the farm and heads to Montana to find his older brother. When he finally finds him, Garvis is secretly mixed up with a group of thieves. Two of the bank robbers are caught and falsely tell the sheriff that Inman is also involved. At his brother’s advice, he runs and ends up being mistaken for the expected new sheriff in a small town.

Trace Durham was injured in combat, given a purple heart, and discharged from the army. As time goes by, and he’s still confined to a wheelchair, his spirits plummet. But meeting a feisty widow whose husband had been killed while serving in the military makes him take a closer look at himself.

Gage Bradford met Allison Johnson soon after he graduated from law school. Theirs was a whirlwind romance. He fell hard and fast and wooed her with all the charm he could muster. In a month, they were engaged, and six weeks after that, they were married. Moving to Washington, DC, he set up his law practice and soon moved up the ladder to success.

Paul Martin joined the army to escape the harsh conditions at home. When orders send him to the Carolinas for training maneuvers, he doesn’t know what to expect. He didn’t expect to find strong friends or the girl of his dreams. But with trouble at home, the war raging in Europe, and the possibility of the United States being pulled into the conflict, the future looms uncertain.

Gwendolyn Corbett never expected her father to contact a matchmaker to find her a potential husband. She was even more stunned to learn that his mother came from the Crow reservation. With the doctor warning that stress could hasten her father’s decline from a weak heart, Gwendolyn faces an impossible decision: marry a stranger or defy her father’s wishes and risk losing him soon.

Francisca Guinn learned to bake and make fruitcakes from her deceased mother, who had worked at the Collin Street Bakery. Fran had changed the recipe to suit her tastes, but she sold them during the holidays to make extra money. When she meets Trent Jones, she tries not to give him special attention because most Texans don't like her Mexican heritage on her mother's side. However, as he remains persistent, she begins to wonder if he might be different, but will his high-society parents accept her?

Lily Brandt was glad when her father decided to move the family from Duluth to a farm in Iowa. She didn’t want to keep encountering her former fiancé and his new wife. But would Iowa turn out to be any better with her sister’s flirting and the handsome new neighbor’s quiet ways? She hadn’t gotten over Calem’s rejection yet, so she wasn’t ready for a new relationship, and she had her grandmother’s quilt to remind her to be cautious.

Fern Russell gets caught disobeying her parents and seeing a man they don't approve of. They send her off to a boarding school in the little-known place of Big Lick. Fern is surprised to discover she likes the family she's assigned to stay with more than she expected. Their shy, older son touches her heart, but she won't be disloyal to the beau she left behind. Waiting is hard, but that's exactly what she'll have to do to find out what the future holds. She bakes both men forget-me-not cookies. Which one will end up not forgetting her?

When Emily Rose Howard took in four goats, she didn’t know she was getting more than she bargained for. However, life gets even more complicated when her neighbor’s son brings his army friend home for a visit after the Civil War ends, and her former art professor shows up too. But life in the Appalachian Mountains has never been easy, and Emily Rose is determined to face her problems with faith and determination the way she always has.

Emma has high hopes when her family moves to the North Carolina mountains. Her father appears to have finally quit drinking, and he plans to settle their family, once and for all, near the Linville River. Here, Emma meets Edgar Moretz, an intelligent, passionate, and godly young man. Things are looking up for Emma, but when she is captured by a Cherokee raiding party, her problems have just begun.