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

Danielle Gregory grew up in the saloons, where her mother worked, and she has never been able to escape that lifestyle. However, she’s promised herself never to work upstairs the way her mother did. When she goes to Redbud, Arizona, to work in a saloon that doesn’t have soiled doves, the sheriff mistakes her for his mail-order bride. She would have liked to marry him and have a normal life, but she’s too honest to deceive him for long. As she expected, he has problems with her past. But when a godly pastor and his wife accept her, she has hope for the first time.

The ancient Chinese general, Sun Tzu, said to “know your enemy.” It’s a wise strategy, and Christians need to use it. We need to recognize Satan’s tactics, so he doesn’t lead us down the wrong path as he did Adam and Eve. The more we know about him, the easier it will be to defeat him and not be fooled by his devious, subtle wiles.

On his way to pick up supplies for the mine, Lorne Merritt discovers a pretty young woman alone and looking lost. Addie Shea came to Dakota Territory to live with her father, a prospector, but he’d been killed by a claim jumper. Knowing it’s not safe for her to be on her own in Deadwood, he befriends her, but then the attempts on her life begin. Who is doing this, and what can Lorne do to help keep her safe?

Willa Markoe had to deal with too much misfortune in her life. First, her parents die. Then she and her brother need to sell the farm. They buy a cottage in the city, but her brother dies. Willa can’t find a job, and the bank starts foreclosure proceedings on her house. Finally, she meets a matchmaker who helps, and Willa agrees to travel to the Dakota Territory to marry a stranger.

Ranch foreman, Wade Easton, becomes a recluse after he’s gored by a bull and his fiancée leaves him. He moves to Abilene and establishes himself as a successful dime novelist. Desperate for another housekeeper after yet another woman quits, he accepts Lillian Kirk on a trial basis, although he thinks she’s too young for the job and soon finds himself liking her too much.

Andrea Little couldn’t hide her dismay. She looked at the woman in disbelief. “We are partnering with a pastor and his wife in Robinsville, near Grand Rapids, Michigan,” Mrs. Vaser told her.

When Aida Mitchell learns her intended groom plans to cheat on her after their marriage, she runs away on their wedding day. Finding an advertisement for a man wanting a wife, she travels to Great Pond Texas, only to find the man is a horrible drunk. She runs again, but not as far this time.

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.

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?

Sophie Zimmermann and her father leave Illinois after her mother dies to make the long trek on the California Trail to Genoa, near Lake Tahoe in Utah Territory, to join her aunt’s family. Sophie finds men interested in her for the first time, and she ends up taking her aunt and cousin’s advice to let Baxter Cobb court her. Baxter is a wealthy businessman that any woman should appreciate, so why can’t Sophie forget Abel Boles, the first man she meets in Genoa. Things come to a head at a baking contest.

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.

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.

Judith Johnson takes her younger brother and moves from Western Virginia to Kansas as a mail-order bride after their parents die. Her husband, although handsome and charming, turns out to be a womanizer and has a drinking problem. Judith is determined to make her marriage work, however, and she keeps telling herself her situation could be worse. At least Calvin's older brother is stable and responsible, providing a home for them on the farm. But farm life on the prairie can be hard in 1850, and Calvin’s attitude makes the struggles even worse. Does God have a plan in all this?

When Aaron Johnson takes his married sister back to her home in Trade, Tennessee, he gets caught in a blizzard in the Appalachian Mountains on his return trip to West Virginia. Finding a remote cabin, he arrives frostbitten and needing care.

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?

Jocelyn Wright would prefer to be outside, with her twin brother, instead of in drawing rooms and social events. She has had to hide her true self, and pretend to be the young lady everyone expects. But, as Jonas gets ready to attend Philadelphia College, the colonies’ rebellion against the crown heats up, and her family is forced to quarter British soldiers. That's when Bennet Hart comes into the picture, and changes come much too fast, for even her.

Jackson Young brings the woman he wants to marry home to Kentucky to meet his parents, but Helen doesn’t act like the same woman away from Boston. As he reacquaints with people he hasn’t seen in five years, he notices Wylene Ward and remembers the time he rescued her from a group of bullies when they were in school. Suddenly, Jackson finds himself courting one woman, but thinking about another. How can he remedy the situation and find his place as a new lawyer? Will it be in Boston as he’d originally thought, or in Green Knoll, Kentucky, the place that still feels like home?

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.

Dan Proffit mistakenly thinks the niece of the town’s busybody will be a young girl. Instead, Hannah York turns out to be a beautiful young lady with remarkable musical abilities. However, she is also shy, overworked, and under her two aunts’ thumbs. As his attraction grows, so do the problems.