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

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.

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.

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.

Needing to leave Sterling Orphan House at 18, Rose Sterling is to take toddler, Katie Hudson, to her father who works on the King Ranch in New Mexico Territory. She thought her biggest adventure would be getting there on the wagon train, but she was wrong. Will Hudson can’t believe he has a daughter. His wife had left him for a gambler, and he’d been trying to cope ever since. He doesn’t make the best impression on Rose Hudson at first, but he sees how much his little daughter loves and depends on her.

Abby Carter was horrified with herself when she blurted out a marriage proposal to Preston King. A proper lady would never do such a thing, but her cousin had just jilted Preston, and she wanted to ease his hurt. She had cared for him much too long. Preston is confused, but knows he needs a wife to help him ranch in New Mexico Territory, so he asks Abby to marry him. But will he ever purge Magnolia from his heart, and will they even survive the long journey west?

Faith Allen went to live with her aunt and uncle in the Kentucky mountains after her parents died. They hadn’t been cruel, but they hadn’t been loving and kind, either; and they expected her to work hard. When their son strikes it rich in the California gold rush, they pack up to head to California via the Oregon Trail.

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.