Possession by Kit Walker

Burgling a quarantined ship should have been easy money. It wasn't. Now Danny and Eli, Saintstown's pettiest thieves, have a traumatized former captive on their hands and the city's most powerful fixer breathing down their neck. And that's just the start of their problems.

The Familiar by Kit Walker

Grace Foster's hunt for her husband's murderer has brought her to the city of Saintstown. But her quarry has killed again, and she'll need to rely on new, unexpected allies to bring her hunt to an end.

What Wakes the Heart by Karen A. Wyle

Will their hearts bring them together, or will their differences keep them apart? Susannah looks forward to a rewarding career as a teacher in St. Louis, until a traumatic encounter with the president of her teacher's college drives her to seek a job elsewhere. Karol, a Polish Catholic immigrant living in Cowbird Creek, fears that the town's first school may not respect his bright, eager sister's intelligence due to her limited English. Susannah and Karol meet under propitious circumstances when she first arrives in town -- but once the school opens, Karol's fears for Bronka seem to be realized, with Susannah arguably to blame. Can they move past this daunting conflict? And if they do, can they overcome the religious and social obstacles between them?

What Shows the Heart by Karen A. Wyle

Will he reveal his secret? Will she expose her heart? After Jake, son and grandson of preachers, tried and failed to protect Mamie from small town cruelty, Mamie left their small town to fend for herself. Neither expected to see each other again. Now, many years later, Jake is a bitter man with little beside regrets, and Mamie, after much struggle and hazard, runs the thriving parlor house in Cowbird Creek. Can they make a future together, or will the shadow of Jake's past overtake them both?

What Frees the Heart by Karen A. Wyle

Can they set each other free? Cowbird Creek has its share of troubled souls. For Tom, a farmer’s son, losing his leg felt like losing his future. Jenny, a young prostitute at Madam Mamie’s parlor house, has never thought she had much future to lose. But the job Tom is able to get leads him to rediscover a long neglected talent. And both Tom and Jenny have a knack for hitting on new possibilities. Can they, together, find a better path? This novel, second in a series, returns to the small town of Cowbird Creek, Nebraska, in early 1876, a few months after the conclusion of What Heals the Heart. Several favorite characters from Book 1 make return appearances.

The Girl With Strawberry Hair by Michael Moore

A lone wagon arrives in the small town of Liberty, full of both pain and promise. Recent widower and Civil War veteran Jack Tarver arrives with his son Chris to start a new life. Hopefully they will accept a Black man starting a small ranch. That's one issue. Chris Tarver being both Black and White is another. But Liberty was supposed to be a different place. Sam Spivey had said so. But his old partner in the war was dead, but even then he could feel Sam's spirit in this place... Blackjack, a drifter and gambler, arrives in Liberty to set up shop and make a whole lot of money. Now, if he can just do all this and not have to kill anyone, more's the better… The money is running out. The Cattle Baron of Liberty, the man who truly ran the town, is broke. His beautiful daughter Ellie is determined to keep her family's land, and will do whatever it takes. The new Black rancher seems to have some money… The war is over. There should have been free reign to pillage and take what they could get. They earned it. They deserved it. Jeremy Davis believes this. But instead of living the good life, he found himself in prison, put there by the one who wound up ruining his life and stealing what was his. But he was getting out soon. And when he did, he would find Jack Tarver and make him pay what he owes... Michael S. Moore's first novel is an exciting western adventure of a father who has to fight the past and a son who has faith in the good of others, even as dangerous men comes to destroy the new life they are trying to create...

What Heals the Heart by Karen A. Wyle

Joshua Gibbs survived the Civil War, building on his wartime experiences to become a small town doctor. And if he wakes from nightmares more often than he would like, only his dog Major is there to know it. Then two newcomers arrive in Cowbird Creek: Clara Brook, a plain-speaking and yet enigmatic farmer’s daughter, and Freida Blum, an elderly Jewish widow from New York. Freida knows just what Joshua needs: a bride. But it shouldn’t be Clara Brook! Joshua tries everything he can think of to discourage Freida’s efforts, including a wager: if he can find Freida a husband, she’ll stop trying to find him a wife. Will either matchmaker succeed? Or is it Clara, despite her own scars, who can heal the doctor’s troubled heart?

Belle o' the Waters by Raima Larter

Belle Waters is about to celebrate her fourteenth birthday, and she is terrified. The fear of marriage looms large for her, and every other girl who was born into the Mormon settlement of Salt Lake in the 1850s. She knows it is her duty to marry and bring Heavenly Father’s children into the world, but she’s not interested in tying the knot with anyone—especially not the Prophet, an old man with a number of wives and counting. But when the US Army invades Salt Lake intent on arresting the Prophet, Belle soon realizes that the possibility of becoming a child bride is only the beginning in a series of disastrous threats. This is a work of fiction, but is loosely based on a true historical event: the Mountain Meadows Massacre of September 11, 1857, which sparked a short-lived Mormon War. Although set over a century ago, the themes and issues explored in this novel are timely and current: religious freedom and extremism, the role and status of women in society, and the contemporary impact of homegrown terrorism. Belle o’ the Waters is a searing exploration of those living within an oppressed community, and an ultimately revelatory novel about what it means to lead a courageous life, despite one’s circumstances.

A Hunter Among Wolves by Ben Stava

SPFBO8

Sometimes the reward justifies the risk. For Sylene, the life of a bounty hunter is both perilous and exciting, providing an opportunity to travel and encounter all manner of folk. However, when an offer too good to pass up takes her to a desert town far from civilization, outside the rule of law, she realizes things are not quite what they appear, and the situation is far worse than what she was told. If Sylene wants to not only survive, but also complete the job, she has to rely on both old and new friends and navigate a town where just about everyone has a bounty on their head. An action and adventure fantasy novella, A Hunter Among Wolves contains adult content such as profanity, violence, and sexual (but not explicit) content.

Trail Markers by Cym Aros

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This tale - the first in a series of three - opens in the summer of 1874, in a prison camp south of Carson City. Falsely accused and incarcerated, two half-brothers find themselves in a losing battle to survive corrupt and brutal conditions. Cole Franklin, twenty-nine, is the privileged scion of the late, much-lionized patriarch of a wealthy California family. Jesse, twenty-four, is that patriarch's bastard son, a fact unknown to Jesse or the surviving Franklins until a scant year and a half before. Jesse had come to the Franklins as an itinerant cowboy. He is the younger of the two men, but he had ridden a long, hard trail of poverty, prejudice, and violence in his few years. Jesse had grown up a dirt-poor, hard-working, fatherless boy in a dying Sierra mining town; by age sixteen, he had seen three years of combat as a scout and sharpshooter for the Union Army, and spent the last eight months of the war interred in a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp. Cole is a strong man, and brave, but their current predicament is unlike any battlefield he has ever faced. Jesse understands too well where they are, and what might lie ahead. He takes desperate action to ensure Cole's freedom. The consequences of that action, for Jesse and the Franklin family, are severe and far-reaching. Trail Markers begins with the brothers' struggle against raw criminality - first, for simple survival; ultimately, for justice. Jesse faces bigotry, mob violence, and the shattering of his own mental health as he battles to regain his freedom and find an honorable path home to family and to the woman he loves.

The Adventures of Hank Fenn by Will Tinkham

For Hank, Sam never became Mark Twain. As a riverboat pilot, Sam saved young Hank from the crushing paddlewheels as the boy stowed away on the City of Memphis. Sam returned Hank to Minnesota when news reached downriver that Hank's mother was on trial for killing the father Hank had run away from. Years later, in a barber's chair prior to his mother's funeral, Hank reads a frog story that's awful close to a tall tale Sam once told. The magazine claims it's written by a fellow named Mark Twain. THE ADVENTURES OF HANK FENN (Americana #4) sends Hank searching the West—and then the East—for Mr. Twain. All along he and Sam exchange letters and make plans that never seem to get them together—Twain always on the road or abroad. Hank does find hatred and brutality while railroading and mining throughout this new frontier. He finds Calamity Jane in a Wyoming mining camp and Custer breaking treaties. He finds the Emperor of these United States. Ultimately Hank finds love, boys to raise and gold to unearth on a Black Hills mountaintop.

Of Honey and Wildfires (Songs of Sefate #1) by Sarah Chorn

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From the moment the first settler dug a well and struck a lode of shine, the world changed. Now, everything revolves around that magical oil. What began as a simple scouting expedition becomes a life-changing ordeal for Arlen Esco. The son of a powerful mogul, Arlen is kidnapped and forced to confront uncomfortable truths his father has kept hidden. In his hands lies a decision that will determine the fate of everyone he loves—and impact the lives of every person in Shine Territory. The daughter of an infamous saboteur and outlaw, Cassandra has her own dangerous secrets to protect. When the lives of those she loves are threatened, she realizes that she is uniquely placed to change the balance of power in Shine Territory once and for all. Secrets breed more secrets. Somehow, Arlen and Cassandra must find their own truths in the middle of a garden of lies.

I am Mrs. Jesse James by Pat Wahler

She captured his heart, but at what price? The long, bloody Civil War is finally at an end when Zee Mimms, the daughter of a Missouri preacher, is tasked with nursing her cousin, Jesse James, back to health after he suffers a near-fatal wound. During Jesse's long convalescence, the couple falls in love, but Jesse's resentment against the Federals runs deep. He has scores to settle. For him, the war will never be over. Zee is torn between deferring to her parents' wishes and marrying for security or marrying for love and accepting the hard realities of life with an outlaw--living under an assumed name and forever on the run. For her, the choice she makes means the war is only beginning. Discover why readers describe this richly imagined story of the woman who wed Jesse James as powerful, compelling, and emotional.