Women Historic Western Fiction

In the small, bustling town of Mattawa, Oregon, the turn of the century offers a new kind of frontier for women: a vast and exciting range of possibilities - to a point. It's a time for change, and no one is more eager to embrace new paths than free-spirited outsider Hattie Taylor. If only she could embrace Jake Murdock, too. Jake can't remember a time he was so confused. Hattie is off-limits. The provoking spitfire is under his mother's protection - his protection - and he has always belonged to another.

There aren't many options for an 18-year-old girl in the Old West. Especially an orphan like Tennessee Smith. She can either sell her body in a seedy saloon or take her chances as a mail-order bride. Tennie chooses the latter. Joining a wagonload of women across Indian territory, she arrives in the God-forsaken town of Ring Bit, Texas. Her husband-to-be is surprisingly decent. But after tying the knot in a quickie ceremony, he pops even more surprises on her. First, he introduces Tennie to his three young sons. Then he drops dead on their wedding night....

Margaret "Peggy" Thomas and her husband, James, lead a simple and peaceful life; she tends to the farm while he works as sheriff in the nearby town of Bleak Knob. Their evenings are spent doing the thing they love most - being together. One afternoon, after picking up fabric at the general store, Margaret watches helplessly as James is gunned down on the sidewalk in front of her. Days of mourning turn into weeks and then years, filled with little more than grief and alcohol.

The Strange Husband is the story of a newly married couple from the state of New York, who decided to make their home in the Oregon Territory in 1848. Shortly after beginning their journey on the Oregon Trail, sickness causes Callie, the wife of John Wideman, to be delirious at times. After being separated from the rest of the wagon train, they meet a stranger. After a while Callie feels that the man who claims to be her husband is indeed not her husband, but the stranger. Is her mind playing games with her or is it really happening?

Wyoming Territory, April 1883: After a disastrous marriage, Sheriff Albert Preston never expects to fall in love again...until a feisty, take-charge young woman sneaks past his defenses. Now, he'd like nothing more than to make Susanna Robinson his wife. But when a train crashes just outside of town, the secrets it carries threaten to derail his plans for a happy future.

When Bridget McQuarry comes to settle in Primrose Creek, she has nothing to lose; her husband, Mitch, was killed in the Civil War, and she has lost her family farm to ruinous Reconstruction taxes. With her baby son and a sister to care for, Bridget vows to make a new start out West. But when Mitch's best friend reappears in her life, he sparks a forbidden passion she thought was forever buried.

It's 1905, and the new century overflows with opportunities for the smart, the strong, the confident, and the determined. All words that describe Hope Birdwell to a T. Her first 20 years had their share of trouble and torment, but she's certain the next 20 hold only promise. Hope leaves her past behind and heads for Wyoming to take up homesteading. Never mind that she's alone in the world and has never known a real home in her life. Her name is Hope, and she's sure that a bright and independent future waits right around the corner.

Megan McQuarry returned to Primrose Creek after attempting to become an actress - and innocently losing both her heart and her beloved land. But instead of the healing homecoming she needs, Megan is met with a shocking revelation that changes everything she believed about her family. Feeling lost and betrayed, she finds herself befriending Webb Stratton, the handsome new owner of her land.

A sheltered ranch wife and her friends trade their dresses for workpants to take on the rigors of a cattle drive - but the challenges are even greater than they imagined. Will they overcome with hearts and humor intact? Will they survive at all?

Arizona Territory, 1871. Valeria Obregon and her ambitious husband, Raúl, arrive in the raw frontier town of Tucson hoping to find prosperity. Changing Woman, an Apache spirit who represents the natural order of the world and its cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, welcomes Nest Feather, a twelve-year-old Apache girl, into womanhood in Aravaipa Canyon.

Two decades after the Civil War, Josephine Marcus, the teenage daughter of Jewish immigrants, is lured west with the promise of marriage to Johnny Behan, one of Arizona's famous lawmen. She leaves her San Francisco home to join Behan in Tombstone, Arizona, a magnet for miners (and outlaws) attracted by the silver boom. Though united by the glint of metal, Tombstone is plagued by divided loyalties: between Confederates and Unionists, Lincoln Republicans and Democrats.

The stigma of his heritage has made Hawk accustomed to ridicule in Comanche County. Shunned by nearly everyone in town, he finds comfort in the one person who always accepted him: the beautiful Abby McCormick. But even as their childhood friendship blossoms into a passion neither of them can keep at bay, they know that Abby's father will never accept their love. Then, after an evening with Abby, Hawk is ambushed and beaten. Believing him dead, Abby spends four years mourning him.

Clayton is a tough cowboy living on the outskirts of town with his mother and sisters on a dying farm. He's tough and broken from the death of his father and right now, he faces the problem of an evil sheriff destroying his family. Nancy is a girl with a father who's out of control. Her only escape is riding out of town occasionally when she can escape her prison. She's ashamed, fragile, and worried of her father not only destroying himself, but their relationship.

Jessica is the quintessential 1920s wealthy bad girl from Montana with a penchant for running away from home if things don't go her way. As her brother's wedding to the sugary sweet Chastity nears, Jessica grows stir-crazy yet again. This time, however, fleeing south to Wyoming turns out to be much more dangerous than she ever could have predicted. When her brother hires skilled tracker Sleeping Fox to find her and bring her home, her life is forever changed.

Weary of the saloon girl life - and tired of being slapped around - Darla North decides to start over and let her new-found faith lead her. A friend sends her to Downs House, a place for "unfortunate women". Darla is offered a home - if she can behave herself. Old habits are hard to break, but Darla is desperate to prove to everyone that she's changed, especially Ethan Downs, the owner's sensitive and sweet son.

Kidnapped at the age of 16, Maggie survived the fickle temper of notorious outlaw Mad Dog Frank O’Bannen for seven years. Now, he is dead, and she is about to find out that there are worse ways to live and die than as the wife of a wanted man. Frank had prepared her as best he could for what would follow, and when she leaves her prison in the hills, she has the blood of three men on her hands and knows the feel of hot lead. Maggie has Frank’s gun, her keen wits, and new friends to help her, but will they be enough to save her from the brutality of a maniac bent on revenge?

Jessie lived with her family on their homestead and had helped the family build a successful farm raising crops and animals. Her greatest joy and passion was for training her young mare and galloping across the plains. To her shock and dismay, her family agrees to an arranged marriage with a wealthy family who traveled from back East to do business in their town.

For Ellie Sheridan, becoming a mail-order bride for Sheriff Frank Patterson and travelling to a small town in Montana seems like the adventure of a lifetime. Released from her lifetime job of looking after her sick mother in New Harbor, Ellie wants to settle down and become a bride. Love can come later. She is content to be a Sheriff's wife in the town of Broken Spur. When she arrives to find Frank is a drunk and has no respect for her, Ellie writes to her sister asking for a ticket home. Her mind is set...she loves the West, she will return to Maine and try to forget her bad experience.

High Society Woman & The Wolves, is about a high society woman in NYC who gets sent off to Oregon to be the bride of a lonely outpost operator. He is as stunned by her beauty when she gets off the train, as she is by the wilderness surrounding his cabin and home. She doesn’t know how to make a fire or even sweep the floor and her many trunks of fine clothing fill up his small cabin. Amidst the howls of wolves surrounding them in the darkness of the forest, both will have to decide if they can ever make a match.

Audra Tadlock is bored with life in Hopeville, Texas, until she befriends handsome photographer McKenna Smith, who brings more excitement than she bargains for. Being kidnapped and traipsing across the countryside looking for her thought-to-be-dead brother is not the adventure she had in mind. Nothing is as important to McKenna as receiving a pardon from the State of Texas. His luck changes for the better when he recognizes Audra, the twin sister of the man who shot him. But falling in love with the one person who can exonerate Smith may prevent him from winning his freedom. Will the search for Audra's brother bring him the independence he desires or will she imprison his heart with her love?