Leave the present far behind …
Historical romance and historical fiction
Stand-alone and series novels released by Wild Heart Books and Smitten Historical Romance
A Counterfeit Betrothal
Scouts of the Georgia Frontier, Book One
A frontier scout, a healing widow, and a desperate fight for peace.
At the farthest Georgia outpost this side of hostile Creek Territory in 1813, Jared Lockridge serves his country as a scout to redeem his father’s botched heritage. If he can help secure peace against Indians allied to the British, he can bring his betrothed to the home he’s building and open his cabinetry shop. Then he comes across a burning cabin and a traumatized woman just widowed by a fatal shot.
Freed from a cruel marriage, Esther Andrews agrees to winter at the Lockridge homestead to help Jared’s pregnant sister-in-law. Lame in one foot, Esther has always known she is secondhand goods, but the gentle carpenter-turned-scout draws her heart with as much skill as he creates furniture from wood. His family’s love offers hope even as violence erupts along the frontier—and Jared’s investigation into local incidents brings danger to their doorstep. Yet how could Esther ever hope a loyal man like Jared would choose her over a fine lady?
A Courageous Betrothal
Scouts of the Georgia Frontier, Book Two SHORT NOVELLA
A wounded lieutenant, a woman fierce enough to protect her family, and an American Revolution with everything at stake.
Red-haired, freckle-faced, and almost six feet tall, Jenny White has resigned herself to fame over love. Possessing the courage and wits to guard her younger siblings against nature, natives, and loyalists in Georgia’s “Hornet’s Nest” gives life meaning until she meets scout Caylan McIntosh.
From the time Jenny nurses the young lieutenant back to health after the Battle of Kettle Creek, she can’t deny her attraction to the vexing Highlander, who seems determined to dismantle her emotional armor. But when Georgia falls to the British and Caylan returns to guide Jenny’s family on a harrowing exodus into the North Carolina mountains, will his secrets prove stronger than his devotion? Or will their love be courageous enough to carry them through the battles ahead?
A Cherished Betrothal
Scouts of the Georgia Frontier, Book Three
He rescued her once, but a chance at love will require the ultimate sacrifice.
Alexander Morris bears the childhood scars of the Long Canes massacre that killed his brother and father. Forced by his dark past into the lonely life of Georgia Ranger, Alexander joins the bordering South Carolina Rangers in their revolt against the Crown. When he’s posted to the fort erected to defend the community once decimated by the massacre, duty demands he court the loyalty of his sworn enemies, the fierce Cherokee warriors.
Elspeth Lawrence never forgot the boy who sacrificed himself for her at Long Canes—any more than she forgot the younger sister taken captive. She’s learned not only to forgive, but also to help minister to the Cherokees at her father’s mission. When Alex Morris arrives at nearby Fort Charlotte, Elspeth finds her memories—and her emotions—stirred. He doesn’t even remember her…or the long-ago attack. But the bitterness that simmers just beneath his stoic exterior—as well as her courtship by a local landowner—challenge their undeniable bond.
When Alex uncovers a long-held secret and a plot to sabotage patriot talks with the Cherokees, he must choose between his desire for revenge and his love for the girl he rescued long ago.
A Winter at the White Queen
In the world of the wealthy, things are never quite as they appear.
Ellie Hastings is tired of playing social gatekeeper—and poor-relation companion—to her Gibson Girl of a cousin. But her aunt insists Ellie lift her nose out of her detective novel long enough to help gauge the eligibility of bachelors during the winter social season at Florida’s Hotel Belleview. She finds plenty that’s mysterious about the suave, aloof Philadelphia inventor, Lewis Thornton. Why does he keep sneaking around the hotel? Does he have a secret sweetheart? And what is his connection to the evasive Mr. Gaspachi, slated to perform at Washington’s Birthday Ball?
Ellie’s comical sleuthing ought to put Lewis out, but the diffident way her family treats her smashes a hole in his normal reserve. When Florence Hastings’s diamond necklace goes missing, Ellie’s keen mind threatens to uncover not only Lewis’s secrets, but give him back hope for love.
Bent Tree Bride
Susanna Moore can’t get him out of her mind—the learned lieutenant who delivered the commission from Andrew Jackson making her father colonel of the Cherokee Regiment. But the next time she sees Lieutenant Sam Hicks, he’s leading a string of prisoners into a frontier fort, and he’s wearing the garb of a Cherokee scout rather than the suit of a white gentleman.
As both Susanna’s father and Sam’s commanding officer, Colonel Moore couldn’t have made his directive to stay away from his daughter clearer to Sam. He wants a better match for Susanna—like the stuffy doctor who escorted her to Creek Territory. Then a suspected spy forces Moore to rely on Sam for military intelligence and Susanna’s protection, making it impossible for either to guard their heart.
The Witness Tree
Past betrayal has turned John Kliest’s passion to his work as a builder and surveyor in the Moravian town of Salem, North Carolina. Now, to satisfy the elders’ edict and fulfill his mission in Cherokee Territory, he needs a bride. But the one woman qualified to record the Cherokee language longs for a future with his younger brother.
Clarissa Vogler’s dream of a life with Daniel Kliest is shattered when she is chosen by lot to marry his older brother and venture into the uncharted frontier. Can she learn to love this stoic man who is now her husband? Her survival hinges on being able to trust him—but they both harbor secrets.
Now available on Audible!
The Georgia Gold Series
Literary-style historical fiction following four families from the Georgia Gold Rush through Reconstruction in Clarkesville and Savannah
*Originally released by Canterbury House and now independently re-released through Amazon in print and e-book.*
Journey back to a time when the foothills of Northeast Georgia were scarcely more than a frontier, a summer retreat for the state's wealthy coastal elite, verdant watercolor vistas where the footprint of the Cherokee remained. Where one half-Cherokee, orphaned girl grows up in the shadow of a mystery. Who killed her father, and what happened to the gold he mined from the Sautee Valley? And with whom does she belong, the adoptive farm family who raised her, or her white inn-keeper grandmother?
Forced from the only life she's ever known and molded into her grandmother's idea of a proper young lady, Mahala Franklin finds life in Clarkesville lonely and full of challenges. But there are at least pieces of the puzzle of her past to be fit together, and relationships that will shape her future ... with Clay Fraser, her Cherokee friend who wants to be so much more, with wealthy entrepreneur and competitor Jack Randall, with whom Mahala doesn't dare to dream of more, and with Carolyn Calhoun, unwilling socialite caught between her feelings for two very different brothers.
As the lives of the coastal "summer people" mingle with those of Habersham's natives, a tapestry of love, friendship and intrigue unfolds, a tapestry laced with a brilliant thread that will lure you through all four books of The Georgia Gold Series.
* * *
"The Summer People:" In 19th Century Georgia, influential members of the coastal aristocracy found a seasonal retreat from the heat and disease that stalked their lowland communities -- Habersham County, located in the rolling foothills of Appalachia. Their lives intertwined with those of the natives, forever changing the landscape ...
Jack Randall: Hardened early by the death of his mother and the remarriage of his Northern father, he succeeds in the family's Savannah shipping firm and at keeping others at arm's length, until he meets ...
Mahala Franklin: The orphaned daughter of a Cherokee mother and a murdered father, Mahala is torn between the Sautee Valley farm family who raised her and her white innkeeper grandmother. The path of her future is inextricably linked to the mystery of her past -- her father's death and his missing gold. Will she find her place beside her Cherokee sweetheart, or can she belong in the world of "the summer people" in the arms of fierce competitor Jack Randall and by virtue of unexpected friendship with ...
Carolyn Calhoun: Expected to rise above her youthful insecurities to make a brilliant match, she finds herself drawn to two brothers, Devereaux and Dylan Rousseau. With one, she finds kinship and devotion. With the other, the desire for a life together that may be forever out of reach ...
Devereaux Rousseau: As the son of a wealthy rice planter, everything he's ever wanted has been his. His search for meaning leads him from the battlefield to the tender arms of his distant cousin. Will he recognize what is within his grasp before it is too late? Or will his brother, Dylan, a minister unwillingly swept along in the turmoil of the times, be the one who wins Carolyn's heart?
The gold: Mined from the Georgia earth, minted in Dahlonega, and eventually comprising part of the lost Confederate treasure, it weaves through the story, sometimes uniting, sometimes dividing, but always a glistening vein, just beneath the surface ...
Sautee Shadows e-book https://www.amazon.com/Sautee-Shadows-Georgia-Gold-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B004W4MEXQ/
Sautee Shadows print https://www.amazon.com/Sautee-Shadows-Georgia-Denise-Weimer/dp/B0CJLLLW49/
The Gray Divide e-book https://www.amazon.com/Gray-Divide-Georgia-Gold-Book-ebook/dp/B0CLYZZV3H/
The Gray Divide print https://www.amazon.com/Gray-Divide-Georgia-Gold/dp/B0CL4TMDXP/
The Crimson Bloom e-book https://www.amazon.com/Crimson-Bloom-Georgia-Gold-Book-ebook/dp/B0CNYDTDMF/
The Crimson Bloom print https://www.amazon.com/Crimson-Bloom-Georgia-Gold/dp/B0CNYLJ3X6/
Bright as Gold e-book https://www.amazon.com/Bright-Gold-Georgia-Book-ebook/dp/B0CQ3DR727/
Bright as Gold print https://www.amazon.com/Bright-Gold-Book-Four-Georgia/dp/0988189798/
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