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 Conflicted Betrothal
Scouts of the Georgia Frontier, Book Four
Ansel Anderson thrives on the independent life of a King’s Ranger, serving the forts between Augusta and Savannah that guard Georgia’s boundary. But as a second son, he needs his own land grant to settle his future and his family knows just the way to secure it—through the favor of a member of the Governor’s Council, Judge Bazel Scott. What better way to win that favor than through the hand of Scott’s daughter in marriage? But gaining Miss Scott’s trust proves more of a challenge than anticipated when she acts as though she doesn’t recognize him from their chance meeting at a tavern known to host those disillusioned with the royal government. Equally disconcerting is the fact that Ansel finds the arguments of the newly formed Liberty Boys increasingly convincing.
As drawn to the enigmatic Ansel Anderson as Temperance Scott might be, he’d be more of a match for her feisty twin sister—who is all too happy to oblige. Not only would timid, nearsighted Temperance make a poor wife for a man trained for life on the frontier, but anyone she allows close to her must share her secret patriot ideals.
When Savannah erupts into riots and intrigue following the passage of the Stamp Act, Ansel is tasked with identifying a spy passing sensitive information to the Liberty Boys and the author of anonymous letters threatening those loyal to the governor. And as suspicions focus on the Scotts, which is he prepared to sacrifice—love or loyalty?
A Calculated Betrothal
Scouts of the Georgia Frontier, Book Five
A Patriot scout, a Loyalist widow, and a desperate fight to save what matters most.
The death of her titled husband means that not only is Tabitha Gage no longer a lady—but she’s also abandoned on an isolated South Georgia plantation on the eve of revolution. With the fine house and fields sold to a neighbor, she’s left with a log cabin on unsettled timber land. Rather than marry the neighbor’s son, Tabitha determines to make her own way—and never again be shackled to a man she doesn’t love.
Sergeant Edmond Lassiter is one assignment away from promotion when he comes to the aid of a red-haired beauty fending off cattle rustlers. Thrown together during an attack at a nearby fort, the Patriot scout and Loyalist widow are surprised by the values they share—including honesty, loyalty, and equality. When Edmond learns the same man who ruined his family is after what little Tabitha has left, he convinces her they should work together to make her land profitable—all while fighting off the British from East Florida and her greedy neighbor, who sabotages their every effort to succeed. Their work together will be a business arrangement…nothing more. But as a British invasion threatens, the truth soon becomes clear—continuing the connection between them will risk far more than their hearts.
When Hope Sank
Book Three of Barbour’s Day to Remember Series
The Civil War has taken everything from Lily Livingston--her parents, her twin brother, her home. Now she works at her uncle's inn and keeps her head down. Speaking up for her beliefs proved too costly in a part of Arkansas split by conflicting loyalties and overrun by spies and bushwhackers.
Emaciated in body but resilient in spirit, Lieutenant Cade Palmer is crowded onto the Sultana with other paroled Andersonville and Cahaba POWs for the journey north. But a fiery explosion on April 27, 1865, rends the steamer and empties two thousand men into the frigid Mississippi River.
Recovering from wounds that might end his career as a surgeon but clinging to his faith, Cade threatens both Lily's defenses and her heart. How can she tell him she might've prevented the tragedy if only she'd reported a suspected saboteur's claims? And when the man returns to town and encoded messages pass through the hotel, will Lily follow her convictions to prevent another tragedy?
A Summer at the Niagara of the South
Book Eight of the Romance at the Gilded Age Resorts Series
Originally Denise’s first published novella, Redeeming Grace.
She came to the resort to heal her voice, only to discover her heart needed healing more.
Breaking under the stress of being a rising star, opera singer Grace Galveston travels to Tallulah Falls in search of reprieve. With its multiple waterfalls, spectacular gorge and mountain scenery, and lavish resorts, "The Niagara of the South," seems the perfect place to do just that. Even amid the crowds and excitement of an aerialist’s attempt to cross the gorge, Grace hopes to find peace.
Daniel Monroe basks in that peace as minister of a local church. He’s the perfect tour guide for Grace during her visit—until his heart gets entangled with the red-haired beauty with an angel’s voice. The trip sheds light on the secret pain in Grace’s heart. And does she even share the faith that’s so vital to his ministry? Can the blessing of friendship and the possibility of love guide her toward healing, or will the call of her life back in New York mean even greater heartbreak?
A Winter at the White Queen
Book One of the Romance at the Gilded Age Resorts Series
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.
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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