Showing results by author "Kathleen Ball" in All Categories

Susan Farr loses her parents and her home in one swoop. She takes her horse and rides to Independence, Missouri, to join a wagon train and start a new life. Mike Todd, the wagon master, doesn’t allow single women to have their own wagons. It causes fights and distractions. Susan solves her problem by marrying Clancy Willis in name only. Unfortunately, Clancy’s true nature doesn’t take long to show, and Susan finds herself married to a drunkard.

Shannon McMurphy travels to Asherville, Texas as a mail order bride expecting to marry a rancher. Instead, her intended is a saloonkeeper. Her refusal to marry enrages John Hardy and he slices her cheek with a knife so no other man would want her. She runs into the street and no one helps her until blond, blue-eyed Cinders rescues her.

A handsome man, Greg Settler, decides to go and make his own mark on the world. He travels to California to try his luck at gold mining. From the first day he realizes he knows nothing about gold mining. Luckily for Greg, his claim is next to Hugo Watkins and his daughter Mercy’s mine. Mercy Watkins has grown up traveling from mine to mine. Her father, a dreamer, always believed they’d make it big at the next mine. Unfortunately, her father dies, but not before he asks Greg to take care of his daughter. In order to save Greg from hanging, Mercy marries him.

Cora feels indebted to the man, Eddie, who saved her and her baby Esther. She travels on the Oregon Trail with him. He intimidates her and has her doing most of the work. He’s jealous, and she knows not to look in another man’s direction. An early snowstorm leaves her in danger of frostbite, and when Harrison Walsh carries her off to his wagon to be treated, Eddie becomes enraged and drops Cora’s trunk off at Harrison’s wagon. Harrison Walsh was happily married until three months ago, when his wife died.

Amid the aftermath of the Civil War, Georgie O'Rourke, the last surviving member of her family, decides her only choice is to leave her beloved state of Tennessee by answering a mail-order bride advertisement. With only a few items of rag, like clothing, she travels the Southwest Trail by covered wagon to meet up with her groom in Texas. Captain Parker Eastman, formally of the Confederate Army, travels from his cattle ranch to the Southwest Trail to intercept a woman his mother hired as a companion. He soon finds out that Georgie traveled to Texas to become his wife.

Eireann is the last survivor of her family after the Civil War. The war has been over for almost two years and there has been no word of her fiancé, Callen McKeegan. Anxious, she writes to his family in Montana and is promptly sent the means for her to travel to them. They too have been waiting for news about Callen.

Christmas in Oregon is like no other. It’s full of love and danger, heart-wrenching twists and turns, and pause-resisting excitement. The tender romance is inspiring and heartfelt. The characters of love on the romance trail are nine years older. Great strides are been made, families grow and the romance continues. Swift Eagle struggles through extreme snow to make it to the ranch. He needs to see his dear friend, Luella before he moves on. He has decided that marriage is not for him and he’s going to Canada where he can still hunt and live a peaceful life.

Glory’s life is being turned upside down. Her comfortable daily life as a teacher at The Wigg School and Foundling Home has ended. She'd lived there all her life. How will she survive without her friends? Her future now is to travel to Texas as a Mail Order Bride and be a teacher. Glory wonders if she is good enough for Kent Sandler... Kent never wanted to get married again...Through it all, both Kent and Glory admire each other’s courage and commitment but was that enough for a happy marriage?

Eli Todd is a tall, handsome captain of a wagon train bound for Oregon. Life has taught him if he allows people into his heart, he ends up losing them. Amelia Cruthers is a pretty, young woman with a limp. She’s a hard worker who starts out the trip to Oregon with her parents, until they try to leave her behind. In shock, she watches them cross a river by ferry without her. Thankfully, the kind, strong Eli Todd takes her with him.

In the aftermath of the Civil War so many people struggled to put their lives back together. Iris Sands travels from Virginia to Texas as a mail-order bride. When she arrives in Sweet Water she finds that the man who sent for her died. The Union Soldiers thought her to be a new saloon girl and thought to get to her first before she started working. Lex Willis and ex-Confederate Soldier was about to leave town when he saw Iris being tossed back and forth by the soldiers. He puts a stop to it and takes her to the Eastman Ranch. He swore never to marry but Iris makes him rethink his vow.

Luella Barnes jumps off the wagon so she can walk along the Oregon Trail. Unfortunately, her dress gets caught, and her leg is run over by one of the wagon wheels. When her father sees that she is unable to do the chores, he tells her she is on her own. No one offers to take the injured woman into their covered wagon. She is given a place in the extra wagon used by three handsome drovers who work for Harrison Walsh. They know to show her the proper respect a young, unmarried woman deserves.

Mary Beth arrives at the Eastman ranch planning to marry Lex Willis. To her dismay Lex is already married to Iris, the love of his life. Mary Beth then confesses she’d been attacked by the same man who tried to attack Iris in Button Hills, Texas. Mary Beth also struggles with forgiveness and searches for the answer. Marry Beth grew up wealthy and cared for in every way until her father throws her out. With nowhere to go and in need of a father for her expected child she accepts the first proposal that comes her way.

Escaping her abuser, Veronica heads for Texas as a mail-order bride. She brings with her an unexpected baby and hopes and prays that Max will be accepting of her child. She also hopes that she will be able to allow her husband to touch her. Max is stunned to see a secret baby, but he comes through as a cowboy hero and treats her as his own. He's not sure how to react to Veronica. She is jumpy and scared. He knows it'll be a long road to teach her that some men can be trusted. Then the dead father of her baby shows up.

Rescued from Indians, Cecily McGuinness suffers from horrendous nightmare; ones that have her running from her lodging into the woods. She'll never be normal again and most of the townspeople look at her with disdain. All she ever wanted was a family and a place to call home. Sheriff Shane O'Connor is tired of tracking Cecily down each time she takes flight. Finally he makes her an offer to keep his house and help turn it into a farm.

Cowboy Brogan Kavanagh wants nothing better than to be left alone. Unfortunately, he’s left with no option and helps two women travelers. The oldest spitfire, Ciara, doesn’t trust him one bit and is constantly on her guard. Brogan is both amused and insulted by her attempts to keep him at arm’s length. Ciara Doyle has the weight of the world laying heavily on her shoulders. She is trying to get her and her sister Orla back to St. Louis after her parents died along the Oregon Trail. Will Brogan and Ciara be able to set aside their problems and acknowledge their growing attraction?

Mallory, a wagon-train attack survivor, who opens her own cafe and also feeds the hungry, is being bullied into marriage. Brayden finds this to be unacceptable and rides to the rescue. Unfortunately, his involvement invites scandalous gossip. Mallory has no customers, and she needs the money she makes to feed the homeless. The only way to rectify her reputation is through marriage

Quinn Kavanagh is never going to risk his heart again. In fact, he doesn't think he has a heart anymore. Everything he thought to be true wasn't, and now he is traveling trying to find a place where he fits. Heaven Burke is about to be shot when Quinn arrives. He saves her, then and again later that day in a shootout. A group of men don’t like that she rescues Black boys who have nowhere to go. She can't stay in her house; it isn’t safe for her, her children, or the baby that is due in a few months. Quinn takes her to the Kavanagh ranch and fights fiercely to resist her goodness.

After being jilted at the altar, Scarlett Settler can't show her face in town. She becomes a mail-order bride to a blacksmith in Silver Falls, Oregon. She only skimmed the letters that she and her intended exchanged and was very disappointed to find he was a blacksmith always covered in soot. Dillon Stahl built a huge house and now he wants to fill it with a wife and children. When his friend Smitty Settler writes to him about his daughter, Scarlett, he's intrigued and proposes. He expected a sweet biddable wife that he can build a life with. Instead he ends up with an opinionated woman who does not know the word compromise.

Keegan Quinn watches the passengers disembark wondering where his mail order bride is. All he sees is a woman with a husband and child. Upon approaching the young woman, he discovers she is his bride, and she has a daughter she never mentioned. As they cross the street, the little girl screams for her daddy and points to the man who accompanied them on the stage.

Lee Ann Simpson left the Big M Ranch for the bright lights of San Antonio but now she’s back disillusioned by the underhanded tactics of her boss. Handsome Rancher Gunther Marlboro washed his hands of Lee Ann the day she left him behind but now she’s back looking defeated by the world. Can Gunther show Lee Ann how to trust again and most importantly how to love again?